University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) at the University of Forestry, Sofia

1. University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) at the University of Forestry, Sofia Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nickola Stoyanov University of Forestry, Sofia, Bulgaria

2. REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA - SOME FACTS ABOUT FORESTRY

3. REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

5. REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA Total forest and other wooded area 4 076 464 ha Forested area 3 651 243 ha

6. FORESTRY IN BULGARIA 2005 Forest land area – 4 076 mln. ha Afforested area – 3 674 mln. ha Percentage of forest land - 33,1% Standing timber volume – 591 mln. Cub. M Standing timber per ha – 162 cub. M Average age – 51 Average timber growing – 3,9 cub. m/ha Annual timber growing – 14,1 mln. Cub. M Annual felling – 5,8 mln. Cub. M State forests – 75,9 % Private forests – 10,5 % Municipality forests – 13,6 %

8. UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRYSOFIA, BULGARIA

9. History The legal foundation of higher forestry education in Bulgaria was laid on 28th January 1925, when the Academic Council of the Sofia University decided to set up a Department of Forestry at the Agronomy Faculty of the university.

10. History The Ministry of Agriculture and State Property notified the Rector of Sofia University in a letter dated 30th December 1925 that two training and experimental forest ranges had been allocated for the training needs of the students at the Department of Forestry.

14. UNIVERSITY of FORESTRYSofia, Bulgaria FACULTIES  • Faculty of Forestry • Faculty of Forest Industry • Faculty of Ecology and Landscape Architecture • Faculty of Agronomy • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine • Faculty of Business Management • Post-graduate Center • Training and experimentalforest enterprises- 2

15. UNIVERSITY of FORESTRYSofia, Bulgaria The University of Forestry has the following structure of specialties and qualification degrees: • In the Faculty of Forestry: • Specialty Forestry. • In the Faculty of Forest Industry: • Specialty Woodworking and Furniture Production • Specialty Engineering Design. • In the Faculty of Ecology and Landscape Architecture: - Specialty Ecology and Environment Protection - Specialty Landscape Architecture

16. UNIVERSITY of FORESTRYSofia, Bulgaria • In the Faculty of Agronomy: • Specialty Agronomy. • Plant Protection. • In the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: - Specialty Veterinary Medicine. • In the Faculty of Business Management: • Specialty Business Management; • The Postgraduate Centre - Specialty Teaching Qualification - Education and specialization of specialists from practice

17. C O N T A C T S University of Forestry (UF)10, Kliment Ochridsky Blvd.1756, Sofia, Bulgaria http://www.ltu.bg http://edu.ltu.bg/uec/ /

18. University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) at the University of Forestry, Sofia

19. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) • In 2001 the Ministry of Education and Science in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy took on the initiative to assess the innovation system in Bulgaria and to create a mechanism for directing the efforts of the currently restructuring scientific organisations and industrial companies towards the creation and introduction of market-oriented technologies and products.

20. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) • The resulting document was the National Innovation Strategy, adopted in September 2004 . • Main beneficiary and coordinator of the project became the Ministry of Economy (later renamed to Ministry of Economy and Energy).

21. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) According to the Bulgarian Innovation Strategy adopted in September 2004 the objectives of innovation policy in Bulgaria are: • to stimulate the R&D for the industry and the cooperation between the R&D departments, universities and companies; • to increase the financing for innovation through establishing mechanisms for attracting private investments; • to encourage companies to introduce new technologies and to improve their innovation activity;

22. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) • to encourage the establishment of clusters in traditional sectors; • to support start-ups and well-functioning companies with the aim to increase their innovative potential; • to build up mechanisms for attracting foreign investments to scientific areas.

23. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) One of the proposed measures for realisation of the strategy is: • to establish entrepreneurship centers at the universities, which will teach modern business practices to students who are willing to transfer their knowledge into practice.

24. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) • In realizing of this idea the Government of Holand was included trough a financial and scientific help. • The head of this project was Prof. Hans Wissema - Professor emeritus of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. http://www.wissema.com/

25. To some, it will come as a challenge, to others it will seem to be a threat, but it is inevitable: universities are switching into the next gear, the Third Generation University, and technostarters are playing a pivotal role in this process.Technostarters and the Third Generation University - Hans Wissema

26. Technostarters and the Third Generation University Hans Wissema2006

27. What are technostarters? Technostarters are students or academics who establish their own science- or technology-based firm. Technostarters are people who take initiative and who are willing to take responsibility and risk.

28. Innovation – what is it ? Innovation is a process in which a new idea is realised on the market. Innovation does not happen by chance. Successful innovation requires a common effort of inventors and researchers (the generators of ideas); engineers who are developing the engineering projects; lawyers and marketing experts; financial and production experts; sales, advertisement and distribution experts; and, last but not least, entrepreneurs who unite all elements of the innovation system and carry out the innovation process.

29. Entrepreneur or enterpriser? Take the test

30. Development of an idea for University Entrepreneurship Center (UEC) • Education of University representatives. • For implementing the measure in the Innovation Strategy of Bulgaria was provided competition for creating four University Entrepreneurship Centers (UEC) in 2006. • University of Forestry Sofia was one of winner. • In result – from 1.01.2007 was signed a contract between UF and MEE for creating UEC for two years.

31. THE TASKS OF UEC • Development of curriculums on entrepreneurship and innovations for students as elective courses • Development and issuing of guidebooks on entrepreneurship and innovations in different fields – forestry, forest industry, agronomy, veterinary medicine. • Development of WEB page of UEC

32. THE TASKS OF UEC • Development of information system about alumnus of UF • Creating the university fund for helping techno starters • Organizing meetings, education and development of projects in order to use the financing from EU Funds in the fields in which UF students studied

33. THE TASKS OF UEC • Education of teachers in secondary schools on forestry, agronomy, veterinary medicine, landscape architecture to begin teaching “Entrepreneurship” • Organizing and providing a “Day of entrepreneurs” • Helping student in elaborating and implementing different projects • Helping students of IP Course INNO- FOREST

34. CONCLUSION Today, society wants universities to open their treasure chests, to collaborate with others and to bring their know-how to the market. This process, know-how commercialisation, can be accomplished in basically two ways: by working with and selling know-how to existing companies or by establishing new, science- or technology-based firms. At the same time, universities will continue to carry out fundamental research as long as governments or sponsors are prepared to pay for this.

35. CONCLUSION For lack of a better word, for this new type of university it is used a term Third Generation University. The Third Generation University has a different mission, different objectives, a different culture, a different organisational structure and a different way of financing. One might say that the models of the Third Generation University and the third stage of industrial R&D converge; there will be much cooperation, but also competition between the two.

36. THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION!