On 24-25 January 2018, the kick off meeting of GIVE ESCP was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The meeting was hosted by the Coordinator – ICT Cluster and attended by representatives of all 7 partners.

The main aim of the kick off is to facilitate a successful project start and provide an additional boost of motivation for the team members. Many aspects of the project implementation were discussed among partners and important decisions concerning project’s financial and technical implementation were taken. The project team has chance to meet face to face and to put the framework of a future successful and fruitful regional cooperation.

On 25^th January 2018, the annual meeting of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network took place. The event was hosted by ICT Cluster Bulgaria and was attended by representatives of 12 member organizations and guests from GIZ, USAID REG project, ESI Centre Bulgaria and Latvian Green Technologies Cluster. During the meeting 4 new partners were accepted – ICT Cluster Burgas, ICT Cluster Varna, Georgian Cluster National Platform and Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The annual meeting was devoted to report from Serbian Clusters about activities in 2017, agenda for 2018 and election of new chairing organization. In the framework of Bulgarian precedency of the Council of EU, ICT Cluster Bulgaria was supported to be the chairman of the network in 2018. Additionally, the members discussed closer and more effective collaboration, new information and communication tools and upcoming innovative projects.   

The seminar was organized by ICT Cluster Bulgaria, Small Business Standards (SBS) and. European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

The seminar was part of a broader SBS campaign on trainings for SME associations and ICT clusters and was designed to provide SME associations’ and clusters’ staff with the possibility to upgrade their knowledge and understanding of the European standardisation system and, in particular, of the ETSI specifications.

The objective was to raise awareness among National Standardisation Organisations (NSOs) about the value of further including SMEs in standardisation and to share experiences on SME initiatives.

The event was attended by representatives and experts from SBS, ETSI, CEN, CENELEC, European Commission, French Standardization Association, representatives of universities, ICT clusters and ICT associations from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.

The exercise allowed participants to share and identify good practices in reaching out and involving SMEs in standardisation.

Presentation form the event could be find below:

Session 1: Setting the scene - The standardisation landscape in the Balkans
- Lubomir Stanislavov, CEO and Member of the Board of Directors, Automotive Cluster Bulgaria

Session 2: Standardisation in the European context
- Radek Maly, Head of Unit, DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Unit B.3 Standards for Growth, European Commission
- Ingrid Soetart, Project Manager – Stakeholder Engagement, CEN-CENELEC
- Xavier Piednoir, Head of External Relations at ETSI
- Christel Davidson, Director of SBS

Session 3: Tools for SMEs involvement in the standardisation - practiacl cases and exhchange of good pracices
- Jean-Loup Commo, French Standardization Association (AFNOR)
- Massimo Vanetti, IoT expert, appointed to oneM2M
- Emil Dimitrov, SBS experts, appointed to ETSI TC TCCE
- George Sharkov, SBS expert, appointed to ETSI TC CYBER

Session 4: Looking ahead
- Ingrid Soetart, Project Manager – Stakeholder Engagement, CEN-CENELEC
- Xavier Piednoir, Head of External Relations at ETSI

In September 2017 , GIVE European Strategic Cluster Partnership was approved for financial support by EASME. The partnership includes 8 clusters from three different industries (automotive, ICT and Green Technologies), 6 different countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Romania) and 2 European regions (South East Europe and Baltic). This is the first cluster partnership established mainly by organizations coming from the Balkan countries that is financially supported by the Commission.

Leaded by ICT Cluster, GIVE partners strive for:

● creation of new value chain and favorable framework for establishing a sustainable cross-industry strategic cluster partnership(GIVE) in the field of green smart technologies focusing on automotive and transport sectors.

● building common knowledge base for internationalization and marketing for cluster managers and SMEs members and establishment of strong links among GIVE partners and SMEs members.

● building up sustainable strategic cluster partnership based on development of GIVE internationalization strategy and implementation roadmap.

● promotion of a GIVE strategic cluster partnership on a European, regional and national level in order to extend the partnership in different regions and industries and to create links to other ESCPs.

 The project has started in December 2017 but the official kick off will be on 24-25 January 2018, hosted by the ICT Cluster.

If you interested in project progress and implementation please follow us in the social networks:

1. https://www.facebook.com/greenictdevelopment/?fref=nf
2. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12083393

You are welcome to collaborate with us!

On 6-7th of December 2017 was held the third partners' meeting of “Smart Factory Hub” project in Steyr, Austria. The project on which ICT Cluster is a partner is financed under the Danube Programme.
On the first day of the two-day meeting was discussed the implementation of the project as well as the past and current work packages. The partners also had discussion about next steps for development the already build mapping tool. Every partner also presented the good pratices for implementation of smart technologies into production process in factories in their countries. During the second day the consortium made plans for execution the next work package and when will be held the next project meeting, that will be in Belgrade. The meeting was attended by the project officer from JS - Mr. Marius V. Niculae, who gave high evaluation for the first year implementation of the project.

Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA)

Todor Mitov – representative of ICT Cluster was invited to present the programme “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” on a seminar “Business start-up and Development within the Context of Entrepreneurship 2020”. The training that took place in the period November 24 – 26th, 2017 in Veliko Tarnovo, aimed at addressing the need to spread the entrepreneurship culture among the young people in the country, especially those living and studying outside of the Capital. The participants were 40 students between age of 18-25, from all around the country, motivated to start and develop their own business. On 25th of November Todor Mitov familiarized the audience with the benefits of the “Erasmus for Entrepreneurs” programme.

20тата среща на мрежата на програмата Еразъм за млади предприемачи се състоя на 5ти – 6ти октомври в гръцката столица Атина.

Представител на ИКТ Клъстер като посредническа организация по програмата беше Красимира Шиндарова. Тя взе участие в срещите на консорциумите Ventures 8 и YEIM, в които ИКТ Клъстер е партньор. На тях бяха обсъдени приближаващият края си 8ми период на програмата и следващия 9тия период.

Красимира Шиндарова изнесе презентация пред мрежата за позитивите на България с цел промотиране популяризиране на България и София като предприемаческа дестинация пред предприемачи от Европейски държави.

On October 5th and 6th was held a work meeting on the project Smart Factory Hub in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The meeting was organize by University of West Bohemia.

On the meeting were discussed the execution of the Work package 3, Work package 4 and it were made planning for the upcoming Work package 5 as well as planning for the next technical meeting in Steyr in December.

On 6^th of October were held Bilateral meetings and workshops on respective deliverables of the WP3, WP4 and preparing for WP5.

Executive Director of ICT Cluster – Anna Naydenova took a part in the 5th Cluster Matchmaking Conference that was held in Stuttgart, Germany, on 21 and 22 September. The event was attended by 175 clusters, representing more than 15,000 companies from 30 countries. This was an extremely productive event where more than 600 meetings between the clusters took place, leading to new innovative collaborations across Europe.This year's Cluster Matchmaking Conference focused on models for sustainable cluster cooperation.

Presentations and other conference information can be found on the following website: https://www.b2match.eu/cluster-matchmaking-2017

The executive director of ICT Cluster – Ms. Anna Naydenova took part in the Bi-regional cluster networking and business exchange meeting which was organized in the frame of the Black Sea Horizon project and took place in Budapest at Hotel Danubius Gellért on 12 September 2017.

The main aim of the event was to provide a forum for selected stakeholders to promote the dialogue between research based clusters of the targeted regions – the European Union and the Black Sea Region – , offering the chance to exchange experiences, best practices, fostering cooperation opportunities, recommendations on the development, management, operation and internationalization of research based clusters.

Ms. Anna Naydenova made a presentation about the ICT Cluster and it’s successful Cross-industry, Cross-cluster and Cross- regional Collaboration initiatives.

Във връзка с изпълнение на проект “Smart Factory Hub”, Фондация ИКТ Клъстер търси да назначи мотивиран Експерт Бизнес Развитие.

Проект Smart Factory Hub / DTP1-071-1.1 / е финансиран по програма за транснационално сътрудничество Дунав . Основната цел на проекта е подобряване рамката и условията за иновации в сферата на „интелигентните предприятия“.

За изпълнение на целите на проекта, той ще бъде насочен към откриване на иновативни решения на следните след 3 области:

·         Прилагане на иновативни технологии,

·         Прилагане на ефикасни продуктови процеси

·         Прилагане на ефикасни системи за управление на човешки ресурси

Експертът бизнес развитие ще бъде зает в изпълнението на работни пакети 3 и 4 на проекта, а именно „Подобряване на общата база знание“ .

Вид заетост: временна (6 месеца)

Половин работен ден (4 часа на ден),

Отговорности на позицията:

·         участие в процеса на създаване на онлайн интерактивен картографски инструмент

·         съдействие в създаване на концепция и структура на уеб платформата,

·         идентифициране на фирми и доставчици на решения,

·         създаване на база данни

·         идентифициране на добри практики в България в три тематични области:  нови технологии, производствен процес и система за управление на човешките ресурси;

·         други дейности възложени от ръководителя на проекта;

Изисквания за заемане на длъжността:

·         Висше образование. Образователно-квалификационна степен “бакалавър/магистър“ в сферата на маркетинг, икономика, управление ще се счита за предимство

·         опит в разработването на уеб платформи, сайтове, бизнес инструменти

·         опит в развитието и управлението на бизнес над 5 години;

·         Отличен английски език

·         Отлични комуникационни и презентационни умения

·         Самоинициативност

·         Отговорност и дисциплина

Ако се интересувате от позицията, моля изпратете ни CV на английски език на e-mail: anna_naydenova@ictcluster.bg  

Ще се свържем само с одобрените за интервю кандидати. Кандидатурите ще бъдат третирани с нужната конфиденциалност.

Тодор Митов, представител на ICT Cluster, запозна студентите по предприемачество в „Колеж по Мениджмънт, търговия и маркетинг“  с възможностите, които програма „Еразъм за млади предприемачи” предоставя.

Събитието се проведе в събота, 15 юли. Тодор Митов направи презентации пред две групи от 10:00 и 12:00 и отговори на допълнителни въпроси, които студентите имаха за програмата и начина за кандидатстване.