The Southeast European Science & Technology Parks Alliance (SEE Science & Technology Parks Alliance) will be a platform for support of innovative businesses and for exchange of experience and knowledge. This was announced at a meeting of representatives from 13 science and technology parks and innovation zones across five regional countries, all members of the Alliance, held at Sofia Tech Park. The meeting took place as part of the first regional conference and startup competition, the South East European Innovators Challenge (SEEIC), held from October 27 to 29, with the Bulgarian science and technology park as the initiator and host.
The network of parks will enable more flexible access to office space for startups, as well as facilitate meetings with investors, institutions, and representatives of academic institutions. It will also provide laboratory and research services to support the further development of products and services by companies from the region.
The delegates were in full agreement that efforts to unify knowledge, experience, and the sharing of infrastructure and services provided by individual organizations in support of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technological development in the region are of vital importance. We will launch an institutional initiative that will include a series of events aimed at helping startups develop their products, secure funding, and reach international markets. It will also support the teams working in technology parks in developing their own skills,” said Todor Mladenov, Executive Director of Sofia Tech Park.
The Alliance’s program already includes four joint events per year, to be held in different member countries. The major annual conference in 2025 will take place in Larissa, Greece, hosted by Joist Innovation Park, and in 2026, it will be held in Niš, Serbia, hosted by the Science Technology Park Niš.
The delegates agreed that the Alliance’s format remains open to any organization from the region – be it a technology park or an innovation zone that wishes to join.
During the South East European Innovators Challenge, representatives of the technology parks and innovation zones that are part of the SEE Science & Technology Parks Alliance met with Nikolay Babutov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia for European Policies, International Affairs, and Tourism; Dochka Vassileva, Head of the ‘Project Information and Financing’ Unit at the Fund of Funds; Viktor Gussev, Head of the Investment Analysis Department at Sofia Investment Agency; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Todor Yalamov, Vice Dean for Research, Innovation, and Projects at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’; and Plamen Ivanov, Bulgaria’s National Coordinator for the Enterprise Europe Network, of which Sofia Tech Park is a member.
Members of the SEE Science & Technology Parks Alliance are 13 organizations from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Türkiye, and Montenegro: Sofia Tech Park, Gabrovo Technology Park, JOIST Innovation Park (Greece), Thessaloniki Innovation and Technology Center (Greece), Magurele Science Park (Romania), Technology Park Novi Sad (Serbia), Science Technology Park Niš (Serbia), Ostim Teknopark (Türkiye), Antalya OIZ Technopark (Türkiye), Bursa Technopark (Türkiye), BUDOTEK Teknopark (Türkiye), Namık Kemal University Technology Development Zone (Türkiye), and Science and Technology Park Montenegro (Montenegro).
