In recent years more than 48 million leva from the National Innovation Fund have been invested in more than 450 technological projects, announced the Deputy Minister of Economy Alexander Manolev during the presentation of the application rules for the Ninth Session of the Fund, which should launch in June 2018. Under the new procedure, business and science will be able to benefit from 5 million leva of funding, with the maximum grant for a project up to 500 thousand leva. The project proposals will have to be submitted from 25 June to 25 July 2018. The main objective of the Fund is to increase the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy by stimulating and promoting the research and development activities of enterprises and stimulating the cooperation between science and business. The areas in which projects can be developed include mechatronics and clean technologies, information and communication technologies, a healthy lifestyle and biotechnology industry, as well as creative and recreational industries.