Plamen Ivanov

ARC Consulting has been providing a rich set of business and innovation support services as the EEN-Bulgaria coordinator since the establishment of EEN-Bulgaria in 2008. Its main target groups are SMEs and clusters. ARCC’s major areas of expertise are: capacity building for SMEs in innovation, business model transformation towards resilience and sustainability, Single Market support and internationalization, up-skilling and re-skilling SMEs, access to finance, and value chains. ARCC experts hold a license by the IMP3rove Academy to deploy their tools for innovation management assessment. ARCC’s client network includes enterprises of all sizes and sectors of the national economy, clusters (AI Cluster Bulgaria, Biotech Cluster Bulgaria, Automotive Cluster, Electric Vehicles Industrial Cluster, ICT Cluster, Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria, and others), major sectoral associations, ministries and local and regional authorities in Bulgaria. ARCC is the NCP for the European Innovation Council (EIC). ARCC is the consulting arm of the Applied Research and Communications Fund (ARC Fund). The two organizations jointly form the ARC Fund group, which is Bulgaria's leading think-tank in the innovation domain, with more than 30 years of experience in innovation policy analysis and design. ARC Fund has coordinated the national node of the EU’s Innovation Relay Centre Network in Bulgaria, i.e., IRC – Bulgaria, in the period 1997 – 2007, the predecessor of EEN-Bulgaria. ARCC offers a wide range of services to SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups, including building innovation culture and assessing companies’ innovation capacity and technology-related needs, evaluating and advancing digital maturity, consulting on access to finance, including Horizon Europe and other EU-funded programs of relevance to SMEs, addressing skills shortages, identifying technology transfer and knowledge valorization opportunities, rendering support for developing and updating business models, strategic planning, and advising on continuous improvement processes.