Funding Opportunities and Upcoming B2B Events
On 29 June 2023, the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA), in partnership with the British-Bulgarian Business Association, is organising a workshop on “How to sell in the UK?”. The event is suitable for Bulgarian manufacturers and will cover topics such as behaviour and style during trade negotiations with UK companies and why “big companies don’t know how to buy from small companies who don’t know how to sell to big companies”. The event is free to attend, bit pre-registration is required here.
The Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) has launched a new financial instrument that provides easier access to funding for the implementation of projects under European and national programmes in the absence of bridge or complementary financing. The Bank will provide investment loans of up to BGN 5M with a repayment period of up to 6 years and a grace period of up to 2 years, as well as an unsecured capital loan of up to BGN 200 000 in addition to the investment funds – both on preferential terms. The BDB will provide financing for the full cost of projects under the programmes to already approved applicants, and up to 85 per cent of the costs for those who have not yet signed their grant agreements. The product has been developed in conjunction with businesses to meet current market needs. For more information see here.
A total of 20 innovation vouchers for digital and green innovation/technology projects will be granted under the Euroclusters’ RE-CENTRE initiative. Small cross-sector partnerships that demonstrate new models of collaboration will be funded. Proposals will be accepted from consortia of at least two enterprises active in at least 2 of the 3 priority sectors – traditional furniture and living sector, IT sector, and green/circular economy sector. The deadline for applications is 27 June.
Between 10-13 October, the European Biotech and Pharma Partnering conference will take place in Osaka, Japan. This year’s event focuses on drug discovery, regenerative medicine, therapeutic and diagnostic tools, artificial intelligence and IoT technologies with applications in medicine and drugs, and digital therapeutics – non-pharmacological therapy systems and combinations of applications and devices. The conference invites SMEs and clusters from the EU. Find out more here.
The Innovation Village 2023 virtual brokerage event, organised by ENEA, a partner of the BRIDGeconomies Consortium of the Enterprise Europe Network, will take place between 16 and 30 October. The meetings are suitable for start-ups, spinoffs, SMEs and large companies, public authorities and municipalities, universities and research centres working on solutions to achieve the so-called “dual” (green and digital) transition to a zero carbon and zero waste economy. Topics are projects in the areas of: space, sustainable mobility, logistics, smart city, cultural heritage, tourism, creative industries, social innovation, digital education, digital technologies in sports, energy, environment, sustainable construction, food and agriculture, life sciences, biotechnology and healthcare, new materials, robotics, IoT, ICT, AI, blockchain and quantum computing. See more from the Bulgarian Industrial Association’s invitation here.
