Silvia Stumpf | Varna
On September 9, 2022, a meeting with stakeholders was held in Varna to discuss the Bulgarian RIS3 for 2021-2027 improvements and the contribution of the DEVISE project. Fifteen representatives of universities, businesses and clusters, Municipality of Varna, NGOs, representatives of the Regional Administration and Ministry of Innovation and Growth as MA (online) participated in a hybrid format.
The RIS3 update and priority sub-areas were discussed, highlighting the contribution of the various activities within the DEVISE project to the changes. Ms. Stumpf presented the proposal on behalf of many tourism companies that participated in the DEVISE project under the Interreg Europe Program to be added to the new RIS3 within the thematic area 'Informatics and ICT' in view of the huge importance for the region and the lack of specially planned funding procedures so far and the text 'tourism industry' to the sub-area 'ICT approaches in engineering, medicine, creative industries and leisure industries, tourism industry, and circular and bio-based economy (in relation to the other thematic areas), incl. digitization of cultural and historical heritage, entertainment and educational games, e-health, telemedicine and tele-care and embedded technologies'. It was reported that the project has seriously activated the cooperation between the traditional companies of the region and the digital business, and next steps in building on the achieved benefits were planned.
