Applied Research and Communications Fund, Enterprise Europe Network – Bulgaria jointly with the Ministry of Economy and Energy, the World Bank office in Bulgaria and the kind support of the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency organize for the fifth time a National Contest for Innovative Enterprise of the Year 2008.

The European Commission adopted a proposal to declare 2009 the European Year of Creativity and Innovation.
How the Bulgarian industry will meet this challenge?
> The Innovation Index of the Bulgarian enterprises – Innovation.bg 2008 (developed by ARC Fund) indicates that compared to the fast developing countries from Central and East Europe – Hungary and Czech Republic, Bulgaria has two times lower innovation activity.
> According to the Fourth Community Innovation Survey, more than 40% of EU27 enterprises are engaged in innovation activity, yet the lowest rates are observed in Bulgaria (16%).
> Bulgaria ranks last in meeting EU's Lisbon criteria. According to the EC annual report.

The aim of the contest is to encourage the innovation activities of Bulgarian enterprises, promote the companies participating in the contest and the results achieved by them in the field of innovation.

The annual Innovative Enterprise of the Year Award acknowledges Bulgarian enterprises that have successfully introduced innovations or scientific accomplishments, thus transforming their operation mode and achieving sustainable economic effect.

A company is considered to be innovative if it has developed and marketed new or advanced products (goods or services) and/or processes over the last three years. Innovation in defined in broader terms as application of new approaches or technologies that improve the economic performance and competitiveness of the respective company.

The innovation performance of participant companies will be evaluated by an expert panel against a set of criteria and data collected on the basis of a special application form – an entry questionnaire which companies willing to participate in the contest have to complete and submit to ARC Fund by 10 January, 2008. Download the application form here .

The ranking of participant companies is performed on the grounds of a specially designed methodology incorporating a set of criteria combining quantitative and qualitative indicators.
The ranking of companies’ evaluation is then ultimately analyzed by the expert panel. The top 10 applicants will be visited by ARC Fund’s experts.

The companies awared will be presented at the Fith National Innovation Forum that will be held in February 2009.

Application form
Information on the previous edition of the contest is available here.

For further information,please contact:
Teodora Georgieva
Tel.: (02) 973 3000/ 435
Fax: (02) 973 3588