Business in Bulgaria

A new venture has been established to identify, commercialise and secure funding for the most promising technologies from Bulgaria.

Cosmos Technology, an international commercialisation company, has announced it will collaborate with Oxford-based Isis Enterprise to build a core team of up to 15 technology-transfer professionals, based in Sofia. The group will establish relationships with leading Bulgarian research institutes including the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia University and government research groups.

Isis Enterprise is the external innovation consulting division of Oxford University’s technology-transfer company, Isis Innovation. It has worked with clients from more than 30 countries, many of them governments, to accelerate the exploitation of knowledge from the local university research base.

Dr David Baghurst, head of Isis Enterprise, said: 'We plan to build a commercialisation business in Bulgaria which will be self-sustaining and attract venture investment. Technology will be commercialised through both spin-out and licensing, and the income will be shared with the researchers and institutions.

'The first tranche of this work will be an audit of centres of excellence in Bulgarian research, and identification of talented individuals and promising projects.'

Cosmos Technology will receive support and funding from Eurocopter as part of its Bulgarian defence offset programme. The aim of the programme is to stimulate growth and high-value employment.

Isis Enterprise will manage initial technology-transfer activities and set up the infrastructure and training for Cosmos.

Baghurst added: 'The model we have used for Cosmos Technology has the potential to become a platform for commercialising technology from other eastern European companies.'