Brussels 21 March 2016 – The largest group of ICT clusters in the Balkan and Black Sea region, BBS ICT Clusters Network, becomes member of the European Digital SME Alliance.

The European Digital SME Alliance was officially launched on 15 March 2016 during the CeBIT of Hannover. The alliance is a Brussels based international non-for profit association that promotes the interests of European digital SMEs in the EU.  

The BBS ICT Clusters Network is the joint effort of 19 national and regional clusters in South East Europe.  Its aim is to strengthen collaboration among clusters and increase the competitiveness of the sector on the global market.

Dr. Oliver Grün, president of the European Digital SME Alliance welcomed the new membership: “The BBS ICT Clusters Network is a strong regional partner for our Alliance. With it we strengthen our position as the largest organization representative of the ICT SME sector in Europe. Thanks to our existing and new members we now reach about 20.000 SMEs in 18 countries both EU members and neighbors.”

Stelian Brad, President of BBS ICT Clusters Network for 2016 sees in this membership a big opportunity to increase the visibility of the ICT sector from the Balkan and Black See region in the Western part of Europe and true chances for new Est-West ICT-related businesses. “We see this step well-aligned with the paradigm of playing together a smarter game, not draining brain”, Dr. Brad said with the occasion of official announcement of the new membership.

On 14th of March ICT Cluster and Small Business Standards (SBS) with the methodological support of European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) organized seminar “Education about Standardisation for SMEs”.
This seminar brought together experts from European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Small Business Standards (SBS), Bulgarian Standardisation Institute (BSI), European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC), representatives of ICT Cluster and universities from Bulgaria and Balkan Region.

The seminar gave the participants knowledge and understanding on the ETSI curriculum about EaS (Education about Standardisation) and its approach.

To reach the above mentioned goals the seminar’s agenda included the following modules.

• Standardisation, challenges and opportunities for SMEs
• Standardisation – a key tool for ICT SMEs
• Standardisation and competitiveness for SMEs
• Education about standards for ICT SMEs

The results reached in the seminar are as follows:

• The four universities – New Bulgarian University, Technical University of Sofia, University of Skopje and Technical University of Cluj – Napoca expressed their interest in the creation of Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes on standardisation, based on the ETSI methodology. The universities’ representatives accepted the challenging task to create and organize respective courses on standardisation this autumn.
• The representatives of BDS, Bulgarian experts of ETSI and ICT Cluster decided to start closer collaboration among them on the presented topics during the seminar.
• SMEs’ representatives defined their interest on certain standards. ICT Cluster will provide them with the necessary information.

Education about Standardization for SMEs – Mr. Hermann Brand

The EU Regulatory Framework and the Role of Small Business Standards – Mrs. Christel Davidson

Trainings to SMEs on how to benefit from and why to participate in standardization - Mrs. Ingrid Soetaert

BDS role for Bulgarian SMEs in collaboration with universities - Mr. Ivelin Burov

Review Of Etsi Tc Attm - George Babinov

ETSI Technical Committee TCCE TETRA and Critical Communications Evolution - Mr. Emil Dimitrov

The Role And Goals Of The European Digital SME Alliance - Mr. Peter Statev

The experience of the Technical University of Sofia in education about standardization – Mrs. Milka Vincheva

ICT Cluster е партньор на Форума и изложението за интелигентни градове 2016. Събитието ще се проведе от 5 до 7 април в София и цели да покаже модерни технологии и работещи практики, които могат да превърнат градовете ни в по-екологични и ефективни системи. Повече за събитието на: http://viaexpo.com/bg/pages/smart-cities

 ICT Cluster joint with European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and Small Business Standards (SBS) are organizing one-day training seminar that will take place on 14th of March 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
This seminar will provide participants with knowledge and understanding towards ETSI curriculum outline about EaS and its approach, and will include following modules:
• Standardisation, challenges and opportunities for SMEs
• Standardisation – a key tool for ICT SMEs
• Standardisation and competitiveness for SMEs
• Education about standards for ICT SMEs

The organization of the seminar is the first step till development of Balkan Academy for implementation of ICT Standards in Higher education curriculums. The main purpose of the seminar is raising the awareness of ICT standards role, function, process of preparations, implications on business competitiveness.

On 8th March 2016, in Brussels on a “Cluster GO International” Launch event, the GIVE partnership was awarded with a label ESCP-4i for European Strategic Cluster Partnership. Mr. Peter Statev – chairman of ICT Cluster, the leading cluster organization, received the certificate on behalf of the partnership. 

The Green ICT Development (GIVE) partnership is focused on building up a strategic cluster partnership in the field of smart green technologies among the three industries: automotive, renewable energy and ICT. It is based on cross-industry, cross-cluster, and cross-border and cross-regional collaboration as it encompasses 8 partners from 7 different countries, 2 European regions and 3 industries. The partners in the partnership are: Foundation Cluster Information and Communication Technologies, IT Cluj, HAMAC, AITA, MASIT, ICT Cluster Plovdiv, Automotive Cluster Slovenia and Green Current Renewable Energetics and Innovation Cluster.

The label will give more visibility of the partnership and its members and they will benefit from the information and support resources of the European Commission in order to achieve their strategic goals and SME internationalization.

This Network Meeting was focused on strengthening the project management knowledge of the Intermediary Organisations (IOs) in the programme and increasing the peer-to-peer learning amongst them.
The interactive sessions provided IOs with opportunities to share their practices with fellow IOs, as well as to discuss new developments in the programme with the European Commission.
ICT Cluster is intermediary organization in Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme for Bulgaria since 2009. At the present cycle 8 of the programme ICT Cluster is a partner of consortium Ventures 8.

Project Ventures8 COSME-04-2015-692734 under the "Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs" programme is financed by the COSME program of the European Commission.

The project implementation started on 1 March 2016 and has two years time period.

Lead partner is Coventry University, and the consortium has partner-organizations from 11 countries Britain, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Albania and Romania.

ICT Cluster is an intermediary organization for Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs since  2009. ICT Cluster has realized 22 exchanges of experience, 18 of the participants successfully grow their own business.

More about the program can be found here: "Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs"

The Strategic ICT Clusters’ Meeting for Danube ICT Clusters’ sustainable cooperation for smart and inclusive growth project was held on February 18th and-19th 2016 at Art Hotel Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting was organized under the framework of the DANUBE ICT Project, financed by START program of Danube Strategy of the EC. The meeting is part of the Activity 1 of the project, which main aim is to enhance the creation of favorable conditions for future sustainable collaboration among ICT Clusters from the Danube region and other Balkan countries in the field of cross-industry collaboration.

The meeting was attended by 26 cluster representatives from the Balkan and Black Sea region, members of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine. Special guests of the meeting were: Mr. Mohammed Al Hammadi, founder and Chief Executive of InvestSource and Mr. Sebastiano Toffaletti - Alliance Secretary General of Digital SME Alliance - The European Voice of High Tech SME. During the strategic meeting the partners have shared good practices and experience in cross- industry collaboration. Presentations and positions on focused industries were made. The meeting was attended by the representatives from technology park Belgrade and some Serbian Start ups.

The Strategic ICT Clusters’ Meeting for Danube ICT Clusters’ sustainable cooperation for smart and inclusive growth project was held on February 18th and-19th 2016 at Art Hotel Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting was organized under the framework of the DANUBE ICT Project, financed by START program of Danube Strategy of the EC. The meeting is part of the Activity 1 of the project, which main aim is to enhance the creation of favorable conditions for future sustainable collaboration among ICT Clusters from the Danube region and other Balkan countries in the field of cross-industry collaboration. 

The meeting was attended by 26 cluster representatives from the Balkan and Black Sea region, members of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine. Special guests of the meeting were: Mr. Mohammed Al Hammadi, founder and Chief Executive of InvestSource and Mr. Sebastiano Toffaletti - Alliance Secretary General of Digital SME Alliance - The European Voice of High Tech SME. During the strategic meeting the partners have shared good practices and experience in cross- industry collaboration. Presentations and positions on focused industries were made. The meeting was attended by the representatives from technology park Belgrade and some Serbian Start ups.

The strategic ICT Clusters’ Meeting will take place on February 18th and-19th 2016, at Art Hotel Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting is organized under the framework of the DANUBE ICT Project, financed by START program of Danube Strategy of the EC.

The aim of the Strategic ICT Clusters’ meeting is to increase regional cross- cluster, cross-industry and cross-border collaboration. The event will be attended by representatives of ICT Clusters, members of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network. During the event participants will have opportunity to discuss best practices and to share knowledge and experiences on cross-cluster and cross-industry collaborations in their clusters and regions.

Special quests of the meeting are: Mr. Mohammed Al Hammadi, founder and Chief Executive of InvestSource and Mr. Sebastiano Toffaletti, Alliance Secretary General of Digital SME Alliance - The European Voice of High Tech SME.

About BBS ICT Network

The Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network is a bottom-up initiative that reunites some of the most important cluster initiatives in the ICT sector from this macro-region. Currently the Network includes 17 organizations from all countries in the Balkan and Black Sea Region. Our aim is to create new business opportunities for cluster members, to open new markets and to build bridges for cross-border and cross-industry collaborations.

Funded by:

On 26th of January, 2016 a meeting of the leading partners of the projects funded under the START programme of the Danube Strategy was held in Vienna, Austria.
Mr. Peter Statev and Ms. Anna Naydenova participated at the event. ICT Cluster is a leading partner of the DANUBE ICT project, which main objective is the creation of sustainable, strategic trans-national partnership among ICT Clusters from the Balkans and the Danube region by establishing a common strategy for cross - cluster and cross-industrial cooperation in a favor of SMEs.

Partners in the project are: Foundation ICT Cluster, Cluj IT Cluster, Vojvodina ICT Cluster, and Montenegrin IT Cluster. All members of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network will be actively engaged in the process of suceesful project implementation.

Funded by:

На 11 Декември 2015 г. на официална церемония в зала „Тържествена” бяха връчени дипломите на петия випуск от специалност „Предприемачество” на УНСС.
На събитието присъстваха и връчиха дипломи на абсолвентите зам.-ректорът по научноизследователската дейност проф. д-р Валентин Гоев, ръководителят на катедра „Предприемачество” и директор на Института за развитие на предприемачеството проф. д.ик.н. Кирил Тодоров, посланикът на Казахстан в България Н.Пр. Темиртай Избастин, проф. Митко Димитров, директор на Икономическия институт на БАН, инж. Илия Келешев, председател на Българската браншова камара по машиностроене, Димитър Кузев, директор на ЗММ Хасково, представителят на Банка ДСК Диана Паригвоздева, директорът на отдел „Бизнес клиенти“ в УниКредит Булбанк  Димитър Пенков, изпълнителният директор на ИКТ Клъстер Анна Найденова, д-р Кирил Григоров, управител на Общинския гаранционен фонд за малки и средни предприятия (ОГФМСП), Башар Рахал, артист и продуцент, преподаватели, гости, студенти.
Г-жа Анна Найденова благодари на катедрата за поканата и заяви, че ще се радва да работи с много от вече завършилите студенти