Southeastern Europe advances regional collaboration at Green Transition Forum

The Southeastern European Science & Technology Parks Alliance (SEE STP Alliance) brought together 16 innovation ecosystems from six countries to address the evolving role of science parks in driving regional innovation and competitiveness at the 6th Green Transition Forum. 

The programme included an STP-focused panel, moderated by Elica Mollov, Director of Innovation Incubation at Sofia Tech Park, and featuring ecosystem leaders and IASP members, including Derya Caglar from Ostim Technopark (Türkiye), Ivan Pavlovic from Science and Technology Park Nis (Serbia), Nikos Katsiadakis from Thessaloniki Innovation & Technology Center (Greece), Tasos Vasiliadis from JOIST (Greece), and Todor Mladenov from Sofia Tech Park (Bulgaria). 

The discussion focused on the critical role of innovation spaces in technology transfer, startup development, and regional growth. Speakers highlighted how Southeastern Europe remains somewhat fragmented, with bureaucratic, cultural, and scale-related barriers hindering integration. At the same time, they acknowledged the region’s growing innovation capacity: innovation ecosystems across the region are still maturing, and a strong talent base, combined with strategic investment in areas of innovation, innovation districts and science parks as focal point for innovation, can create significant opportunities for the region to play a more active role in integrated international value chains. 

Panelists emphasised that innovation is increasingly flourishing beyond capital cities and metropolitan areas, with emerging regional hubs reaching critical mass in infrastructure, talent, and innovation support services. They also called attention to the important evolution of how science parks operate, as beyond providing physical infrastructure, successful parks increasingly need to adopt human-centric approaches that foster inspiring work environments and enable meaningful interaction among diverse innovation stakeholders. 

The discussions underscored that closer regional collaboration, stronger connectivity between innovation actors, and a shared vision for sustainable growth will be essential to position Southeastern Europe as a dynamic and globally competitive innovation region.