SOFIA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Researches on environment protection took the first and third places here on Monday in Bulgaria's annual Best Innovative Project contest.

The project "New Ceramic Materials with Improved Performance Properties Obtained by Using a High Share of Industrial Waste" developed by a team from the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) led by Prof. Alexander Karamanov won the first place.

The project "New Absorption-Adsorption Method and Devices for Cleaning of Waste Gases of Sulfur Dioxide" by a team of the Institute of Engineering Chemistry at the BAS took the third place.

The second place award went to Dr. Eng. Petar Bodurov for his project "Prototype of a Universal Hammer with a Rocket Engine for Rock Crushing."

"The specifics of the Bulgarian economy, for good or for bad, are quite different from the European one," Prof. Karamanov said at the award ceremony, which was attended by Lachezar Borisov, Bulgarian deputy minister of economy, and Stamen Yanev, Executive Director of InvestBulgaria Agency. "We produce more waste, which is a potential resource," Karamanov said.

The waste utilization required co-operation between innovators, industrial waste producers and the state, and investment, he said.

The introduction of innovation and high technology was among the challenges facing the country's economy at the moment, Borisov said.

Their development would help the country create higher levels of added value, hence higher economic growth and faster social development, he said.