The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) will be developing new information technologies and biotechnologies for quality of life improvement in a technology park, BTA learnt from Assoc. Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov, BAS Scientific Secretary for Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies.

Implementation of the project will start in 2012 on a 13 hectare land tract in Sofia's Gara Iskur Quarter. It will be a pilot initiative countrywide and will be financed by some 50 million euro by Operational Programme Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy.

BAS has been working on the project for two or three years now together with Sofia Chief Architect Peter Dikov and with Sofia Municipality, Kostadinov said.

The key priorities of the park include microbiology at large and pharmacology in particular: molecular research, synthetic polymers as drug-delivery vehicles in medicine, and laser and photon technologies. Equipment for these activities and research will be produced in the technology park.

"With these activities, we can achieve a breakthrough in the European and world market," Kostadinov believes.

In his opinion, the park should come complete with a high-tech incubator for new companies set up at research institutes and universities.

Designing the project, BAS cooperates and exchanges experience with the Technology Park in Dortmund, which has been under development for 20 years now.