In the period between 10-13 March the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Assoc. Prof. Teodor Sedlarski, and the Vice-dean, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Georgiev, visited the region of Castile and Leon in Spain in relation to the InnoBridge project, where the Sofia Development Association is a consortium member.

The InnoBridge project has the aim of encouraging innovation in small and medium enterprises through the improvement of the financing tools. The partners within the project’s consortium represent operational programs, while Sofia Development Association participates with the Sofia Public-Private Fund for Innovations. The aim of the project is to draft, in a series of trainings, exchanges and other activities, a plan for the improvement of each financing tool.

In Spain Assoc. Prof. Sedlarski and Assoc. Prof. Atanas Georgiev visited the scientific park of The University of Valladolid, the R&D center of The University of Salamanca and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, where they were introduced to some of the best practices outlined in the InnoBridge project:

• Market Oriented Prototypes
• Competition for entrepreneurs in the university
• Competition for dealing with business challenges

The Spanish partner under InnoBridge is FUESCYL – a foundation, which represents all universities in the Castile and Leon region and manages the regional funds for innovation in higher education.