Innovation Academy held with BDB’s support
As part of its corporate philanthropy, BDB will support the implementation of Innovation Academy. This is the largest public-private educational partnership in the country between organizations from the private, academic, public, and NGO sectors. The event will be held on June 3rd and 4th in the Peroto club, National Palace of Culture,
under the auspices of the EC and with the help of EIB, being organized by Innovation Starter.
The project develops the entrepreneurial skills of students and finances their business ideas. It will be held as a hackathon where Bulgarian students will create their first business projects and prototypes.
Innovation Academy began in 2014, and now it partners with 14 universities and training centers in the entire country.
The project has 3 modules:
- mentorship;
- knowledge creation through a panel of sessions and materials on the successful realization of an idea;
- prototyping
Over 4,300 people and 720 teams have been trained at the academy and have created entrepreneurial ideas like CheatBurger, HealthIt, EduBots, Your Sofia, CityIT, Adventure Squad, ParkNShare, StudyHub, Space Division, HubGround, OSimplants, WomanIcer, Цвете в епруветка, Vendy+, and others.
The event has had international guest speakers like the author of the Creative City concept Charles Landry, Pixar former art director Antoni Hristov, Lindsy Szilvasi, an Innovation Space Manager at Google, and many others.
The prize fund includes financing of the winning team's idea provided by EIB, as well as a visit to European institutions in Brussels with the support of the EC office in Bulgaria.
BDB provided support for the realization of the students’ ideas, and the partnership with the bank lead to the creation of the new and modern website of Innovation Academy.
