New Law on Research and Innovation Promotion in the Republic of Bulgaria

On 24 April 2024, the Bulgarian national assembly adopted a new Law on Research and Innovation Promotion. This legislative act is part of the reforms that the country has committed to implement in connection with its Recovery and resilience plan.

The Law advances sustainable planning of national instruments and measures to support excellence in science and applied research for the benefits of the economy and for building up the European research area. The main goal of the Law is to regulate the principles, mechanisms and instruments for developing and implementing the state policy to promote research and innovation in the country. The Law favors enhanced coordination between sectoral policies and policy instruments based on regulated functional relationships between all actors in the national research and innovation ecosystem.

It introduces a legal framework for innovation policy and for technology transfer incl. intellectual property rights. By means of the new Law, funding for R&I will be distributed in a more effective and sustainable way, which will increase the national scientific capacity and boost research outputs. The Law will secure the coherence and synergy of strategic and operational documents, such as the National strategy for research development, The National Innovative strategy for smart specialization, the National framework program for R&I, the National roadmap for research infrastructures, mission driven programs for research and for innovation.