SOFIA DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION was founded as non-profit organization with the decision 348
of the Sofia Municipal Council to work for the sustainable development of the capital.
Shortcuts
International Conference “Smarter Together”
The project “Smarter Together” from the program Horizon 2020 will host its first international conference in Sofia on July 11th-12th, 2017. The goal of the project is to find a balance between intelligent technology and organizational administration in order to make smart decisions that will enhance the overall standard of living for citizens. The project calls upon European leader cities- Lyon, Munich, Vienna, follower cities- Santiago de Compostela, Sofia and Venice, as well as viewer cities- Kiev, Yokohama. Partnerships between the cities will create jointly integrated solutions with regards to district heating and renewable energy, energy efficiency of public and private buildings, data management platforms and intelligent services as well as sustainable mobility. Sofia as well as the remainder of the follower cities will replicate the results of the project.
This conference will focus on the experience and efforts of the Sofia municipality regarding intelligent and inclusive strategies and solutions in the field of sustainable energy, mobility and air cleanliness. Sevdalina Voynova from the SDA will present the Strategy for Intelligent Specialization of Sofia.
SDA SUPPORTS FORUM "DIGITAL CAPACITY FOR DIGITAL HAPPINESS"
On July 7th, Sofia Development Association will support the digital capacity forum held at Sofia University. The event is dedicated to providing entrepreneurs and disadvantaged communities as a whole the opportunity to cultivate their skills and work together towards overall social advancement.
Speakers, including SDA’s Sevdalina Voynova will explore and discuss topics regarding the different development strategies feasible for NGOs to address social innovation, funding models and the complexity of the digital age as a whole.
More information regarding the digital capacity forum may be found at http://www.bg.digital/community/happiness/
New Generation Skills
Young generations have the potential to be pro-active engines of innovation and become change-makers in their local communities. However, 62% of young people in Central and Eastern Europe are not interested in starting their own business, whereas one in five would like to, but consider it too difficult. That's the reason why Sofia Development Association and Sofia Municipality becames partner of the project New Generation Skills, funded by the Danube Transnational Program.
Between June 27 and 29, 2017, partners from Liberec (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Maribor (Slovenia), Cluj (Romania), Graz (Austria), Belgrade (Serbia) and Sofia met in Liberec to compare and discuss their local environments to support youth. The primary target of the joint efforts are young people (15-29). Cities and regions aim to engage SME's, NGO's, administrations, educational organisations and also mentors, lectors and coaches to build and test common initiatives supporting the young. The interregional workshop identified shared challenges, selected established good practices and outlined the next steps: developing local innovation agendas and transnational innovation lab.
More information on the project is available at http://www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/newgenerationskills
Bringing Innovation to SMEs
Eight European regions met in Gyor, Hungary, on June 19 – 21, 2017, to learn from each other on how to improve R&D utilization in SMEs. The meeting was the fifth interregional learning event of InnoBridge project funded by INTERREG EUROPE programme.
The regions of West Transdanubia, Hungary, and the autonomous region of Bolzano, Italy, presented their ecosystems and policy instruments in support of innovation and SMEs.
Györ, the centre of the Hungarian automotive industry, also demonstrated their good practices: Mobilitis Science Center and the Research Center of Vehicle Industry with the Széchenyi István University. Building on Győr’s technical and industrial heritage and high-tech automotive presence, Mobilis focuses on the scientific and technological concepts related to transport and vehicles, doing so to engage young visitors with the industry and draw attention to exciting potential (engineering and/or science) career paths in the industry. Mobilis (100% Győr City municipality owned non-profit organisation) operates out of a brand new building located on the campus of Széchenyi István University of Győr. The Research Center of Vehicle Industry aims at providing appropriate research and development cooperation between the automotive partners and higher education. Both organizations show that the joined efforts of industry, academia and local government produce proven results by Györ’s ranking second in Hungary in GDP.
The InnoBridge project is implemented in Sofia by Sofia Development Association of behalf of Sofia Municipality and ARC Foundation. More about the project is available here: https://www.interregeurope.eu/INNOBRIDGE/
Sofia Supports #BG10xEU Hackathon Projects
Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova met today, June 13, with the winners of #BG10xEU Hackathon, initiated by the EC representation in Bulgaria and Sofia Municipality. The 5 awarded teams presented their projects to the mayor and representatives of Sofia Municipality directorates that can assist the projects realization. The meeting, organized by Sofia Development Association, was also attended by the partner companies Upnetix, Deamix, as well as the jury members Iliana Zaharieva, Mtel, Tsvetan Mutafchiev, Telelink, prof. Nikolay Denkov, Sofia University.
The teams-finalists apply the capacities of ICT to establish links between people and institutions, to address social challenges and to empower citizens. “Now comes the time for people like you, said Mrs. Fandakova to the winners, not just active citizens but productive citizens, who from the very start are part of solving urban problems.”
The mayor declared the willingness of the municipality to support the realization of the demo projects. “My appeal is to continue together. For me as a mayor these are not prizes for your 24-hour work but an investment in the city and its talent.”
The winners received the contracts for their awards from Mtel, Telelink, Sofia Municipality, Webit. Microsoft, also hackathon partner, awarded four of the teams with free services under the BizSpark programme, supporting start-ups with free Microsoft Azure services, software and support for one year. Mtel also provided a special award – mobile phones – for the team with best presentations, while the Bulgarian MEP Eva Paunova-Maydell invited one of the teams to take part in the European Code Week in Brussels.
#BG10xEU Hackathon was praised as a valuable opportunity to generate ideas and partnerships. “We are thankful to the organizers, the sponsors ans most of all to the other participants who helped us a lot with ideas, data and testing”, said Dimo Chortov with the winning team Prizma. “In certain applications our idea is better that that of the winning team, therefore the two teams decided to work together on those”, added Oleg Kamenshtik with BrainHub Lab team.
The second partnership meeting under the Coalition of Positive Messengers captures the interest of the local stakeholders in Perugia
The second partnership meeting under the Coalition of Positive Messengers took place in Perugia, Italy on 6-8 June and was hosted by our partner Forma.Azione. In the meeting framework we organized a joint discussion with presentation of the findings of the national framework mapping reports developed by the partners from 7 project countries with local stakeholders. The local stakeholders who joined the meeting were representatives of the following organizations ARCI Perugia (the most important Umbria first and second refugees and asylum seekers welcome services operator), CPIA (a structure of the Ministry of Education that provides a training offer for adults and young adults from socially excluded groups who have not completed the compulsory education), Young Muslims of Italy Association -“GMI”( a national social, free, independent and apartheid association), Department for the immigration, international protection, promotion of the culture of peace, young people of the Region of Umbria and Università degli Studi di Perugia. They joined our Coalition of Positive Messengers and assured us that they will be actively involved in further project activities such as trainings and public campaign.
The full national reports describing the national contexts, societal responses to online hate speech with policy recommendations will be published on the project websites July 2017.
