Programm: Science and Education for Smart Growth Bulgaria

The programme has two overall goals: strengthening research and innovation and enhancing education and social inclusion at all educational levels. Investments will focus on the following priorities:

• Up to 243 million € will be invested in developing centres of excellence and centres of competence, as hubs of high-quality research and innovation in the areas defined in the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation. Funding will be dedicated to research infrastructure of regional and national significance, as well as to support the specialisation of researchers and their involvement in the European Research Area.
• Investment in education (around 220 million €) will aim at improving key competences of students and children, including through innovative teaching methods. It will promote the quality of higher education with a view of obtaining better outcomes on the labour market, as well as the modernisation of vocational education and life-long learning. Significant focus is put on measures investing in the qualifications of researchers, teachers, lecturers improving their mobility and career opportunities.
• A dedicated funding of 110 million € will finance the integration of children at risk of exclusion from education, on account of belonging to marginalised ethnic groups or to groups with specific educational needs. The programme will thus be a key instrument for reducing the share of early school leavers.

Public and private research organisations (including the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Agricultural Academy), research institutes, laboratories, higher education schools and/or their primary units, R&D companies, consortia of research organisations and/or universities, centres of excellence and centres of competence (under SO1), MES and second-level spending units, ministries acting as financing bodies for schools, SACP, kindergartens, schools, higher schools, municipalities, resource centres, community centres, organisations registered under the Non-Profit Legal Entities Act, nationally represented organisations of workers and employees and employers’ organisations, employers, professional associations, representative student organisations registered in accordance with the law.

Co-financing rate: 85%.

Ministry of Education, Youth and Science

General Directorate "Structural funds and international educational programmes" 
125 Tsarigradsko shosse Blvd., bl. 5, fl. 1
1113 Sofia