With its Bulgarian Ministry of Innovation and Growth, the Bulgarian government said it plans to make 600 million leva, or about 306.8 million euros, from the European Recovery and Resilience Facility available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by the end of the year.

The recovery and resilience fund is part of the EU’s NextGenerationEU recovery plan to support member states’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The European Commission endorsed Bulgaria’s recovery plan in April.

A call for funding proposals was already underway, announced on July 22, before the resignation of Kiril Petkov’s administration.

It is specified that the deadline for submission of proposals was September 21, and the budget allocated to the program aimed at the technological modernization of applicant companies was 260 million leva.

In addition, the Ministry of Innovation said it plans to launch a second call for proposals for funding by the end of September. This program, specifically targets IT solutions and cybersecurity, will have a budget of 30.6 million leva.

Two other developments are in the works to launch formal calls for funding proposals by the end of 2022, acting Innovation Minister Alexander Poulev said in the release.

The first program, with a budget of 200 million leva, would focus on investments in photovoltaics and related infrastructure, including energy storage.

The second program, which aims to provide grants to SMEs engaged in research and intellectual property, is expected to have a budget of 120 million leva.