Why Bulgaria and Romania Are Well Positioned to Lead in NatureTech Innovation

For much of the modern era, the lands surrounding the Black Sea have not only served as a meeting point between empires but also as a frontier between competing political blocs. Ottoman and Habsburg influence gave way to the geopolitical lines of the Soviet sphere and the Western world. This overlapping history produced a distinctive legacy: strong scientific traditions shaped by periods of openness to global research, followed by decades of political and economic isolation that demanded local solutions to national challenges.

Today, this legacy places Bulgaria and Romania in an unexpectedly strong position to contribute to the fast-growing field of NatureTech — technologies focused on biodiversity, soil health, ecosystem restoration, and climate resilience.

A scientific tradition shaped by necessity

Throughout the twentieth century, both countries developed research capacity designed to support the needs of centrally planned economies. Scientific institutes were expected to address highly practical problems defined by state priorities: increasing agricultural yields, managing natural resources, supporting heavy industry, or solving local environmental issues created by industrialisation and poor infrastructure planning. In many cases, research agendas were driven by political decisions rather than market signals, which forced scientists to work with limited resources and to refine domestic solutions.

This scientific pragmatism produced notable outcomes. Bulgaria became the global reference point for rose oil extraction, developing precision distillation techniques that preserved fragile aromatic compounds. The country also advanced microbial research: the strain Lactobacillus bulgaricus, first identified by Bulgarian scientist Stamen Grigorov in 1905, became central to global dairy fermentation thanks to decades of work in national laboratories.

Romania followed a similar trajectory in fields such as water management, agricultural science, and environmental monitoring. The Danube Delta — one of Europe’s most ecologically important regions — became the focus of long-term research programmes on water quality, species dynamics and wetland systems, generating continuity of data that few regions possess.

While some Western countries also have institutions with centuries-long histories, the particular strength of Bulgaria and Romania lies in the continuity of scientific observation within specific ecosystems. Their archives are not merely historical collections; they are living datasets that track environmental change across political eras, economic transitions, and climate cycles. This unique longitudinal record is increasingly valuable at a time when high-quality ecological data is essential for developing and validating new NatureTech solutions.

Biodiversity concentration on a small geographic scale

Despite their size, both countries contain some of Europe’s most diverse habitats.

Bulgaria is home to more than 3,800 vascular plant species and one of the richest assemblages of birdlife on the continent. Romania spans a full spectrum of ecological systems, from the Carpathian Mountains — with Europe’s largest populations of bears, wolves, and lynx — to the Danube Delta, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

This concentration of biodiversity within relatively small and accessible territories presents a significant scientific and commercial advantage. For NatureTech founders, it means the ability to test, validate, and refine solutions across varied ecosystems without the logistical complexity often seen elsewhere in Europe.

Aligning with European markets and regulatory frameworks

The European Union is moving decisively towards more ambitious environmental goals. Policies connected to the Green Deal, emissions reduction, soil restoration, and biodiversity protection are accelerating demand for new technologies.

Bulgaria and Romania are fully integrated into this framework. Their public sectors and industries face the same regulatory expectations as Western member states, yet often with more urgent local needs due to legacy pollution, industrial land degradation, and climate-related vulnerabilities. This creates a receptive environment for NatureTech solutions that address real, immediate problems.

Importantly, ecological solutions cannot be copied wholesale across regions. Methods designed for the Rhine basin cannot simply be applied to the Danube Delta; forestry approaches from Central Europe do not map neatly onto Balkan mountain ecosystems. Local founders who understand regional contexts can therefore create solutions with both domestic relevance and international potential.

Where the region excels — and where it stalls

Scientific capacity and environmental need do not automatically translate into investment-ready ventures. Bulgaria and Romania still face structural barriers: administrative complexity, a gap between academic research and commercial development, and limited early-stage funding for deep-tech ideas.

This is the gap SCION aims to close.

How SCION strengthens the NatureTech pathway

SCION’s model recognises that NatureTech founders require more than generic start-up support. They need access to laboratories, regulatory expertise, field sites, and scientific collaborators who understand the underlying biological or environmental systems. They also need credible connections to industrial partners, investors, and international markets.

By bringing together researchers, entrepreneurs, and capital networks within a structured framework, SCION helps translate regional scientific depth into viable companies. The accelerator programme, beginning September 2025, is designed specifically for NatureTech commercialisation — from bioprocess scale-up and regulatory navigation to customer development and investor communication.

For investors and corporate partners, SCION offers access to founders building solutions shaped by decades of environmental challenge, ecological knowledge, and scientific continuity. This combination is increasingly rare, and increasingly valuable.

A strategic location for building real-world solutions

For founders, choosing where to build matters. In NatureTech, solutions must interact with physical systems — water, soil, forests, pests, pollinators, microbes, and infrastructure. Bulgaria and Romania offer:

• Local scientific depth: Specialists with decades of experience in precise subfields.
• Environmental urgency: Real customers facing regulatory obligations and ecological degradation.
• Cost efficiency: The ability to conduct scientific and engineering work at significantly lower costs.
• EU alignment: Access to a unified regulatory and commercial market.
• Technical networks: Laboratories, manufacturers and testing facilities familiar with environmental technologies.

Challenges remain, from navigating bureaucracy to establishing global credibility. Yet these are surmountable — and increasingly outweighed by the region’s structural advantages.

Looking ahead

Bulgaria and Romania are not late adopters waiting to catch up. They are regions with deep scientific memory, high biodiversity, and an urgent need for environmental solutions. Combined with EU market access and growing entrepreneurial talent, they are well-positioned to make meaningful contributions to the next generation of NatureTech innovation.

SCION exists to accelerate this transition — turning regional expertise into global impact.