Bulgarian researchers favour traditional EU funding instruments, claims government's scientific research director

In an interview with the CORDIS Greek Presidency service, Albena Voutsova, Director of Scientific Research at the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, claimed that Bulgarian researchers are likely to have a strong presence in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), but ma...

In an interview with the CORDIS Greek Presidency service, Albena Voutsova, Director of Scientific Research at the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, claimed that Bulgarian researchers are likely to have a strong presence in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), but mainly in projects funded through the traditional instruments and not the new instruments.

Ms Voutsova considers that Bulgarian participation in FP5 was 'very good', with researchers participating in around 250 projects. She believes that this experience will see the country in good stead for FP6.

'The adopted skills, partnerships and knowledge will be stable ground for future actions [under] FP6,' said Ms Voutsova. 'I think that Bulgarian participation will be more effective in the traditional instruments, due to the fact that we are familiar with them. Our researchers have used them and therefore the offered schemes are well- known.'

However, this does not mean that Bulgaria will be ignoring the opportunities available for integrated projects and networks of excellence, according to Ms Voutsova: 'This does not mean that we are going to neglect participation using the new instruments. We have to do our best to occupy a worthy position.'

Ms Voutsova describes the current Bulgarian research landscape as one comprising 'a variety of research and innovative entities with different levels of competence and experience.' A number of the country's research bodies have been recognised as Centres of Excellence by the European Commission.

Countries

Bulgaria