On September 19 and 20, 2018, members of SDA team visited Evora, Portugal, to gain in-depth knowledge how the region fosters innovations and investments. The major regional Portuguese initiatives include massive hydro-agricultural infrastructure developments, promoting Evora as the first skylight tourist destination in the world, global investment attraction program. Sofia and Evora colleagues discussed the role and management of (regional) operational programs, tech parks, incubators and accelerators to create conditions for meeting the challenges of the future.

The staff exchange knowledge will be applied in further design of Sofia innovation policies, including smart specialization strategy action plan, the public-private fund for innovations and the new youth innovation laboratory.

The staff exchange is part of the InnoBridge project, INTEEG EUROPE programme, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the EU.