NATO reaches out to scientists and experts in Bulgaria

“The NATO SPS Programme provides a platform for scientific and governmental organisations to address emerging complex threats by bringing together all available expertise,” said Vice-President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Prof. Yordan Bozhilov at the SPS Information Day. Enhancing defence against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) agents as well as cyber defence have recently been among of the focal areas for Bulgaria under the SPS Programme, with many activities having a regional impact.

In March 2015, an SPS-funded workshop to encourage cyber defence awareness in the Balkans took place in Skopje and brought together leading experts on information security and cyber defence from the region as well as from the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Co-led by Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia¹, the event provided a forum to review common cyber threats in the Balkans, to exchange views on the creation and development of cyber defence strategies, and to discuss cyber defence in the context of hybrid warfare.

One month later, Bulgaria and Moldova organised a training course to improve regional cooperation in managing CBRN incidents. Supported by the SPS Programme, the course allowed participants to develop a common understanding of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and CBRN threats from a political, military and disaster response perspective. Emergency response personnel from Bulgaria and Moldova, as well as experts from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine were among the trainees. The NATO Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence provided useful expertise to the workshop.

Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Bulgaria Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, Minister of Education and Science of Bulgaria Prof. Todor Tanev, NATO Senior SPS and Partnership Cooperation Advisor Dr Deniz Beten, Director for NATO and Regional Security of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Petio Petev, and Yordan Bozhilov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences spoke at the opening session of the NATO SPS Information Day at Sofia University.

At the SPS Information Day at the University of Sofia in September, one of the course directors presented the results of this training to fellow scientists and experts, reporting also about his experience of working with the SPS Programme.

The Information Day also benefitted greatly from the high-level participation of representatives from Serbia and Montenegro who presented their priority areas for security-related scientific cooperation and used the opportunities to exchange ideas for potential new SPS activities with their Bulgarian colleagues. As the Bulgarian Minister for Education and Science, Prof. Todor Tanev, underlined in his opening keynote address:  “Security does not only mean defence. NATO provides the framework for building networks between scientists both in Bulgaria and partner nations.”

More than 120 interested participants attended the SPS Information Day.

While in Bulgaria, SPS staff also visited the Bulgarian Defence Advanced Research Institute, the main scientific institution of the Ministry of Defence that undertakes applied research and testing, and provides scientific and military technical advice. It was discussed how the SPS Programme could play a complimentary role to intensify practical cooperation with Bulgaria, in particular in the areas of energy security, cyber defence, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. SPS staff also had the opportunity to attend demonstrations in different laboratories of the Institute.