Innovation Academy
BULGARIA INNOVATION HACKATHON
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Innovation Academy is the biggest public-private educational partnership among organizations from private, academic, public and NGO sector in Bulgaria. The project develops student entrepreneurial skills and supports financially their first business ideas. It will be held in a hackathon form for 12th consecutive year in 2025, where Bulgarian students will create their fist business projects and prototypes.
Goal
The main goal of the Innovation Academy is to become an outsourced centre for shared knowledge between the Bulgarian Universities following the Ivy League Universities innovation centres model.
Historically the project has started in 2014 with a partnership with 1 university in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia and in 2022 it will be nationwide with a partnership with 15 universities and educational centres.
STRUCTURE
RESULTS
More than 4818 participants and more than 757 teams has been trained up to now with more than 15% entrepreneurial ideas such as Educaton+, Enthela, EcoHunt, leARn (Pop!Ed), Vodoraslo, Vendy+, CheatBurger, HealthIt, EduBots, Your Sofia, CityIT, Adventure Squad, ParkNShare, StudyHub, Space Division, HubGround, OSimplants, WomanIcer, Plant Tube, etc.
4818
participants
757
teams
PROJECT AWARDS
- In 2024, the project has been selected to participate in the European Commission’s EU-LAC Innovation Cooperation
- Award by the Ministry of Economy of Republic of Bulgaria: National Winner in the European Entrepreneurial Awards Contest 2019.
- Award by the Ministry of Economy of Republic of Bulgaria: National Runner-up in the European Entrepreneurial Awards Contest 2017
- Award by the European Commission for a project investing in entrepreneurial skill in students in Bulgaria: 2016 and 2019
