1. Bulgaria’s research landscape and the context of CERN collaboration
REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
Ministry of Education and Science
Bulgaria’s research landscape
and the context of CERN collaboration
RECFA visit to Bulgaria, March 2017
Prof. DSc. Nikolai Denkov
Minister of Education and Science

2. Scientific activity in Bulgaria
Main research organizations:
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (46 Institutes), Agricultural Academy (35 centers).
The higher education schools public and 14 private.
Leading research universities - Sofia University, Medical University - Sofia, University of Plovdiv, Technical University – Sofia, University of Chemical Technologies and Metallurgy.
International companies with R&D centers, private universities and private research organizations.

3. Overview of the publication activity by areas:
2011 to 2016:
publications by authors in Bulgaria
3,960 publications in (SCOPUS), an increase by 40% compared to 2011.
citations = 4.4 citations per publication
Leading scientific areas:
Physics and astronomy (13%)
Medicine (12%)
Chemistry (7%)
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (7%).

4. Distribution by scientific areas and citation impact
Research output mainly in the fields of Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering (SciVal metrics).
Less publications in the areas of Environmental Science, Social Sciences and Humanities, but with high citation impact

5. Summarizing:
Main research competencies - in Natural, Medical and Engineering sciences, especially in the fields of: standard model in particle physics; mass pulses; quantum optics; surface active molecules; neutrons and others (SciVal).
Overall, physics and astronomy are first in the list of top 10% most cited publications worldwide (21% share), medicine is second (16%), followed by biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (10%) and chemistry (10%).

6. Bulgaria at CERN:
Collaboration with CERN starts in 70s – 80s of 20th century
Physics, starts in 1975 – experiment NA4 and in 80s – experiment L3
Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy of BAS
Faculty of Physics, Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski”
Technical and engineering tasks, 1987 – L3:
Institute for system engineering and robotics of BAS

7. Bulgaria at CERN (2):
Approval of the CMS experiment in which the Bulgarian physicists are deeply involved
Responsibility for the design and production of the Hadron calorimeter (700 t. of its absorber are produced in Bulgaria)
Design, production and running of the RPC muon system
CMS collaboration - 2 Institutes, 1 Associated Institute:
INRNE of BAS
Faculty of Physics at Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski”
Institute for system engineering and robotics, BAS

8. Bulgaria at CERN (3): The membership in CERN opens opportunities to:
perform high level scientific research
be members of the personal of CERN (physicists, engineers, IT specialists etc.)
participate in projects of the CERN program
participate in the CERN educational programs
build a wide network with the world’s leading universities and research organizations;
participate in the HEPTech European network for technology transfer
participate in CERN tenders, giving to Bulgarian enterprises international visibility (return coefficient for industry supply for is 1.14)

9. And more…
Young scientists and specialists receive the highest quality training in the world.
Educational programs for teachers in physics and technical disciplines (over teachers).
Significant increase in the quality of students’ education by involving them in the scientific research at CERN.
Over 2500 Bulgarian pupils have visited CERN, thus increasing their interest in science and technology. In 2017 CERN started a pilot two-week training program for pupils - 24 Bulgarian pupils will participate in 2017.
Bulgaria’s membership at CERN allows us to receive support for a wide range of scientific and applied activities.

10. Bulgaria at CERN 2016 statistics CERN staff – 13 Young specialists – 7
Supported by CERN – 2
Students – 4
Summer students – 2
Users (working on projects) – 86
Bulgaria has also intensive collaboration with various academic institutions, incl.:
International centers – Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna, ICTP and SISSA (Trieste, Italy)
National centers in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, UK, USA, Israel, Belgium, …

11. Summarising:
Active participation of Bulgarian scientists in CERN program with recognized and visible contribution.
Bulgarian industry successfully participates in CERN tenders – BG is among well balanced countries.
Very active participation in the educational programs
Still, problems with the regular funding which create difficulties in the efficient involvement of BG scientists in the CERN program
Therefore, a National program for collaboration with CERN was developed
This program is currently published for public consultation

12. National program for collaboration with CERN
Goals:
Setting up a research plan supported by the scientific community;
Ensuring the participation of all interested research institutions in the CERN program;
Attracting more young people to the field by modernizing the university training;
Increasing the qualification of the school teachers;
Creating conditions for transfer of CERN technologies developed to Bulgarian companies;
Creating the conditions for successful participation of Bulgarian companies in CERN projects;
Facilitating access of Bulgarian researchers, engineers and other staff to jobs at CERN.

13. New perspectives: Medicine and ICT Sciences
New detectors for image diagnostics, e.g. for positron emission tomography;
A project for building a hadron therapy center in Bulgaria is developed (most modern method for treating cancer);
Computer simulations of biological molecules (development of new drugs).
GRID infrastructure for high-performance computing with centers in Sofia University and the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT), BAS, based on CERN’s experience.
Computer clusters for high-performance parallel computing are developed with the help of CERN.

14. Thank you for your attention!