Interview with Venceslava Yanchovska, Manager of the office of the State Norwegian Agency ‘Innovation Norway’ for Bulgaria on the occasion of the Panel "Green Innovation Opportunities" within the SEE Conference 'Smart Cities' on 6 April 2016
1) We are extremely pleased that Innovation Norway participates with 2 hours Panel in this year’s Program of ‘Smart Cities’. Please present in brief the main topics and highlights of the Panel content.
Innovation Norway is a state agency under the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. The agency is the program operator of BG-10 Program "Innovations in Green Industry" in Bulgaria within the framework of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 (Norway Grants). The program aims to improve the competitiveness of the so called "Green enterprises", which includes improvement of the environmental compliance of the existing plants and stimulation of the green innovations and entrepreneurship (www.norwaygrants-greeninnovation.no).
Our Panel within SEE Smart Cities is focused on clusters. The aim is to share best practices from Norway and Bulgaria, as well as in terms of supporting policies for the clusters and also in terms of building and strengthening of competitive clusters. It is important to emphasize that the main drivers of all competitive clusters are innovations and entrepreneurship and in this regard practical examples will be presented.
2) How the presentations will help the Bulgarian businesses?
I sincerely hope that the result of the presentations and discussions will influence the better understanding of the objectives and mechanisms for the creation of clusters, their dynamics, relations and networking. Additionally, the panelists will be able to get acquainted with the possibilities for SMEs support within the program "Horizon 2020" and to get more information on the achieved results under the "Innovations in Green Industry" in Bulgaria.
3) And what about the panelists? We kindly ask you to present the speakers who will participate in the Panel.
The speakers are primarily from Innovation Norway and there will be also representatives from Norwegian and Bulgarian clusters, from the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, too.
