News from Sofia on INVESTech project!

: 24 March 2025

On March 18-21, 2025, the Cluster Sofia Knowledge City , together with the Joint Innovation Center of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Technical University of Sofia, hosted an INVESTech COVE – Innovation Vocational Excellence in Tech, including a two-day transnational partner meeting (TPM), a one-day workshop and a one-day study visit to Sofia Tech Park.

The InvestTech project is led by the TU of Košice and is an innovative initiative funded under the Erasmus + Program to support the excellence in VET in ICT. 40 representatives of 18 organizations, schools, universities, companies and NGOs that are involved in the implementation of this project participated in TPM.

1. The transnational partner meeting (TPM) was held on 18-19 March at the International Business School in Bulgaria (IBS). The meeting itself focused on improving the results obtained so far under the project, addressing the challenges in its implementation and developing strategies for engaging stakeholders from the participating countries - Slovakia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Cyprus and Greece. The establishment of 5 national centres of excellence in vocational training and education (CoVEs) in the ICT sector is underway in these countries. This required that the meeting consider the ways and models for the creation of CoVEs and their linking into a transnational platform for international cooperation and promotion of innovation and the green transition in VET. The already implemented stages of the project implementation by work packages and activities, the events organized so far and the results of the project dissemination were reviewed and reported. The next steps in the implementation of this project were identified and discussed in detail.

2. On the third day of the event, on March 20, one-day workshop was held on the topic "Creating a transnational platform for cooperation between Centers of Excellence in Vocational Education and Training under the InvestTech Project". Prof. Dr. Georgi Todorov, Rector of IBS, was invited as a guest of the meeting, who introduced the audience to the history, goals and objectives of the university. This workshop mainly addressed the development of the strategic plan for the development of the INVETech CoVE platform. The partners conducted brainstorming sessions to determine the scope and model of international cooperation and to establish the operational framework for the future platform and its portal. The vision, goals and objectives of the planned transnational platform and the Strategic Plan for its development and functioning were presented in panel discussions and group work. The seminar was a key step in promoting innovation, knowledge exchange and excellence among CoVEs across Europe.

3. On the last day of the event on March 21, all participants visited Sofia Tech Park (STP), where with the assistance of STP a presentation of the Business Incubator and the SEEIP program, the Petascale Supercomputer Bulgaria, the National Electric Vehicles Cluster and its educational model and part of the STP laboratory complex was organized, after which the participants visited the John Atanasov Hall to get acquainted with the ongoing hackathon of the TUES. The emphasis of these meetings and presentations was the exchange of experience in improving the industry-academia relationship.

Transnational project meeting at IBS Bulgaria