COU

UNTRY REPO
R ORT

Soc
cial Scien
S nces and
Huma
anitie
es in
Bulg
garia

201
12 Re
eport

E
European Commission
C
n
D
DG-Researcch

The Socia
al Sciences
s and Hum
manities are
e influential for all Mem
mber State
es
and for the
t
European Commi ssion. Thousands of researcherrs carry ou
ut
research in a vast arrray of them
mes of natio
onal and international iinterest. The
do so ta
aking into account their organizational structures, frameworrk
conditionss, as well as culturall preference
es and political prioriities in their
countries..
METRIS is an inittiative of tthe Directo
orate-Generral for Reesearch and
Innovation
n (DG RTD) which aim
ms to becom
me an entry and referennce point fo
or
the social sciences and
a humani ties landsca
apes in Eurrope. Comm
missioned by
b
the ERA Directorate
e of DG RT
TD and perrformed via
a the Metriss-Network, it
pursues the
t
collectiion, regula r updating,, and analy
ysis of infoormation on
social scie
ences and humanities
h
at national and Europe
ean level.
METRIS products
p
All products are bro
ought togetther under the website www.mettrisnet.eu. It
provides METRIS co
ountry proffiles for all EU-27 cou
untries pluss another 15
European
n and non-E
European ccountries, most
m
of them
m Associateed countrie
es
to the Eu
uropean Un
nions Rese
earch Fram
mework Pro
ogramme. T
The websitte
provides access
a
to the
t following
g services and publica
ations, as thhey become
available:

ed country p
profiles of SSH systems
s in 42 counntries;
Regularly update

a new
ws service;

annua
al monitoring
g reports fo
or all countriies covered
d;

synthe
esis reports
s bringing to
ogether key points;

links to relevant reports

r
and websites

ument has been

b
preparred within th
he framewo
ork of an ini tiative of the
This docu
European
n Commiss
sions Rese
earch and Innovation Directoraate-Genera
al,
addressin
ng the ER
RAWATCH Network asbl. The METRIS network is
i
managed by Techno
opolis Consu
ulting Group, the proje
ect managerr is Dr. Viola
Peter (vio
ola.peter@te
echnopolis--group.com)).
The present report was prepa
ared by pre
epared by Dr. Todor Galev witth
contributio
on form Ste
efan Karabo
oev, ARC Fund
F
(todorr_galev@onnline.bg and
stefan.karraboev@on
nline.bg). T
The contents and vie
ews expresssed in thiis
report do not necessarily reflecct the opinions of the Member S
States or the
European
n Commissio
on.
The reporrt covers the
e period fro
om Septemb
ber 2011 to December 2012.
Copyrightt of the doc
cument bellongs to the European
n Commisssion. Neithe
er
the Europ
pean Comm
mission, nor any person
n acting on its behalf, m
may be held
responsib
ble for the use
u to which
h informatio
on contained
d in this doccument ma
ay
be put, or
o for any errors
e
which
h, despite careful
c
preparation annd checking
g,
may appe
ear.

1
1. Country Overview
1.1 Overvview of SSH
H System

1
1

1.1.1 Overview
O
of the structurre

1.1.2 Recent
R
chan
nges in the ssystem

1.2 Policyy challenges

s and devellopments

1.2.1 Main
M
societa
al challenge s translated
d into SSH research
r

1.2.2 New
N
SSH po
olicy develo pments

2
2. Policy Se
etting Systtem
2.1 Goverrnment policy making a
and coordin
nation

12
2
12
2

2.1.1 Policy
P
formulation and ccoordination
n

12
2

2.1.2 SSH
S
policy advice
a

12
2

2.1.3 Main
M
implem
menting bod ies

13
3

2.2 Impaccting factors

s

15
5

2.2.1 Policy
P
fields influencing SSH policies

15
5

2.2.2 In
nfluence of European a
and internattional developments

16
6

2.2.3 Relevance
R
of European
n and interna
ational SSH
H research

18
8

2.2.4 Im
mpact of eva
aluations

19
9

2.2.4
4.1 Project evaluation
e

20
0

2.2.4
4.2 Program
mme evaluattion

21
1

2.2.4
4.3 Institutional evaluattion

21
1

2.3 Imporrtant policy documents

24
4

2.4 Them
matic prioritie
es at nation al level

26
6

2.5 Imporrtant research program

mmes

27
7

2.6 SSH research

r
inffrastructure
es

29
9

2.6.1 National
N
infra
astructures

29
9

2.6.2 In
nternational infrastructu
ures

30
0

3
3. Funding System

31
1

3.1 Overvview of fund

ding flows

31
1

3.2 Nation
nal public SSH
S
researcch funding

32
2

3.2.1 Overview
O
of funding imp
portance

32
2

3.2.2 In
nstitutional funding
f

33
3

3.2.3 In
ndividual fun
nding

35
5

3.2.4 Programme
P
Funding

36
6

3.3 Privatte research funding

37
7

3.4 Fou
undations/ not-for-profit
n
t funding

37

3.5 Eurropean and internationa

al funding

38

4. Perform
ming Syste
em

41

4.1 Ove
erview of the
e performerrs

41

4.2 Higher Educatiion Institutio

ons

42

ducation pe
erformers
4.2.1 HEIs as ed

42

esearch perfformers
4.2.2 HEIs as re

44

blic Researc
ch Organisa
ations
4.3 Pub

45

4.4 Privvate researc

ch performe
ers

47

4.5 Ressearch perfo

ormance

47

4.5.1 Scientific publications

p
s

47

4.5.2 Interdisciplinarity

49

nal Coopera
ation
4.5.3 Internation

54

nces
Referen

56

1
1. Countryy Overview
w
1
1.1 Overvie
ew of SSH System
1
1.1.1 Overvview of the structure
s
T
The Bulgarrian research system
m depends
s primarily on publicc funding,
d
distributed only at the nation
nal level. The syste
em has uundergone
cconsiderable changes since the country started its transition to a market
e
economy in
n 1989 and
d in preparration for th
he countrys accessio n into the
E
European Union.
U
R&D
D funding ha
as declined
d quickly in terms of itss share of
G
GDP from an
a average of 3% thro
oughout the
e 1980s, and at the beeginning of
1
1990s,1 to 0,57%
0
in 2011. The p
public R&D sector has
s experiencced similar
d
downsizing.. Throughout the 1980
0s there ha
as been a steady grow
wth in the
n
number of R&D
R
person
nnel, at an average an
nnual rate of
o 2.8%.2 Inn the early
1
1990s the number off researche
ers decreas
sed and th
hroughout tthe 1990s
sstayed at the same le
evel before
e dropping even furthe
er at the eend of the
3
d
decade. It was not until the e
early 2000s
s that the negative ttrend was
rreversed, and the num
mber of R& D scientists
s started ris
sing again. However,
e
even in 2011 there are fewer scien
ntists than there
t
were in 1980.4
T
The overall decline of the Bulgarrian researc
ch system has been a result of
b
both objectiive econom
mic factors, ssuch as the
e economic
c downturn dduring the
ttransition recession, the sharp decrease in government reve nues, the
ffinancial crissis of 1996
1997, the ffledgling private sectorr, etc., and tthe lack of
a coherent national re
esearch strrategy to underpin res
search, devvelopment
a
and innovattion policy. It was not until 2005 that the go
overnment aadopted a
ccomprehenssive nationa
al research policy document: the National Sttrategy for
S
Scientific Research
R
for
f
the Pe
eriod 2005
5-20135. Th
his and suubsequent
vversions of the nationa
al R&D stra
ategy from the years 2008
2
and 22009 have
n
not been ratified
r
by the Bulgarrian Parliam
ment as th
he Law on Scientific
6
R
Research Promotion
P
requires.
r
Th
heir impact on actual policy-makinng remains
u
uncertain. In addition, a Nationall Strategy of
o Scientific
c Researchh to 20207
w
was officially adopted
d in 2011.. The stra
ategic goals
s embeddeed in the
d
document are
a largely in
n line with tthe Europe 2020 prioritties, while aalso aspire
tto enhance the R&D an
nd innovatio
on potentiall and capac
city of Bulgaaria.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Source: Statisttical Yearbook 1990.

1
National S
Statistical Institu
ute.
Ibid.
Source: Statisttical Yearbook 2000.
2
National S
Statistical Institu
ute.
th

Source: Nation
nal Statistical Institute, http://ww
ww.nsi.bg/ORPDOCS/NIRD_2.1_1.xls, retrieveed on July 5 ,
2011.
Source: strateg
gy.bg, http://ww
ww.strategy.bg/S
StrategicDocum
ments/View.aspx
x?lang=bg-BG&IId=394
th
Retrieved on January
J
18 , 20
013.
The most curre
ent version of th
he law is availab
ble in Bulgarian language at
http://lex.bg/law
ws/ldoc/213547
72978. Accesse
ed on July 17th, 2011.
National Strate
egy of Scientific
c Research to 20
020, Accessed 16 January 2013.

In 2010 th
he Bulgaria
an governm ent adopted an ambitiious nationaal R&D goa
al
in the fram
mework of Europe
E
202
20 strategy: to reach a level of R&
&D spending
of 1.5% of
o GDP by 2020.
2
Achie
eving this goal
g
seems daunting aat present as
a
the links between the predomin
nantly publicly financed
d R&D systtem and the
private se
ector are we
eak, or at be
est informal. Correspon
ndingly, pubblic researc
ch
and innovvation finan
ncing are ba
ased on an
nnual budge
et cycles w
with no multtiannual frramework. This ham
mpers long-term prog
gramme plaanning and
reduces private
p
secto
or commitm
ment.
The majo
or RTDI policy making bodies are
e the Ministtry of Educa
cation, Youtth
and Scien
nce, which defines an
nd impleme
ents nationa
al researchh policy, and
the Ministtry of Economy, Energ
gy and Tou
urism, which
h is responnsible for the
national in
nnovation policy.
p
Bulgaria has
h not yett developed
d a regional dimension
n to its reseearch policy
y.
el 2) were legally cons
Regions in
i Bulgaria (NUTS leve
stituted in ttheir presen
nt
state onlly in 2005
5 and stilll lack organisational structuress for polic
cy
formulatio
on and impllementation
n. Although by 2008 all six Bulgaarian region
ns
had developed Regional Innova
ation Strate
egies (RIS), no mechannisms at the
national le
evel supporrt their imple
ementation..
This has resulted
r
in the
t even th inner sprea
ading of pub
blic R&D buddgets and in
changes in the distrribution of R&D expen
nditures. During the pperiod 2000
02011, the share of current costss out of the
e total R&D expenses, incl. wages
s,
has incre
eased more
e than three
e times in absolute te
erms, definiing also the
general trrend in the R&D expe nditures, while
w
the share of capittal spending
increased
d temporally
y from abou
ut 6% in the
e beginning of the peri od to 12,8%
%
in 2008 with
w followin
ng drop in th
he last thre
ee years, reaching the lowest leve
el
of 3,8% in 2011.8 Although
A
the
e real GDP
P marking an
a average increase of
o
10% on an
a annual basis
b
for the
e 2001-2011 period, which
w
led to an increase
in govern
nment R&D
D expenditu
ures in abs
solute terms
s, it has reesulted in a
decline off public R&D
D expenditu
ures as a sh
hare of GDP from 0.300% to 0.22%
%
for the same ten-yea
ar period.
R
financi ng structurre in most EU Membeer States, in
In contrasst to the R&D
Bulgaria the
t bulk of R&D fundi ng in 2009 was provid
ded by the governmen
nt
sector (60
0%), despite
e the growiing share of
o the private sector finnancing from
m
24,4% in 2000 to 30,,2% in 2009
9. Howeverr, an entirely
y different ssituation wa
as
observed in 2011. Governme nt funding plummeted
d to a shaare of 39%
%
(mainly due to signifficant budg et cuts in the
t
budget subsidies oof the publiic
research bodies, and
d primarily of the Bulg
garian Acad
demy of Sciiences). The
same tren
nd was obs
served for th
he private sector
s
funding, which aamounted to
t
about 25%
% in the be
eginning of the period, reached 30%
3
in 20006-2009 and
then drop
pped to 16,9
9 %of the to
otal R&D ex
xpenditures
s in 2011 m
mainly due to
t
the unfavvourable ec
conomic en
nvironment. At the same time, i n last three
years, Bulgaria obse
erved a sign
nificant incre
ease of R&D funding ffrom abroad
d.
Compared
d to 2009, when it wa
as about 5%
%, in 2011 it reached 44% of the
total R&D
D expenditu
ures. It sho uld be note
ed, howeve
er, that thiss increase is
i
almost exxclusively attributed
a
to
o funding through the so called Operationa
al
8

Source: National Statistical Institute, http:///www.nsi.bg/OR

RPDOCS/NIRD_1.1_en.xls, rettrieved on
t
th
February 8 , 2013

P
Programme
es (OPs) which
w
actuall payments
s increased significanttly for this
p
period.
T
Total R&D expenditurres by sourrce of fund
ds (thousan
nds EUR)
201
1

37174
4

851
136

96484

201
0

35920
0

93045

85353

200
9

558
803
0

50000

Businessent.

111639
100000

Gov.
G

HEI

154
474
150000

200000
2

Nonprofitinst.

250000

Abro
oad

S
Source: Nattional Statis
stical Institu te, 2013
G
Governmen
nt financed public R&
&D institute
es, most no
otably the Bulgarian
A
Academy off Sciences (BAS), are the major performers of R&D, foollowed by
p
public unive
ersities. How
wever, the evaluation of the Bulg
garian particcipation in
tthe FP7 sh
hows that the private
e business and NGOs
s are forerrunners in
a
absorbing EU
E funds in terms of nu
umber of pro
ojects and total
t
fundingg received
a
and per cap
pita.
T
The key funding struc
cture regard
rding the sttate budget is dividedd into two
p
parts: the budget
b
subs
sidies for th
he BAS, an
nd for each state univeersity, and
p
project fund
ding provide
ed through
h the Nation
nal Science
e Fund (NS
SF) at the
M
Ministry of Education, Youth and
d Science (MEYS), and
a
in mucch smaller
sscale thro
ough the National
N
Inn
novation Fu
und (NIF), administereed by the
EPA), part
B
Bulgarian Small
S
and Medium
M
Ente
erprises Pro
omotion Age
ency (BSME
o
of the Minisstry of Econ
nomy, Energ
gy and Tou
urism (MEET). The sixxth funding
ssession of NIF
N was launched in 2
2012, proviiding suppo
ort for projeects with a
ttotal value of
o EUR 2.6 billion.9 Afte
er Bulgarias accession
n into the E U in 2007,
tthe Operattional prog
grammes - most notably OP
P Human Resource
D
Development (OPHRD
D) and OP
P Administrrative Capa
acity (OPAC
C) - have
p
provided su
ubstantial R&D
R
fundin
ng on a pro
oject basis for both ppublic and
p
private rese
earch perforrmers. Tota
al available funds from the two proogrammes
in the current programming period
d 2007-2014 amount to EUR 1.4 billion. By
JJanuary 201
13, 31.5% of
o the total ffunds have been paid to
t the benef
eficiaries of
O
OPHRD and 37.5% to
o those, aw arded proje
ects under OPAC. In aaddition to
of the two
tthe grant contribution
c
o OPs, which are exc
clusively inn the SSH
9

Sixth funding session

s
of the National
N
Innovattion Fund, launc
ched on October 1 2012 (in Bullgarian).
Accessed on 15
1 January 2013
3.

domain, OP
O Develop
pment of the
e Competitiiveness of the
t Bulgariaan Econom
my
(OPDCBE
E) and OP Regional Developme
ent (OPRD)) also partiially support
SSH-relatted projects
s, within se
everal of the
eir indicative operationns. Evidenc
ce
of such support is OPDCB E Procedu
ure Suppo
ort for ressearch and
developm
ment in Bulg
garian ente rprises (wiith contracted funds aamounting to
t
nearly EU
UR 18 million as of JJanuary 201
13), which has signedd 78 projec
ct
10
contracts,, some of which
w
are in the SSH arrea.
The SSH research system
s
follo
ows the pattterns of the
e R&D systeem. The ke
ey
performerrs are the
e respectivve research
h institutes
s at the B
BAS, whic
ch
underwen
nt serious structural ch
hanges in 2009-2010, and
a the uniiversities, as
a
well as no
ot-for-profit organisatio
ons. There is
i not a sep
parate fundiing structurre
for SSH and the only funding
g institution
n with partiicular SSH topics and
programm
mes is the National
N
Sccience Fund
d. So far, no regional sstrategies in
regard to SSH have been develo
oped.
wing flowcha
art providess an outline of SSH pollicy making bodies:
The follow

On a polittical level, the highest policymakin

ng body is the
t Nationaal Parliamen
nt
through its Standing Committee
e on Educattion, Science, Youth annd Sports. In
practice, however, most
m
policy related inittiatives com
me from thee Ministry of
o
Education
n, Youth and
a
Science
e, which designs
d
and carries oout nationa
al
research policy. The
e Ministry o
of Economy
y, Energy and
a
Tourism
m co-share
es
some ressponsibilities for desig
gning and implementting the naational R&D
D
policy, wh
hile the Cou
uncil of Min
nisters endo
orses the most
m
importaant strategiic
documentts and draftt legislation
n. No partic
cular structu
ure or instituution on thiis
level is focused exclu
usively on S
SSH.
perational le
evel it is the
e National Council forr Scientific R
Research at
a
On an op
the Ministtry of Educa
ation, Youth
h and Science that oversees the fuunctioning of
o
the main public res
search fund
ding instrum
ment with respect to SSH the
National Science Fu
und (descriibed in gre
eater detail in section 2.1.3 Main
10

th

Source: EU
U Funds Single Information We
eb Portal, acces
ssed on January
y 18 , 2013.

implementin
ng bodies).. The effe
ectiveness and functio
ons of thee Council,
h
however, arre very limitted in practtise. The pro
ovisions of the Law onn Scientific
11
, assigning
R
Research Promotion
P
g monitoring
g functions to the Coouncil with
rrespect to th
he activities
s of the NSF
F, remain only on pape
er, as the C
Council has
cconvened on
o only few occasions.
o
T
The Nationa
al Centre for
f Informattion and Do
ocumentatio
on is respoonsible for
p
providing su
upporting in
nformation o
on research
h to the min
nistry. In adddition, the
M
Ministry of Economy,
E
Energy
E
and Tourism defines natio
onal innovaation policy
a
and provide
es funding to
t private e nterprises for
f applied research thhrough the
N
National Inn
novation Fu
und. The B
Bulgarian SMEs
S
Prom
motion Agenncy at the
m
ministry manages the NIF.
N
O
On a rese
earch perfo
ormance le
evel, the biggest
b
rese
earch perfo
formers in
B
Bulgaria incclude the Bulgarian
B
A
Academy of
o Sciences
s and its aassociated
institutes, and
a the Bullgarian univversities, th
hough more and morre applied
rresearch is carried ou
ut in smalle
er private sector
s
orga
anisations aand thinkttanks.
T
The Bulgarian Academ
my of Sciencces has the
e position off a national centre for
sscientific research. The academyy is acknow
wledged as a partner iin national
a
and interna
ational pro
ogrammes and proje
ects by European aand other
internationa
al organizattions. The expertise of the Ac
cademy is used by
g
governmenttal institutions and privvate compan
nies.
B
BAS condu
ucts both basic and a
applied rese
earch. Until the mid-11990s, the
The share
p
proportion between
b
basic and app
plied researrch was 60%
% to 40%. T
o
of applied research (defined
(
acccording to the Frasc
catti Manuaal criteria)
g
gradually in
ncreased over time, a
and today it amounts to 70%. T
The social
ssciences insstitutes of the
t Academ
my are pred
dominantly engaged inn research
rrelated to th
he social an
nd economi c changes which occu
urred in the country in
tthe context of its EU membersh
hip, the tran
nsition to market
m
econnomy, the
d
developmen
nt of Bulgarrian econom
my and its competitiven
c
ness in the integrated
E
European market.
m
R
Recently, the BAS is
s structured
d into 9 subdivisions
s
s, each reeflecting a
sscientific are
ea and enc
compassing
g one or mo
ore research
h units in a particular
ffield. SSH research
r
is carried ou t within two
o of the subdivisions: i) Cultural
a
and Historicc Heritage and Nation
nal Identity,, and ii) Ma
an and So ciety. The
fformer com
mprises the Institute
e for Bulg
garian Lang
guage, Insstitute for
L
Literature, Institute for Balkan Stu
udies with a Centre on Thracologyy, Institute
ffor History Studies, In
nstitute for Ethnology and Folklore, Institu te for the
S
Study of the Arts, the
e National A
Archaeological institute, and the Cyril and
M
Methodius Science
S
Centre. Within
n the Man and
a Society subdivisionn there are
ffour units Institute fo
or Economi c Research
h, Institute on the Statte and the
L
Law, Institute for the Study
S
of Pop
pulation and Man, Insttitute for thee Study of
S
Societies an
nd Knowled
dge.
T
There are 51
5 fully accredited univversities in Bulgaria12, thus more than 70%
o
of them are
e concentrated in the tthree larges
st cities. Ou
ut of the 511, 30 have
1
11
1
12

Law on Scien
ntific Research Promotion
P
(in B
Bulgarian). Acce
essed 16 January 2013.
th

Source: http:///www.neaa.gov
vernment.bg/bg//institutions/high
h_schools, acce
essed on Februaary 8 , 2013.

accredited
d programm
mes in an S
SSH field, the
t
majority
y of them inn the capita
al
Sofia.
Private en
nterprises and
a
non-pro
ofit organiz
zations have been quiickly gaining
prominence over th
he past ye ars though
h this is not always reflected in
national R&D
R
statistics. As alrea
ady mention
ned, the share of privaate spending
on scientific researc
ch had stea
adily grown since 2000 (from 244% to a little
over 30% in 2009), until
u
its sharrp decrease
e in 2011, mainly
m
due to the impac
ct
of the glob
bal financia
al and econo
omic crisis

es in the sysstem
1.1.2 Reccent change

Natio
onal Strategy of Scientiffic Researc
ch to 2020 adopted
a
in 22011

Natio
onal Reform Programm
me (2011 2015)
2
was approved
a
inn 2011

Restrructuring off the existin

ng OPs an
nd establish
hing of a nnew one on
Sciencce and Edu
ucation as p
part of the planning off the next pprogramming
period
d 2014-2020
0

Improved monito
oring of th
he impleme
entation of the Natioonal Reform
m
Progra
amme (2011-2015)

y challenge
es and devvelopments
s
1.2 Policy
1.2.1 Main
n societal challenges
c
tr
translated in
nto SSH res
search
It is impo
ortant to no
ote at the o
outset that there is no
o national ppolicy that is
i
focused exclusively
e
on SSH ressearch in Bulgaria.
B
Ne
evertheless , even if no
ot
specificallly addressed, strateg
gic docume
ents note SSH challlenges and
prioritize specific
s
are
eas for interv
rvention. Th
he National Strategy o
of Scientific
Research
h to 2020133 puts speccific priority
y on linking science a nd researc
ch
advancess more close
ely to socie
etal challeng
ges. It also foresees m
measures fo
or
making science and
d research and its res
sults more understanddable to the
society. Apart
A
from considerin
ng the Europe 2020 targets, thhe Strateg
gy
ork, largely based on programme
provides the
t necessa
ary framewo
p
e funding, fo
or
the existin
ng universities, researrch organiz
zations and all other aactors of the
national research
r
co
ommunity to
o further sh
hape and develop theiir vision and
ideas for the future of R&D an
nd innovatio
on in Bulga
aria. The S
Strategy also
focuses on
o the ne
eed for po licy improv
vements, modernizatio
m
on and the
transition towards a knowledge

e economy..
Adopted in 2010, Bulgarian
B
Framework Position
n on settin
ng nationa
al
14
targets in line with
h Europe 2020 initia
ative , highlight seveeral aspects
s.
These incclude increa
asing the e
expenditure on researc
ch and devvelopment to
t
1.5% of GDP
G
in 202
20; achievin
ng the targe
et for 76% employmen
e
nt rate of the
population
n aged 20
64; improviing the indic
cators in ed
ducation witth respect to
t
13
14

National Sttrategy of Scientific Research to

o 2020. Access
sed 16 January 2013.
Bulgarian Framework
F
Position on setting national targets
s in line with Eurrope 2020 strateegy (in
Bulgarian). Accessed 16 Ja
anuary 2013.

d
decreasing the share of early-scchool leave
ers to 11%
% and increeasing the
sshare of the
e people ag
ged 3034 w
with higher education to
t 36% by 22020. The
g
governmentt however has imple mented on
nly some specific
s
meeasures to
a
achieve the
ese targets,, and no d istinction has
h
been made
m
as to how they
a
apply to SS
SH. Bulgarria's Frame
ework Posittion also plans
p
to adddress the
p
problem of poverty, th
hough the ccountry is yet
y to set a specific ttarget with
rregard to the issue.
S
Similar to th
he SSH prio
orities of the
e Bulgarian Framework
k Position aabove, and
a
also with Europe
E
202
20 targets b
being the referencing
r
point, thee National
15
R
Reform Pro
ogramme (2011
(
201
15) , appro
oved by the
e Council off Ministers
in April 2011, elaborated detailed Action Pla
an16 with specific meassures. The
m
measures, set
s on SSH
H priorities, ccoincide witth the otherr documentts (e.g. the
B
Bulgarian Framework
F
Position
P
on setting nattional targetts in line wiith Europe
2
2020 strate
egy, describ
bed above),, but failed to structurrally addresss through
sspecific action. These measures
m
a
aim at:

Ensuring
g better an
nd more effficient utilis
sation of th
he economyys labour
potentia
al (e.g. reducing the un
nemployment among young
y
peopple through
training)).

Improvin
ng the quality and effficiency of education and
a
trainingg systems
(e.g. new
w structure of educatio
on; develop
ping a netwo
ork of careeer centres;
student scholarship
ps for equal access to education).
e

National target of reaching

r
76
6% employm
ment of the populationn aged 2064 by year
y
2020 (integrated
(
promotion of investments and ccreating of
new jobs in all bran
nches as prriority projec
cts and in municipalitie
m
es in which
unemplo
oyment is higher
h
than the average, with the help of a ppackage of
measure
es).

National target of investing in

n R&D in th
he amount of 1.5% off the GDP
(promotion of inves
stments cre
eating new jobs in the sectors off high-tech
manufaccturing an
nd knowle
edge-based
d services
s, developpment of
technolo
ogical parks
s, education
n and trainin
ng in high-te
ech sectorss and other
non-fina
ancial measures).

National target of 11% share o

of the early school leav
vers and a 336% share
of the people
p
aged 30-34 wiith higher education
e
by
b 2020 (ssupport for
ensuring
g an approp
priate and p
profitable inffrastructure
e for higher schools in
urban ag
gglomeratio
ons).

National target of reducing the

e number of people living in poveerty by 260
thousan
nd (impact assessme nt of polic
cies and le
egislation rrelated to
physicall support for vulnerable
e groups).177

T
The measures above are finance
ed through European and
a nationaal funding.
W
With that in mind, the EU Ope
erational Prrogrammes are instruumental in
ssupporting Social
S
Scien
nces and H umanities in Bulgaria and
a this woould further
15

National Reform Programme (2011 2015) (in Bulgarian). Accessed

A
16 Ja
anuary 2013.

1
16

Annex: Action
n Plan with the measures,
m
inclu
uded in the National Reform Pro
ogramme of thee Republic of
Bulgaria (2011
1 2015). Accessed 17 Januarry 2013.

17
1

Ibid.

developed
d in the upcoming
g 2014-202
20 programming peeriod. Morre
specificallly, the currrent OP D
Developmen
nt of the Competitive
C
eness of the
Bulgarian Economy would be replaced with
w
the OP Sciencee, Innovation
and Com
mpetitivenes
ss, in ord
der to inc
crease its focus on R&D and
technolog
gical innova
ation actionss. In additio
on, an entirrely new OP
P, dedicated
to science
e and educa
ation for sm
mart growth will be intro
oduced.18
Human capital
c
deve
elopment tto ensure higher emp
ployment, iincome and
social inte
egration. Th
his is the m
mid-term goa
al, related to
o SSH, of tthe Nationa
al
Strategic
c Reference Framewo
ork 2007-2
201319. The
e documentt envisioned
that fulfilling this ob
bjective wou
uld require
e improving the quality
ty of human
capital, with
w
focus on
o employm
ment, as well
w as foste
ering entreppreneurship
p,
favorable business environmen
e
nt and good governan
nce. Howevver, there is
i
little evidence on th
he state off the actua
al practical implementaation of the
Framework.
Improving
g the acces
ss and quallity of educ
cation and training,
t
ass well as the
quality off the Bulga
arian labor force, tog
gether with reducing ppoverty and
promoting
g social in
nclusion are
e the gran
nd challeng
ges, identiffied by the
National Developme
ent Progra
amme: Bulg
garia 202020.
have been
t
fact th
hat variouss national strategic documents
d
Despite the
adopted, many of which taking into accou
unt the impo
ortance of S
SSH, and in
spite of th
heir prioritie
es in line w
with EU obligations, th
he levels off impact and
practical implementa
ation remai n very low
w, especially
y in the coontext of the
economicc struggles from
f
the passt several years.
y
1.2.2 New
w SSH polic
cy developm
ments
Despite the
t
significa
ant challen
nges and the
t
adoptio
on of varioous strategiic
documentts, data from
m the Natio
onal Statistic
cal Institute (NSI) pointts to the fac
ct
that the Bulgarian governme
ent cut its
s R&D spe
ending in 2011. The
governme
ent spent on
n scientific research and
a develop
pment a meere 0,22% of
o
the counttry's GDP (a
( total of EUR 85.1 million). In 2009, thiss share wa
as
0.35%.

egy of Sc
cientific Re
esearch to
o 2020 w
was officiallly
National Strate
adopte
ed in 2011.. The thema
atic prioritie
es of the Strategy conccern with (1
1)
Energ
gy, energy efficiency
e
a
and transpo
ort and deve
elopment oof green and
eco te
echnologies
s; (2) Biote
echnologies
s and ecological foodds; (3) New
w
materrials; (4) Cultural
C
an d historica
al heritage;; (5) Deveelopment of
o
fundamental rese
earch unde r programm
me and com
mpetitive prinnciple to the
amount of 15% of the pub lic expense
es on scien
nce. Specifiic measure
es
and instruments
s of the S
Strategy ad
ddress the SSH deveelopment in
Bulgaria. Such include the focus on enhancing the researrch potentia
al
throug
gh the prov
vision of atttractive co
onditions fo
or scientific career and
professsional gro
owth of s cientists; strengtheni
s
ng the linnk between
educa
ation and business;
b
a
and strengtthening the
e social dim
mensions of
o

18

Council of Ministers Decis

sion from 9 Janu
uary 2013 (in Bulgarian). Acces
ssed 17 January
ry 2013.
National Sttrategic Referen
nce Framework 2007-2013 (in Bulgarian).
B
Acce
essed 17 Januaary 2013.
20
National De
evelopment Pro
ogramme: Bulga
aria 2020. Acces
ssed 17 January 2013.
19

science. Monitoring
g indicatorss for state of impleme
entation annd level of
achievement are also provided
d.21

The 201
12-2020 Up
pdate22 of the Nation
nal Reform Programm
me (20112015) comments
c
and
a
builds upon the state of im
mplementatiion of the
measure
es, embedd
ded in its A
Action Plan. Most of me
easures, 2007 in total,
are envvisaged to be
b impleme
ented by 2015, as this coincidess with the
ework horiz
medium
m-term budg
getary frame
zon, as well as with tthe end of
the payyments und
der the currrent progra
amme perio
od. Since this is an
update of the 2011-2015 P rogramme, the prioritties, includding those
related to SSH in Bulgaria, rremain the same (see
e section 1 .2.1. Main
societal challenges
s). The nov elty of this document mainly hass to do the
amendm
ment and/orr supplemen
ntation of measures,
m
in
n order to aadequately
addresss the Council of the E
EU recomm
mendations of 12 Julyy 2011. In
addition, Council off Ministers (CoM) Dec
cision No 69
9223 as of 1 5.09.2011
improve
es the monitoring of Prrogramme implementa
i
ation by intrroducing a
commitm
ment for th
he reporting
g on imple
ementation risks and delays of
particula
ar measure
es, in a perriod of two weeks afte
er the quarrterly NRP
progresss report, adopted
a
byy the Coun
ncil of Ministers.24 Thhe stricter
regulatio
ons on repo
orting once
e again prov
ved the ove
erall probleem of slow
impleme
entation of strategic documents
s in Bulgaria. Neverttheless, a
report, presented
p
to
o a CoM me
eeting on 9 January 20
013, states that at the
1, 15% of th
end of th
he third qua
arter in 2011
he measure
es were impplemented,
while an
nother 69 were
w
in pro
ocess of im
mplementatio
on. The exppectations
are that 19% of pla
anned 30% will be sec
cured at the end of 20112 (data is
still not available). It is proje
ected that share
s
of delayed meaasures by
March 2013
2
will be around 9%
%.25

In Octob
ber 2012, th
he Bulgarian
n Ministry of
o Education
n, Youth annd Science
publishe
ed a concep
pt for a new
w OP, to be titled Scie
ence and E
Education
for Sma
art Growth 2014-2020
0.26 This was
w confirmed by Meetting of the
CoM on
n 9 Januarry 201327. T
Though still not struc
cturally elabborated in
detail, th
he new OP
P has been
n long-awaitted, mainly
y because oof the fact
that Bulgaria is th
he only EU
U member state with no OP, sspecifically
dedicate
ed to research and ed ucation in the
t current programmi ng period.
The new
wly propose
ed OP featu
ures five priiority axes, some of whhich could
be stro
ongly relate
ed to SSH
H: scientific research
h and tecchnological
development; linka
ages betwe
een education, business and em
mployment;

2
21
2
22
2
23
2
24
2
25
2
26

National Strategy of Scientific Research to 2

2020 . Accessed
d 16 January 20
013.
National Refo
orm Programme
e. Accessed 22 January 2013.
CoM Decision
n No 692 as of 15.09.2011 (in B
Bulgarian). Accessed 22 Janua
ary 2013.
Ibid
Transcript Co
oM meeting on 09
0 January 201 3 (in Bulgarian)). Accessed 22 January.

Concept for OP
O Science and
d Education for Smart Growth 2014-2020
2
(in Bulgarian).
B
Acceessed 22
January 2013.

2
27

Transcript Co
oM meeting on 09
0 January 201 3 (in Bulgarian)). Accessed 22 January.
J

educa
ation as a social inclusion factor; liffe-long
improvvement of the educatio
onal infrastrructure.28

leaarning;

and

In 201
10 - 2012, the Nationa
al Science Fund launc
ched new ccall session
ns
for pro
oject-based
d funding wiith a total budget of ab
bout 75 Mln . Euro. Mos
st
of the
e calls addre
essed gene
erally all sc
cientific field
ds (e.g. Com
mpetition on
stimulating resea
arch in statte universities 2010, National
N
com
mpetition fo
or
fundin
ng of researrch projectss Young sc
cientists, National
N
com
mpetition fo
or
2011 for scien
ntific mono
ographs, thematic collections
c
of papers
s,
encycclopedias and
a
Bulga
arian academic perio
odical jourrnals, etc.).
However, the Co
ompetition o
on financing
g for basic and
a appliedd research in
priorityy areas for 2012 with total budge
et of 10,5 Mln.
M euro, adddressed siix
speciffic scientific
c fields with two of them
m being parrt of SSH annd namely
Cultu
ural and histtorical herita
age and R
Research applicable too pedagogy.
After the
t selectio
on of winne rs in the 20
012 calls, th
he scientificc communitty
started
d to protest against various violations of the proccedures and
acade
emic ethics
s and agai nst the su
uspicions fo
or corruptioon practice
es
during
g the selecttion processs. The main violations
s included awarding of
o
comm
mercial com
mpanies w
without any
y scientific
c expertisee or R&D
D
experience som
me of them
m created and registere
ed during thhe last day
ys
before
e the deadline of the ca
all, various cases of co
onflict of intterests when
top-levvel employe
ees of the F
Fund and th
he Ministry of
o educationn, youth and
sciencce, including the minisster, the He
ead of the Executive bboard of the
Fund, etc., have been involvved in decisions for aw
warding proojects run by
b
their close
c
fellows and co-au
uthors, viola
ations of the
e review annd evaluation
proced
dures durin
ng the sele
ection proc
cess, etc. After
A
monthhs of publiic
protessts of the sc
cientific com
mmunity, wh
hich gained internationnal support299,
the minister
m
was
s resigned and the wh
hole manag
gement of tthe Nationa
al
Sciencce Fund wa
as renewed .

Resea
arch infrastructures . The Min
nistry of Education,
E
Youth and
Sciencce elaboratted a Natio
onal Roadm
map for Re
esearch Infrrastructures
s,
adopte
ed by the Council
C
of M
Ministers in Septemberr 201030. Thhe Roadmap
prioritises the ag
gglomeratio
on of research infrastrructures an d resource
es
into se
even nation
nal research
h complexes and encourages inteer sector and
cross border colla
aboration.

arch Prom
motion. In October 2010 the Bulgarian Parliamen
nt
Resea
Promotion introducing
amend
ded the Law
L
on S
Scientific Research
R
indepe
endent asse
essments o
on public res
search fund
ds spendingg, and bette
er
accou
untability to society. Th e amendme
ents stream
mline the ressponsibilitie
es
of the
e National Science Fund for more effe
ective monnitoring and
evalua
ation of fund
ded projectss.

28

Bulgaria: Concept
C
for a ne
ew Operational Programme- S
Science and Edu
ucation for Smaart Growth 20142020. Acce
essed 22 Janua
ary 2013.

29

th

Bulgarian funding
f
agency
y accused of poo
or practice, Natu
ure vol. 472, Ap
pril 6 , 2011; F
Funding protest
hits Bulgarian research age
ency, Nature vo
ol. 491, issue 74
426, November 28, 2012

30

Source: htttp://www.mon.b
bg/opencms/exp
port/sites/mon/to
op_menu/scienc
ce/infrastructuree/nac-patnakarta-nauch
han-infrastrutura
a_rms692-2010
0.pdf. Retrieved on July 24th, 20
011.

10
0

Univers
sity Ratings
s. In Novem
mber 2010, the Ministry
y of Educattion, Youth
and Sccience laun
nched a ne
ew univers
sity rating system, w
which was
intended
d to serve as a tool ffor distributting public funding acccording to
universitties perform
mance. In 2
2012, up to
o 10% of th
he budget ssubsidy of
the univversities wa
as redistribu
uted accord
ding to the institutionaal rating of
the given university
y.

Revamp
ping Acade
emic Caree
er Development. The Bulgarian P
Parliament
passed a new Law
w on the D
Development of the Ac
cademic Staaff in May
2010.31 The main
n policy c hange intrroduced by
y the law was the
abolishm
ment of the Supreme A
Attestation Commission
C
n and its repplacement
with scie
entific juries
s hosted witthin the aca
ademic instiitutions. In eeffect, this
should decentralise
d
e academicc career pro
omotion and
d should leaad to more
young academics
a
advancing
a
on their ca
areers. Som
me texts forrm the law
were co
ontested att the Consstitutional Court
C
of Bulgaria, buut the law
entered into force in 2010 a
and some amendmen
nts were m
made to it,
accordin
ng to the Court
C
decisio
on. A total of 9 provis
sions of thee law were
declared
d unconstitu
utional by th
he Supreme
e Constitutio
onal Court.332

3
31
3
32

Law on the Development

D
of the
t Academic S
Staff (in Bulgaria
an). Accessed 23
2 January 20133.
Ibid.

11
1

2. Policyy Setting System

S
2.1 Gove
ernment po
olicy makin g and coorrdination
2.1.1 Poliicy formulattion and coo
ordination
The Minisstry of Educ
cation, You
uth and Scie
ence is the
e primary poolicy-making
and coord
dination body of Bulga
arian nation
nal policy in
n the field of research
h,
including social scien
nces and hu
umanities.333 Formally, Members oof Parliamen
nt
and the Parliamenta
P
ry Standing
g committee
e on Educattion, Sciencce, Children
n,
Youths an
nd Sports are
a entitled to formulatte and prom
mulgate law
ws and mak
ke
changes to the Nattional Strattegy for Sc
cientific Re
esearch34. H
However, in
practice, it is the Ministry
M
of E
Education, Youth and Science thhat initiates
s,
prepares and submitts for appro
oval to the Council of Ministers, w
which in turrn
presents to the Parliament, a
all major po
olicy docum
ments. Thee Council of
o
Ministers debates research po
olicy before
e submissio
on to Parliiament. The
Ministry of
o Educatio
on, Youth a
and Science
e usually consults
c
witth the othe
er
ministries about polic
cies before they reach the Council of Ministerrs.
e Ministry of
o Education
n, Youth an
nd Science the main poolicy-making
Within the
and coord
dination body is the N
National Co
ouncil for Sc
cientific Reesearch. It is
i
presided over
o
by the Minister an
nd comprise
es 19 memb
bers, repressentatives of
o
other ministries,
m
employers , scientistts and universitiess umbrella
organizatiions. The Council
C
app
proves all major
m
resea
arch policy documents
s,
including the Nation
nal Strateg
gy for Scie
entific Rese
earch, as w
well as the
priorities of the Nattional Scien
nce Fund. The impac
ct and influ ence of the
Council has, howeve
er, declined during the last government (20099-2013). The
body is no
ot actively functioning,
f
, as its oversight and mandate
m
too sanction all
a
strategic policy initia
atives in the
e field of re
esearch are
e only a foormality. The
Council`s role in the
e public sp
phere is very limited, which becaame eviden
nt
from its re
eluctance to
o engage in
n any real debate on to
opics such aas the publiic
protest off Bulgarian scientists against funding cuts and the sscandal witth
suspicions for corrup
ption and co
onflict of inte
erests in the
e NSF.
s up a Co
ouncil of Re
ectors in 1990. It is a non-profit
n
asssociation of
o
Bulgaria set
the rectorrs of univerrsities, whicch is independent from
m political, governmen
nt
and publicc institutions. The Cou ncil of Recttors has the
e objective tto participatte
in shaping
g national policy
p
in hig
gher educattion and res
search coopperation witth
the Minisstry of Educ
cation and Science, the
t
Nationa
al Assemblyy and othe
er
state and public institutions.
H policy adv
vice
2.1.2 SSH
There are
e a number of formal m
mechanisms
s whereby different
d
staakeholders in
research policy can gain
g
accesss to the policy formulation processs in Bulgaria
a.
Central among
articipation by employers andd scientists
a
the
em are pa
s
33
34

Law on the
e Promotion of Scientific
S
Resea
arch, art. 7(a) (in
n Bulgarian). Ac
ccessed 20 Jan uary 2013

Available in Bulgarian language at http://w

www.strategy.b
bg/FileHandler.a
ashx?fileId=16922. Retrieved on
th
011.
July 17 , 20

12
2

o
organisation
ns, as well as think-ta nks and NG
GOs, in the
e National C
Council for
S
Scientific Research at the MEYS and the National Cou
uncil on Innnovation at
and Tourism
tthe Ministryy of Econom
my, Energy a
m. There arre also otheer tripartite
((governmen
nt, industry
y and soccial partners) advisorry bodies informing
g
governmentts overall policy-makking, which function at the C
Council of
M
Ministers. Most
M
of thes
se consulta
ative bodies
s in the field
d of researcch are set
u
up in such a way as to
t ensure a decision making
m
majjority for goovernment
rrepresentatives, and they
t
do no
ot usually include rep
presentativees of civil
ssociety outsside specia
alised resea
arch related
d actors. The interestss of wider
ssociety are
e thus not given pa
arity with government
g
t and adm
ministrative
interests. Th
here are a number of public orga
anisations providing
p
noon-binding
input to rese
earch policy
y making, ssuch as the
e Union of Scientists
S
inn Bulgaria,
tthe Council of Rectors of Universitties in Bulgaria, industry associatiions, etc.
also take part in policy advice: preparing
B
BAS and th
he largest universities
u
o
official and//or informa
al positionss on particular topics or importaant policy
d
documents (e.g. Na
ational stra
ategy for scientific research, Law for
d
developmen
nt of academic staff, L
Law for scie
entific resea
arch promootion, etc.),
p
participating
g in the hearings a
and workin
ng meeting
gs of the Standing
ccommittee at
a the Parlia
ament, etc.
S
Several NG
GOs, most commonly referred to
o as think--tanks, havve a track
rrecord of conducting
c
n the fields
s of SSH, with the inntention to
research in
inform gove
ernment dec
cision makin
ng. In regarrds to research, there iss not a set
m
mechanism or rule tha
at either sup
pports or re
egulates res
search in thhis sector.
E
Even organ
nizations with the mosst relevant expertise
e
and researchh capacity
e
elaborate th
heir researrch agenda
as independently of government
g
t priorities
a
and, most frequently, based
b
on avvailable donor funding
g. Most of thhe notable
tthink tanks performing research in
n the SSH areas include the Cennter for the
S
Study of Democracy,
D
the Institu
ute for Ma
arket Econo
omy, the C
Centre for
E
Economic Developmen
D
nt, the Centtre for Liberal Strategie
es, ARC Funnd, Centre
ffor Advance
ed Study So
ofia, etc.
2
2.1.3 Main implementin
i
ng bodies
T
The Ministryy of Educattion, Youth and Science is respo
onsible for tthe overall
implementation of the Bulgarian re
esearch and developm
ment policy. The most
p
imple
ementation instrument,, providing the largesst financial
important policy
ccontribution for researc
ch in Bulgarria, is the National
N
Scie
ence Fund,, a funding
b
body at the
e Ministry, which
w
prom
motes the uptake
u
of science andd research
initiatives at
a the natio
onal, region
nal and inte
ernational level. The Executive
C
Council at the NSF, selected b
by the Min
nister of Ed
ducation, Y
Youth and
S
Science, co
onsists of nine memb
bers and includes representativves of the
sscientific co
ommunity, government
g
t and the business sec
ctor. Membbers of the
C
Council are mandated for 2 yearss, without th
he possibilitty of servingg for more
tthan two consecutive terms.35 A total of six
s standing
g expert coommittees
o
operate at the NSF
F, reflecting
g scientific
c priorities
s: mathemaatics and
informatics, natural sc
ciences, bio
ological and
d medical sciences,
s
aagricultural
ssciences, te
echnical sciences, and
d SSH. The
e Executive
e Council ddecides on
3
35

th

Source: Statu
ute of the Nation
nal Science Fun
nd. Retrieved on
n February 8 , 2013
2

13
3

the distrib
bution of funds
f
to su
ubmitted projects, after which tthe selected
projects and
a their pro
ovisions mu
ust be approved by the
e Minister oof Education
n,
Youth and
d Science in accordan
nce with the
e rules set out
o in Law oon Scientifiic
Research
h Promotion and the sta
atutes of the
e NSF.36
The key programm
me in which
h the NSF
F is curren
ntly involveed is called
Developm
ment of Sc
cientific Po
otential. It operates through thre
ree strategiic
priority modules:
m
im
mproving sscientific in
nfrastructure
e at univeersities and
research institutes; supporting young sc
cientists; an
nd upgradinng scientifiic
equipmen
nt at univers
sities, speci alised laborratories, and scientific institutes.
On an intternational level
l
NSF i s involved in programmes such aas Fulbright,
NATO Science, INTAS (Inte
ernational Association
A
n for the ppromotion of
o
cooperatio
on with scie
entists from
m the New Independent States oof the forme
er
Soviet Un
nion), COST
T (Europea n co-operattion in the sphere
s
of sscientific and
technolog
gical researrch), and S ixth and Se
eventh Fram
mework Pro
rogramme of
o
the EU fo
or scientific research, te
echnologica
al developm
ment and deemonstration
actions. The
T NSF also supportss a numberr of bilatera
al agreemennts, some of
o
which result in calls for
f joint projjects with other countries.
onal Evalua
ation and A
Accreditatio
on Agency (NEAA) iss a statutorry
The Natio
governme
ent body att the Coun
ncil of Ministers taske
ed with thee evaluation
n,
accreditattion and monitoring o f the qualitty of higher educationn institution
ns
and scien
ntific organiz
zations in o
order to enh
hance their teaching annd research
h,
as well ass their continuing deve
elopment as
s scientific, cultural, annd innovativ
ve
organizatiions. It perrforms instittutional acc
creditations, which covver facultie
es
and depa
artments the
erein separrately, prog
gramme acc
creditationss in terms of
o
curriculum
m complian
nce to pre
edefined sttandards, and post-aaccreditation
monitoring
g and conttrol of highe
er-educatio
on institution
ns. It furtheer evaluate
es
proposalss for the esttablishmentt of new hig
gher education instituttions and fo
or
the transfformation, e.g.
e mergerss, of existing
g ones.
The accre
editation pro
ocedures arre based on
n strict proto
ocols and a detailed lis
st
of criteria
a approved by the Age
ency. Institu
utional accrreditations are typicallly
valid for 6 years, and
a
upon expiration a new evaluation is performed
d.
Dependin
ng on the accreditation
a
n results, received
r
by
y each instiitution or itts
sub-division (e.g. fac
culty or dep
partment) the time forr the next aaccreditation
could be shorter e.g. 4 or 5 yyears ahead
d. Programm
me accredittation by the
NEAA dettermines wh
hether the rrespective unit
u is allow
wed to teachh bachelor or
o
master sttudents. Fu
urthermore, accreditation and pro
oject evaluaation resultts
are taken into accoun
nt when forrming the state policy to
oward HEIss.
n
con
ntact pointss (NCPs) are available
e to assist researcherrs
Several national
and scien
ntists with re
egard to inte
ernational opportunities
o
s, particularrly within the
Framework Program
mmes, such
h as FP7, of the EU. NCP reppresentative
es
provide guidance
g
on
o choosing
g thematic priorities and instru ments, giv
ve
advice on
n administra
ative proce dures and contractual issues, annd help witth
identificattion of rese
earch partne
ers across other Euro
opean statees. Currentlly
there are
e seven NC
CPs for SS
SH in Bulg
garia thre
ee from thhe Bulgarian
Academy of Science
es, two from
m the Sofia
a University
y, one from Varna Free
36

Ibid.

14
4

U
University and
a
one fro
om the Exe
ecutive Age
ency Electrronic Comm
munication
N
Networks and Informattion System
ms at the Ministry
M
of Transport,
T
Innformation
T
Technologie
es and Com
mmunication
ns.

2
2.2 Impacting factors
2
2.2.1 Policyy fields influe
encing SSH
H policies
T
The main ministry
m
invo
olved in SSH
H policy settting is the Ministry
M
of E
Education,
Y
Youth and Science, which
w
overrsees and supports the
t
majorityy of SSH
rresearch acctivity and in
nfrastructure
e.
In addition ministries,
m
which
w
mana
age the Ope
erational prrogrammes of the EU
C
Cohesion and
a
Structu
ural Funds have gain
ned leverage to act as policy
influencers for the RTD
DI policy. Th
hey host the Managem
ment Authorrities (MA)
o
of these pro
ogrammes and have t he power to influence the decisioon making
p
processes on
o selecting
g funding p
priorities an
nd impleme
entation, inccluding for
S
SSH related R&D. Su
uch ministrries include
e the Ministry of the Economy,
E
Energy and
d Tourism, which
w
overssees the OP Competittiveness, thhe Ministry
o
of Labour and Social Policy
P
for the
e OP Huma
an Resource
es Developpment, and
tthe Ministryy of Region
nal Develop
pment and Public Wo
orks for OP
P Regional
D
Development.
T
The Bulgarian Ministry
y of Labou
ur and Sociial Policy (MLSP) is tthe MA of
O
OPHRD, wh
hich is conc
centrated o
on SSH, soc
cial prosperity and em
mployment,
in particularr. The Natio
onal Employyment Agen
ncy37 (subordinated to tthe MLSP)
rreinforces th
his drive by providing sservices forr citizens loo
oking for em
mployment
((e.g. inform
mation and consultatio
on, inclusio
on is variou
us program
mmes and
m
measure fo
or employment, med
diation, etc
c.), for em
mployers ((e.g. staff
ttrainings), as well as
s consultattions and support fo
or procedurres within
O
OPHRD.
T
The Ministrry of Economy, Energ
gy and To
ourism is th
he MA of OPDCBE.
D
Despite the
e fact that OP
O is mainlly focused on technolo
ogical innovvation and
m
modernization, as well as on incre
easing the efficiency
e
an
nd competittiveness of
S
SMEs, the Programme partially provides support for SSH. This is mainly
d
done in sevveral projects within a procedure for support of R&D off Bulgarian
e
enterprises..38 Also, ac
ccording to
o the National Reform
m Programm
me (20112
2015), OPD
DCBE should provide ffunding for its priorities
s, some of which are
rrelated to SSH.
S
The National In
nnovation Fund
F
is an
nother fundding body,
a
administere
ed by the Bulgarian
B
S
Small and Medium En
nterprises Promotion
A
Agency (BS
SMEPA), wh
hich is part of MEET. The
T sixth fu
unding sesssion of NIF
w
was launched in 2012
2, providing
g support fo
or projects with a totaal value of
E
EUR 2.6 biillion.39 The
e Ministry iss also resp
ponsible forr the overaall national
innovation policy, including the Innovation
n Strategy of the Reepublic of
3
37
3
38

National Emp
ployment Agenc
cy. Accessed 23
3 January 2013.

OPDCBE Pro
ocedure BG161PO003-1.1.06: Support for R&
&D activities of the Bulgarian Ennterprises.
List of contractted projects (in Bulgarian): Acccessed 23 Janua
ary 2013.

3
39

Sixth funding session of the National Innova

ation Fund, laun
nched on Octobe
er 1 2012 (in Buulgarian).
Accessed on 15
1 January 2013
3.

15
5

Bulgaria and
a its implementing m
measures, adopted
a
in 2004
2
and cconsequentlly
amended in 2006. A new Innova
ation Strate
egy is curren
ntly on the w
way. 40
Operation
nal Program
mme Adminiistrative Ca
apacity is go
overned by the Ministrry
of Finance. The prog
gramme pri orities are mainly in th
he sphere oof enhancing
performan
nce of pub
blic adminisstration forr the imple
ementation of effectiv
ve
policies, quality
q
serv
vices to citizzens and businesses and
a creatin g condition
ns
for a susttainable eco
onomic gro
owth and em
mployment. Similarly tto OPDCBE
E,
OPAC willl provide fu
unding for sspecific mea
asures under the Natioonal Reform
m
Programm
me (2011-20
015).
On topicss of nation
nal securityy, it is the
e Ministry of
o the Inteerior and itts
4
Academy41
(accreditted to gran
nt BA, MA and PhD degrees) tthat perform
m
scientific research and design ttraining currricula in the
e areas of policing and
fire fightin
ng. Current topics off scientific inquiry at the Acadeemy include
Foundatio
ons of Law Enforceme
ent, Control of Internal Migration in Bulgaria
a,
Road Trraffic Control, Counttermeasures to Corrruption, annd Disaste
er
Response
e to Earthq
quakes, am
mong others
s. The Ministry of Agrriculture and
Foods, which hosts the Agriculttural Acade
emy, is hen
nce entitled to influenc
ce
SSH rese
earch in the field of agriiculture and
d foodstuffs.
Despite the
t
fact th
hat there iis no offic
cial strategic documeent explicitlly
governing
g social scie
ences and h
humanities research
r
in Bulgaria, S
SSH policy is
i
affected and
a
influenc
ced by seve
eral major documents (the discusssed above
e,
National Strategy
S
of Scientific R
Research to
o 2020, the National D
Developmen
nt
Programm
me, The National Re form Progrramme, etc
c.) and thee respectiv
ve
institutions, tasked with
w impleme
enting them
m.
uence of Eu
uropean and
d internation
nal developments
2.2.2 Influ
The influe
ence of European and
d international develop
pments on the state of
o
earch rema
Bulgarian SSH policiies and rese
ains rather limited, withh the notable
exception
n of the Bo
ologna pro cess and European Research Area (ERA
A)
actions. Bulgaria
B
is among the
e initial 29 countries to
t co-sign tthe Bologna
Declaratio
on on June 19th 1999
9, thus committing to a strategic rreform of itts
higher ed
ducation sector. The cconsequenc
ces of these
e reforms hhowever arre
even sprread over all sectorss of educa
ation and sciences,
s
aand do no
ot
specificallly affect SS
SH. The sam
me applies to
t the ERA policies. Thhese remain
primarily constrained
d to the texxts of strate
egic docum
ments with l ittle tangible
impact on
o the gro
ound. Mosst notably the Natio
onal Strateegy for the
Developm
ment of Scie
entific Rese arch 2020 puts
p
Europe
ean goals ssuch as ERA
A
as a priority for Bulga
arian policy making.
ples of the B
Bologna pro
ocess, the accreditation
a
n system fo
or
Following the princip
es, their de
epartments and progra
ams was set up, prom
mpting morre
universitie
thorough planning an
nd higher qu
uality of edu
ucational de
eliverables aat all degree
levels, an
nd attesting to the overrall quality of
o accredited units andd institutions
s.

40

Innovation
n Strategy of the
e Republic of Bu
ulgaria and its im
mplementing me
easures (in Bulggarian),
Accessed 23
2 January 2013
3

41

Source: htttp://www.mvr.bg
g/en/AboutUs/S
StructuralUnits/E
Educational/Aca
ademi.htm, acceessed on July
th
20 2011.

16
6

U
Upon severral subsequ
uent amen dments to the Higher Educationn Law42 a
Training43
sspecial Classsification of
o Higher E
Education Fields
F
and Vocational
V
w
was introduced to pres
sent a stand
dardised common fram
mework of edducational
a
areas, on which baccalaureate programm
mes structu
ure and coontent are
b
based. Though there is general a
agreement that
t
the Bo
ologna Proccess has a
p
positive imp
pact on the
e higher ed
ducation sy
ystem in th
he country, it is also
a
acknowledg
ged that Bu
ulgaria hass been too
o quick in signing thee Bologna
d
declaration, but disprroportionate
ely slow in
n administe
ering the necessary
cchanges ressulting in a sustained la
ack of acad
demic quality.
A
As already elaborated
d on, the va
arious natio
onal strateg
gic documeents follow
cclosely the respective
e European
n priorities
s, including those in the SSH
, including
d
domain. This is speciffically ment ioned in most of the documents,
d
tthe Nationa
al Strategy of Scientifi c Research
h to 2020, the Nation al Reform
P
Programme
e (2011 2015),
2
the National Strategic
S
Reference F
Framework
2
2007-2013 and the Na
ational Devvelopment Programme
P
: Bulgaria 22020. The
ffocus is ma
ainly put on
n the flagsh
hip themes of the Euro
ope 2020 innitiative. A
g
good exam
mple in this respect iss the National Reform
m Programm
me (20112
2015), wherre 77% of itts measure s address recommend
r
dations of thhe Council
o
of the European Un
nion. Thesse goals, however, often lackk practical
implementation or expe
erience con
nsiderable delays.
d
Therre are manyy reasons,
a
among whicch are lack
k of capacitty, administtrative burd
den and eveen lack of
m
motivation but
b it is ofte
en the case
e that such European priorities aare literally
ttranslated into nationa
al context w
without con
nsidering th
he Bulgariaan realities
a
and the neccessary callibration ne
eeded. Such
h practices leave veryy big room
ffor lack of coordinatio
on and ineffficiencies in impleme
entation. Thhis is very
m
much the situation in SSH
S
related goals and their respec
ctive measuures in the
a
areas of science, education and th
he labour market.
m
A more dirrect influen
nce of Eurropean dev
velopments comes thrrough the
d
different fun
nding instruments, whicch affect sc
cience in Bu
ulgaria in g eneral but
a
also SSH in particula
ar. This inffluence, ho
owever, is mostly conntained to
p
practical im
mplementatio
on of diffe rent EU fu
unded proje
ects rather than, the
rresult of a targeted na
ational poli cy. Some priority line
es of the O
Operational
p
programmes, as well as the fram
mework pro
ogrammes for
f researchh such as
F
FP6 and FP
P7, the COST program
mme, ERAS
SMUS, etc., provide im
mpetus for
rresearcherss to explore
e new them
mes, to em
mploy new methods off scientific
inquiry, and
d to develo
op new rese
earch capa
acity on botth the indivvidual and
institutional levels. These
T
furth
her stimula
ate international collaaborations
a
among scientists and provide
p
opp
portunities fo
or domestic
c researcheers to bring
ttheir work to
o international audiencces. Since 2008
2
the National Scieence Fund
h
has strength
hened Bulg
garias integ
gration into the EU framework proogrammes
ffor research
h and the COST prog
gramme by
y providing co-financinng for the
p
preparation and the implementa
i
ation of the
e national participatioon in panE
European projects,
p
inc
cl. in SSH. This deve
elopment ca
an be rega rded as a
4
42

The most currrent version ava

ailable in Bulgarrian language at
a http://lex.bg/la
aws/ldoc/21336447361.
Accessed on September
S
9th, 2011.

4
43

Original docu
ument in Bulgarian language avvailable at
http://www.mo
on.bg/opencms/e
export/sites/mo n/left_menu/doc
cuments/decree
e/pms_125th
02_klasif_vobrr_pr_napr.pdf, retrieved
r
on Sep
ptember 9 , 201
11.

17
7

strategic decision on
n the side o
of the Bulgarian government to eenhance the
countrys integration into ERA.
2.2.3 Rele
evance of European
E
an
nd internatio
onal SSH re
esearch
The invo
olvement off Bulgarian
n research organizations and sscientists in
internation
nal researc
ch, especia
ally in SSH
H, remains
s low. In ffact, natura
al
scientists are recogn
nized to ha
ave been involved in a far greateer number of
o
internation
nal researc
ch undertakkings than their SSH counterparrts, reducing
the impact of new SSH rese
earch and knowledge
e primarily to nationa
al
borders.
ed projects
s financed within the Frameworrk
The total share of SSH relate
me 6 for Bulgaria
B
is 1,07%, or slightly more than 2,6m in 31
Programm
projects, leaving Bulgaria well b
below the average
a
and
d far behindd most othe
er
former so
ocialist state
es. For sevven of these projects the
t beneficciary was an
institute within
w
the Bulgarian
B
Accademy of Science. Sofia
S
Univerrsity and the
Universityy for Nation
nal and Wo
orld Econom
my partook
k in two proojects each
h.
Beneficiarries of the remaining projects arre mostly non-profit
n
oorganization
ns
and think--tanks.
Within FP
P7 there is a substantiial positive growth tren
nd with resspect both to
t
the numb
ber of proje
ects and atttracted fun
nding. For the period 2007-2012
2,
there are
e 356 FP7
7 projects w
with 565 Bulgarian
B
participants
p
s, that hav
ve
received about
a
78,7
7m euro in total. The data
d
on major researchh performerrs
show also
o different trend - the B
BAS with alll its institutes and Sofifia Universitty
remain the leaders but
b among th
he top 10 performers
p
both
b
in term
ms of numbe
er
of projects and attrac
cted EC fun
nding appeared a business enterrprise (Sirma
Group, an ICT private compa
any), and a not-for-profit organissation (ARC
C
Fund, innovation poliicy research
h think-than
nk).
Major Bu
ulgarian res
search perfformers in FP7 (2007--2012)

Source: Ministry
M
of Education,
E
Y
Youth and Science,
S
201
13

18
8

o be estima
ated how m any are the
e SSH relatted projectss because
It is hard to
tthey might fall
f under different sub
b-programm
mes and prio
ority areas oof the FP7
b
but at least 34 of them
m within th
he priority areas
a
of Sc
cience in Soociety and
S
Socio-econo
omic scienc
ces and Hu
umanities, th
hat attracte
ed 3,2m euuro for the
B
Bulgarian participants, are strictlyy SSH relate
ed. Many other projectts, outside
tthese prioritty areas, arre also SSH
H-related44, including in
n the cases,, when the
B
Bulgarian participant
p
is respons ible for SS
SH-related research inn projects
ffalling unde
er another non-SS
SH, science field. Pa
articularly, the three
p
projects, funded by th
he Europea
an Researc
ch Council with 3,4 m for the
B
Bulgarian participants
p
(New Bulg
garian Univ
versity, Sofia Universitty and the
C
Centre for Advance Study
S
Sofia ) are stricttly SSH ones. As for the other
p
priority area
as, a rough
h estimation
n based on participantt affiliation tto specific
sscience field and proje
ects detailss shows th
hat more than 50 otheer projects
w
with more th
han above 3m

.budge
ets might be
e classified as SSH relaated.
F
FP7 projec
cts with Bulgarian
B
p
participantts by sele
ected priorrity areas
((2007-2012)

S
Source: Min
nistry of Edu
ucation, You
uth and Science, 2013

2
2.2.4 Impacct of evaluattions
T
The system
matic use off evaluation
n methods with respec
ct to ascerttaining the
impact or efficiency
e
off existing, o
or prospecttive, public sector proogrammes,
issues, policies or stra
ategies is sstill rather limited. No
o significantt attempts
h
have been made
m
at the
e governme
ent level to integrate
i
ev
valuation in the policy
d
developmen
nt and desig
gn systemss. However, the nationa
al policy on S&TI and
mainly as
h
higher educcation regulates and im
mplements the
t use of evaluations
e

4
44

E.g. within the

e priority areas as Regions of K
Knowledge, Res
search for the benefit of SMEs,, Marie-Curie
Actions, Intern
national Coopera
ation , etc.

19
9

a factor in
n the proce
ess of state budget dis
stribution an
nd allocationn and in the
process of determine the ca
apacity of higher ed
ducation aand scienc
ce
institutions in terms
s of maxim
mum allowe
ed numberr of studennts in eac
ch
profession
nal field pe
er organizattion. The la
atter also holds
h
true ffor the SSH
H
research policies and
d institutionss, with just a few notab
ble exceptioons.
a
higherr education
n institution
ns (public and privatte
Bulgarian science and
es and publlic research
h organizations), includ
ding in the ffield of SSH
H,
universitie
are assesssed by the
e National E
Evaluation and
a Accred
ditation Ageency (NEAA
A)
and all th
he results are public.. NEAA is a statutory body forr evaluation
n,
accreditattion and monitoring o
of the qualitty in higher educationn institution
ns
and scien
ntific organiz
zations aim ing at the enhanceme
e
nt of their teeaching and
research, as well as of theiir developm
ment as scientific,
s
ccultural, and
innovative
e organizations.45 Th
he Agency monitors the abilityy of highe
er
education
n institutions
s, their mai n units and
d branches, to provide high qualitty
education
n and scientific resea
arch throug
gh an interrnal qualityy assuranc
ce
system. NEAA
N
perfo
orms regula
ar institutio
onal and prrogram evaaluation and
accreditattion of hig
gher educa
ation institutions in Bulgaria, tthrough the
ng of new institutions
evaluation
n of projects for openin
i
of higher edducation, as
a
well as through po
ost-accredittation mon
nitoring and
d control. It provide
es
independe
ence and transparenccy of evalu
uation proc
cedures annd high-leve
el
academicc competences of the Bulgarian and foreign experts, engaged in
these pro
ocedures. NEAA
N
is a ffull member of the Eu
uropean Asssociation fo
or
Quality Assurance in
n Higher Ed
ducation an
nd a full me
ember of thhe European
Quality Asssurance Register for H
Higher Education.46
In 2009 th
he first (afte
er 1989) extternal evalu
uation of the
e Bulgarian Academy of
o
Sciences was carrie
ed out by the Europe
ean Scienc
ce Foundattion and the
European
n Federation of Nation
nal Academ
mies of Science and Humanities
s.
The evaluation rec
commendattions were
e partially implemennted in the
successivve restructuring of the B
BAS, which
h led to decrreasing of sscientific and
administra
ative staff, reorganisattion of autonomous res
search unitss from 72 to
t
49 (45 in
nstitutes an
nd 5 speccialised aca
ademic unitts), arrangeed under 9
research areas, two of which fa
all into the SSH catego
ory, and to introduction
of regularr personal and
a institutio
onal evaluattions in the academy.477
2.2.4.1 Pro
oject evalua
ation

The mostt common form of w

what could be conside
ered projecct evaluation
refers to the submission of p
project prop
posals to open
o
compeetitive calls
s.
These include calls
s of the N
NSF and NIF,
N
calls within
w
the Operationa
al
programm
mes (particu
ularly in OP
PDRD and OPAC),
O
as well
w as, butt to a limited
degree, internal ca
alls within universities
s and the
eir departm
ments. Suc
ch
evaluation
ns are conc
centrated on
n the merits
s of submitted proposaals, but the
ey
neither le
ead to nor require exx-post evalluations of project ressults and/o
or
impact.
45

Law on Hig
gher Education, published in S
State Gazette, is
ssue 112 as of 27.12.1995,
2
lastt amended as off
21.12.2012 (State Gazette, issue 102)

46
47

th

Source: htttp://www.neaa.g
government.bg//en, accessed on
o July 20 2011
BAS evalu
uation is describ
bed in more deta
ails in Section 2.2.4.3
2
below

20
0

A
Another pa
articular fie
eld for pro
oject evaluation is de
efined in thhe Higher
E
Education Law
L
with re
egard to pro
ojects for th
he establishment of nnew higher
e
education institutions or for the reform of an existing
g one. Thee National
A
Agency forr Evaluatio
on and Acccreditation
n evaluates
s such prrojects to
d
determine and
a prescrib
be the coursse of action.
2
2.2.4.2 Programme eva
aluation

P
Programme
e evaluation
n in terms o
of performing either fo
ormative, p rocess, or
ssummative, outcome, study of the merits and/or sh
hortages off research
p
programmes is curre
ently not ccommonplace in Bulgaria and the only
e
exception are
a the regu
ular program
mme evaluations, perfformed by tthe NEAA
a
according to
o the Law on
o Higher E
Education. NEAA
N
imple
ements threee types of
rregular exx- and post-ante programm
me accreditation: p rogramme
a
accreditation of profes
ssional field
ds, accredita
ation of ma
ajors of the regulated
p
professions list, and accreditatio
a
n of scientific majors. The evaluaations are
ccarried out by the NEA
AA Standing
g Committe
ees by areas
s of higher education
a
and the Sta
anding Com
mmittee on Post-Accre
editation Mo
onitoring annd Control.
T
The Accred
ditation Co
ouncil at NEAA app
points theirr memberss through
sselection byy applications and ove
ersees theirr activities. The Comm
mittees are
ccomprised of
o 3 to 7 members, on
ne of whom
m is Chairma
an of the C
Committee.
T
The Chairm
man of the Accreditatiion Council appoints the membeers of the
C
Committeess for a three
e-year term..
T
The Standin
ng Committtees by are
eas of highe
er education
n are 8, eve
ven though
tthe Nationa
al Classification of Field
ds of Study
y in Higher Education iincludes 9
a
areas of higher
h
edu
ucation and
d 52 professional fields. The Standing
C
Committeess are 8 sinc
ce for area
as 8 and 9: Arts and
d Military S
Science a
sseparate Committee wasnt
w
esta
ablished be
ecause of the
t
small nnumber of
institutions and progra
ammes in th
hese two areas. On th
he contrary in area 3
Social Scie
ence the nu
umber of prrofessional fields
f
and majors
m
is soo big that it
b
became ne
ecessary th
hat two co
ommittees be respon
nsible for tthem: the
S
Standing Co
ommittee on
o Social Sccience, Law
w and Natio
onal Securi ty Studies
a
and Standin
ng Committe
ee on Econ
nomic Scien
nces and Ma
anagement..
2
2.2.4.3 Instittutional evaluation

A
According to the Law
w on High
her Educattion, NEAA
A is respoonsible for
p
performing regular accreditatio
a
on of higher educa
ation and research
institutions. It performs
s both ex-a
ante evaluattion of projects for creeation and
d
developmen
nt of new higher
h
educcation or scientific ins
stitutions annd/or their
n
new departm
ments and post-ante a
accreditation of the existing instituutions and
ttheir organizzational units.
E
Evaluation title
t

Accreditatiion of Profes
ssional Fields
s of Educatioon

P
Programme title

Profession
nal Fields of Education
E
in the area of S
Social
Sciences a
and Humanitties

T
Type of prog
gramme

Accreditatiion of professional fields of educationn:

- hig
gher educatio
onal institutio
ons, which pprovide
the
em;
- diffferent progra
ammes inclu
uded in thesee fields in
ea
ach university
y Bachelor, Master, Ph D
- ca
apacity (numb
ber of studen
nts)

21
1

Type of ev
valuation

ex-postt evaluation

Period cov
vered

Accredittation of any given profes

ssional field iis valid for 4
or 6 yea
ars, dependin
ng on perform
mance

Objectives
s

To deterrmine the current state off quality of edducation,

number of students and
a academic staff, futurre outlook, as
s
well as a
adequacy of the particula
ar professionnal field in
terms off alignment with
w strategic national inittiative,
program
mmes and do
ocuments.

Approaches

This eva
aluation is foc
cused on education and not science
and rese
earch, in particular. Neve
ertheless, ressearch
activitiess are reviewe
ed as part of the educatioonal process
s.
Other evvaluated asp
pects include general chaaracteristics;
docume ntation; acad
demic staff; capacity;
c
eduucational
activity; future outloo
ok.

Key resultts and

recommen
ndations

Commo n recommen
ndations inclu
ude need forr:
greater focus on researc
ch and publisshing
activities;
broader them
matic fields;
greater instittutional coop
peration;
better balancing between practical annd theoretica
al
activities in students`
s
currriculum;
enrichment of
o the educational prograamme;
encouraging
g the professional, acadeemic staff
developmen
nt;
mative and
creating the necessary fiinancial, norm
organization
nal conditions
s for young aand
perspective research sta
aff;
t and closer
greater focus on career development
d
cooperation between stu
udents, teachhers and
employers.

Availabilitty

Tags

Publicly available at webpage of the Nationall Evaluation

and Acccreditation Ag
gency:
http://ww
ww.neaa.gov
vernment.bg//en
Accredittation reports
s per profess
sional field off education
available
e in Bulgarian at:
http://ww
ww.neaa.gov
vernment.bg//bg/institutionns/profesiona
al
Accredittation of proffessional field
ds of educatiion

n
commo
onplace, s everal insttitutional evaluations have been
Though not
carried ou
ut. Most no
otable are tthe evaluattions of the
e BAS, in pparticular itts
SSH instittutes, and of
o the NSF.. The forme
er was cond
ducted by a team of the
European
n Science Foundation
n and the European Federation of Nationa
al
Academie
es Sciences
s and Huma
anities48, while the lattter was connducted by a
team of national expe
erts.

48

Research at the Bulgarian

n Academy of S
Sciences. Panel 4 Report: Socia
al Sciences andd Humanities.
th
Retrieved on
o July 20 , 2011.

22
2

O
Organisation
n

Europea n Science Fo
oundation

T
Type of evalluation

Mid-term
m; Formative

P
Period covered

O
Objectives

A
Approaches
s

To highli ght some of the general problems annd

suggeste
ed changes identified as either conceerning
particula rly the SSH fields,
f
or con
ncerning the SSH fields
in a parti cular way
Intervie
ews (with ins
stitutes staff,, BAS leaderrship and
person
nnel, PhD Stu
udents)
Self-re
eports
metric analys
ses
Bibliom
Most of tthe institutes are visible on
o the internaational
research
h scene, with overall good
d quality andd
productivvity of resea
arch

K
Key results and
rrecommendations

About ha
alf the instituttes show a to
op performannce in
terms of relevance to society, and about hallf again are
considerred to have very
v
good prrospects for the future
The repo
ort will propose some sug
ggestions to
internatio
onalize the Bulgaro-centr
B
ric publicatio ns

A
Availability

Public

T
Tags

n was carrie
ed out of the
t
NSFs decision
d
m aking and
In 2010 an evaluation
ffunding proccedures, wh
hich raised some serio
ous concern
ns as to the adequacy
o
of research funding do
one by the NSF. Base
ed on docum
mentation reeview and
a
analysis of financial statements, sserious viollations were
e discovereed alluding
tto the abse
ence of imp
partiality an
nd possible corruption among offficers who
m
made the fu
unding decisions. Concclusions in the report refer to serrious harm
tto Bulgaria
an science, estimated
d to be millions of euros.
e
A pparticularly
cconcerning finding of the repo
ort is thatt the open calls haave been
m
manipulated
d, thus efffectively e liminating any merit based coompetition.
N
Numerous cases
c
of ap
pparent con
nflicts of intterest amon
ng project eevaluators
h
have been identified. Not leastt, there ha
ave been serious
s
vioolations in
a
assigning evaluators,
e
whose exp
pertise was
s incompatible with thhe project
p
proposals they
t
had to
o evaluate.. At the sa
ame time, impartial eevaluators
rreports havve been hidden and no
ot taken intto account when makking award
d
decisions. As
A a result of the publlic protests of the scie
entific comm
munity, the
M
Minister wa
as resigned in the beg
ginning of 2013,
2
follow
wed by resiggnation of
tthe whole NSF
N
manage
ement.

23
3

Organisattion

Nation
nal Science Fund
F

Type of ev
valuation

Mid-te rm; Formativ

ve

Period cov
vered

2008-2
2009

Objectives
s

To eva
aluate 2008 and
a 2009 sessions of thee Fund and
the imp
plementation
n of funded projects
p

Approaches

Review
w of a sa
ample of documents aand financia
al
statem
ments

Key
re
esults
recommen
ndations
Availabilitty

and
a
Not pu
ublic

Tags

y documen
nts
2.3 Imporrtant policy
There are
e no specific
c policy doccuments targ
geting SSH exclusivelyy. Key polic
cy
documentts for scienc
ce and rese
earch, which
h also regulate SSH, innclude:

Law on
o Scientiffic Researc
ch Promottion, in effe
ect since 20003 and las
st
49
amend
ded in Octtober 2010 . The law
w provides the framew
work for the
develo
opment of national sccience polic
cy, and details the sttructure and
functio
ons of the NSF.
N

Law for
f the Bulg
garian Aca
ademy of Sciences,
S
in
n effect sincce 1991, las
st
amend
ded in Aprril 2011.50 O
Over the past
p
year there have been some
heated
d discussio
ons among the Ministtry of Finan
nce, the paarties in the
Parliament and BAS, focu sed on the
e very purpose of BA
AS and the
impen
nding need
d for instittutional reform. The Ministry of Financ
ce
promo
oted a new vision for B
BAS arguing
g that it is a defunct annd inefficien
nt
institution, and th
hat universitties should carry out all research. This conflic
ct
has no
ot yet been reconciled entirely, bu
ut it appears
s the Ministtry has taken
a sign
nificant step back.

5
Law for
f the Dev
velopmentt of Academic Staff,51
in effect since 2010
0.
This la
aw replaces the Law on Scientifiic Degrees and Titles,, and detaills
the re
egulatory fra
amework fo r the granting of acade
emic titles aand degree
es
(PhD, post-docs and professsorships).

Law on Higherr Education

n,52 in effe
ect since 1995, last aamended in
Decem
mber 2010. This is th
he key law
w that regu
ulates the ccomposition
n,
functio
ons, manag
gement and
d funding of
o higher ed
ducation syystem in the

49

Latest verssion in Bulgarian language ava

ailable at http://le
ex.bg/laws/ldoc//2135472978. R
Retrieved on July
16th, 2011.

50

Latest verssion in Bulgarian language ava

ailable at http://le
ex.bg/laws/ldoc//2132584961. R
Retrieved on July
16th, 2011.

51

Latest verssion in Bulgarian language ava

ailable at http://w
www.lex.bg/bg/la
aws/ldoc/21356680028.
Retrieved on
o July 16th, 2011.

52

Latest verssion in Bulgarian language ava

ailable at http://w
www.lex.bg/bg/la
aws/ldoc/21336647361.
Retrieved on
o July 16th, 2011.

24
4

country. It details the

t structure
e and functtions of the
e National A
Agency for
Evaluatiion and Acc
creditation.

Nationa
al Strategy
y of Scienttific Resea
arch to 202053 adopteed by the
governm
ment at the
e end of Ju
une 2011, and
a
approv
ved by the Bulgarian
Parliame
ent in July 2011.
2

Council of
Nationa
al Reform Programm e 2011-201
1554, adopted by the C
Ministerrs in April 2011. Alth ough not solely
s
focus
sed on sciience and
research
h, the document recom
mmends a vision
v
for the
e reform of the higher
educatio
on system, arguing forr the need for
f introduc
cing a comm
mon rating
system for
f the high
her educatio
on institution
ns, based on objective indicators
for evalluation. It further
f
stip
pulates the need for a system ffor career
development of aca
ademic perssonnel.

The 201
12-2020 Up
pdate55 of the Nation
nal Reform Programm
me (20112015) was
w adopted
d in April 2
2012. The update
u
builds upon thhe state of
impleme
entation of the measu
ures, embedded in the
e Action P lan of the
National Reform Programme (2011-2015
5). The novelty of this document
mainly has
h to do the amendme
ent and/or supplement
s
tation of meeasures, in
order to
o adequately address the Counc
cil recomme
endations oof 12 July
2011. In
n addition, Council of Ministers (CoM)
(
Decision No 699256 as of
15.09.20
011 improv
ves the mo
onitoring of Programme impleme ntation by
introduccing a comm
mitment for the reporting on implementationn risks and
delays of particula
ar measure
es, in a period
p
of tw
wo weeks after the
quarterlyy NRP prog
gress reportt, adopted by
b the Coun
ncil of Ministters.57

Nationa
al Development Prog
gramme: Bulgaria
B
202058 was accepted
with Deccision 10
057 on Cou
uncil of Ministers from December 22012. The
strategicc documen
nt is the m
most comprrehensive national
n
prrogramme,
detailing
g the deve
elopment o
objectives of
o Bulgaria
a until 20220. These
SSH field.
addresss national, as
a well as European priorities, also
a
in the S
SSH priorities have
e mainly to do with inc
creasing the focus on R&D and
innovatio
on, as we
ell as incrreasing em
mployment and improoving the
educatio
onal environ
nment.

Bulgaria
an Framew
work Posittion on se
etting natio
onal targetts in line
with Eu
urope 2020
0 strategy559 highlights
s increasing
g the expennditure on
research
h and development to 1.5% of GD
DP in 2020; achieving the target
for 76%
% employme
ent rate of the population aged 2064;
2
imp roving the
indicators in educa
ation with rrespect to decreasing
g the sharee of earlyschool leavers to 11% and inccreasing the share of the people aged 30
34 with higher educ
cation to 36
6% by 2020.

53

National Strategy of Scientific

c Research to 2
2020. Accessed 16 January 201
13.

5
54

Available in Bulgarian
B
langua
age at http://ec. europa.eu/euro
ope2020/pdf/nrp/nrp_bulgaria_bbg.pdf,
th
retrieved on Ju
uly 17 , 2011.

5
55
5
56
5
57
58
59

National Refo
orm Programme
e. Accessed 222 January 2013.
CoM Decision
n No 692 as of 15.09.2011 (in B
Bulgarian). Accessed 22 Janua
ary 2013.

Ibid
National Deve
elopment Progra
amme: Bulgaria
a 2020. Accesse
ed 17 January 2013.
Bulgarian Fram
mework Position on setting nattional targets in line with Europe 2020 strategyy (in
Bulgarian). Acccessed 16 Janu
uary 2013.

25
5

National Roadm
map for S
Scientific Infrastructu
ure60, adoppted by the
Counccil of Ministters in Septtember 2010. The road
dmap detai ls Bulgarias
priorities in terms
s of develop
ping new sc
cientific infra
astructure, aand pledge
es
to enssure an efficient strate
egic develop
pment of sc
cience and innovations
s,
to incrrease the co
ompetitiven
ness of scientific products, and to sserve as the
ations with European and other internationa
founda
ation for future negotia
al
partne
ers about investmentss in national scientific
c infrastruccture. Seven
research areas are
a listed ass priorities, and details
s for the prroper setting
up of scientific in
nfrastructurre are prov
vided. Of the seven, juust one fallls
into th
he category
y of SSH, a nd is to be integrated into the paan-European
netwo
ork CLARIN. Its primaryy purpose would
w
be to preserve thhe Bulgarian
linguisstic heritag
ge and prrovide acce
ess to ling
guistic ressources and
techno
ologies to all
a potential users from science and industry.

2.4 Them
matic prioritties at natio
onal level
Based on
n the published officcial informa
ation and data, incluuding polic
cy
documentts and repo
orts, it is nott possible to
o estimate the importaance of eac
ch
of the research priorities below in terms of funding flow
ws. The lateest available
data from
m the Nation
nal Statisticcs Institute (2011)61 indicate that expenditurre
on SSH stands at 7%, slighttly over th
han EUR 15
1 million of the tota
al
expenditu
ure on scien
nce and rese
earch. Mark
kings below
w are based on prioritie
es
listed in strategy
s
papers and in
nstitutional reports, the 2012 prooject-funding
sessions of the NSF and NIF, ass well as those of majo
or think tankks.

60

Available in Bulgarian language at http://w

www.strategy.b
bg/StrategicDocu
uments/View.asspx?lang=bgth
4, accessed on July
J
17 , 2011.
BG&Id=624

61

Source: Na
ational statistics
s institute. Acce
essed on Januarry 23, 2013.

26
6

Prioritties
Behavvior, cognitio
on
n
Competitiveness, Innovation
Confliccts, peace, security an d human rig
ghts within the EU andd beyond
anized crimee etc.)
Crime and Crime prevention (including drugs, orga
preservation
n and conse
ervation)
Cultural heritage (including p
nal Strategy
y for the Devvelopment of
o Scientific
c Research 2020
Nation
Democracy, gove
ernance, ac countability
y and responsibility
Demog
graphy (Ageing, Fertilitty)
omy and fina
ance
Econo
ation, skills, knowledge
e and life-lon
ng learning
Educa
oyment, Work, Working
g conditions
s
Emplo
Ethics
Families, life-style
es and well--being
er, gender equality
e
Gende
Globalization
h and Health
h systems
Health
multiculturalism
Identitty, religion, language, m
Interna
ational relattions
Migrattion
Social cohesion, exclusion, i nequalities, poverty
elopment
Sustaiinable deve
Urban and rural developmen
d
nt
Otherss

2
2.5 Importa
ant researc
ch program
mmes
T
The Nation
nal Science
e Fund is a
administering the main nationall research
p
programmes, directed towards ba
asic and ap
pplied resea
arch mainlyy in public
ffunded rese
earch organ
nisations an d in smaller scale in business eenterprises
a
and not-for--profit secto
or. Until 20
007 the NS
SF program
mmes were with very
m
modest bud
dgets, from which only a very sma
all portion goes
g
to SSH
H. In 2008
a
and 2009, the
t budget allocated to
o the NSF increased in
i times (reespectively

30,6m and
d 69,5m), with a dro
op to 15,3
3m in 2012. There is no readily
a
available sta
atistics on the
t actual sshare of SSH supported projects iin the total
able data fo
p
programme budgets bu
ut the availa
or the 2008
8 call sessioon and the
cconsecutive
e additional payments for then aw
warded projects in 201 1, reveals
tthat the SSH
H funding accounts forr more than 40% of the
e total fundinng.

27
7

NSF Prog
grammes (2
2008-2012))
Name of the
th
Programm
me

Call
C session
ns

Target
T
Group
p

Promoting
g
Scientific
Research in
Priority Arreas

2008,
2
2009, 2
2012 (13-years
3
termss of
im
mplementatio
on)

Higher
H
educa
ations instituttions;
Technology
T
and
a innovatioon centres
(n
non-profit); Business
B
orgganisations;
New
N
technolo
ogy based firrms/new
knowledge
k
intensive servvice firms

2008,
2
2009 (1
1-3years
y
terms o
of
im
mplementatio
on)

Companies,
C
HEI,
H Other noon-profit
re
esearch orga
anisations, T
Technology
and
a innovatio
on centres (nnonprofit);Busine
p
ess organisattions
(C
Chambers off Commercee...); New
te
echnology ba
ased firms/neew
knowledge
k
intensive servvice firms

Developm
ment of
the Resea
arch
Infrastructure

2008,
2
2009 (1
1-3years
y
terms o
of
im
mplementatio
on)

Companies;
C
HEI;
H researcch
units/centres;
u
; Other non-pprofit
re
esearch orga
anisations (nnot HEI);
Technology
T
and
a innovatioon centres
(n
non-profit); New
N
technoloogy based
fiirms/new kno
owledge inteensive service
e
fiirms

Reintegration
Grants forr
Bulgarian
Researche
ers
Working Abroad
A

2008,
2
2009 (1
1-3years
y
terms o
of
im
mplementatio
on)

Bulgarian
B
res
searchers, woorking
abroad,
a
Highe
er educationns institutions
s
and
a research units/centrees;
Technology
T
and
a innovatioon centres
(n
non-profit)

Establishm
ment of
University
y
Science and
Research
Complexe
es

2008,
2
2009 (1
1-3years
y
terms o
of
im
mplementatio
on)

Higher
H
educa
ations instituttions; Other
non-profit
n
res
search organnisations (nott
HEI);
H
Techno
ology and innnovation
centres
c
(non--profit)

Establishm
ment of
Centres of
Excellence

2008,
2
2009 (1
1-3years
y
terms o
of
im
mplementatio
on)

Higher
H
educa
ations instituttions;
Technology
T
and
a innovatioon centres
(n
non-profit)

Bilateral
on with
cooperatio
various
countries,,
including the
RILA prog
gramme
with Franc
ce

2008,
2
2009, 2
2012
budget
b
(1-3-yyears
te
erms of
im
mplementatio
on)

Scientists
S
/ re
esearchers (aas
in
ndividuals); Higher
H
educaations
in
nstitutions; Other
O
non-proofit research
organisations
o
s (not HEI); T
Technology
and
a innovatio
on centres (nnon-profit)

Support fo
or the
development of
scientific
potential in
i the
Higher Ed
ducation

2008
2

Public
P
and prrivate fundedd universities
and
a colleges

Young sciientist
competitio
on

2008,
2
2009, 2
2011 (13-years
3
termss of
im
mplementatio
on)

Young
Y
scientists in publicc and private
fu
unded research organisaations and
HEIs,
H
busines
ss enterprisees and NGOs
s

Ideas

28
8

G
Grants for
d
doctoral stu
udents
in business
e
enterprises

08
200

Doc
ctoral studen
nts, preparingg their PhD
thes
ses in busine
ess enterprisses in
Bulgaria and ab
broad

S
Sabbatical year
y
o
of Bulgarian
n
s
scientists

200
08

Sen
nior scientists
s, preparing academic
pub
blications as result of theiir
multiannual research activitiies

Increasing the
innovation in
S
SMEs

200
08

Join
nt research projects
p
of buusiness
enterprises and research
organisations or individual sscientists

S
Support for FP7
a
and COST
p
proposals
p
preparation

200
08, 2009, 201
11,
201
12

All types
t
of partticipant eligibble for the
respective FP7 or COST proogrammes

N
National
c
competition for
a
academic
m
monographs
s,
c
collection off
p
papers and
p
periodical
journals

11
201

Individual resea
archers or ressearch
teams, HEIs, pu
ublic funded research
organisations

N
National co-ffunding for
p
projects und
der
F
FP7

12
201

Pro
ojects, funded
d under FP7 calls

S
Source: Nation
nal Science Fu
und

2
2.6 SSH re
esearch infrrastructure
es
2
2.6.1 Nation
nal infrastru
uctures
In Septemb
ber 2010 the
e Ministry o
of Education
n, Youth an
nd Science adopted a
N
National Roadmap
R
fo
or Researcch Infrastru
uctures. The adoptioon of the
R
Roadmap prioritises
p
seven nation
nal researc
ch infrastruc
ctures, speccialised in
sspecific research fields
s and enco
ourages the
eir inter sec
ctor and crooss border
ccollaboration. The first four of the seven national researrch complexxes will be
ssupported through
t
OP
P Competittiveness: 1) infrastruc
cture for s ustainable
d
developmen
nt in the field of marine
e research, participation of Bulgariia in EuroA
Argo; 2) in
nfrastructure
e for prod
duction and
d testing of
o materialss used in
industry, biomedicine and enviro
onmental re
esearch, diiagnostic, rrestoration
a
and conservvation artefa
acts of meta
al; 3) genom
mic, proteomic and meetabolomic
sstudies and computer simulation
s
a
and design of drug can
ndidates, paarticipation
Research
o
of Bulgaria in BBMRI (Biobankin
ng and Biomolecular Resources
R
Infrastructurre); 4) infras
structure fo
or research in renewable energy aand energy
omputing Centre;
e
efficiency; 5) Bulgaria
an Superco
C
6) BG-CLAR
RIN the
n
national in
nterdisciplina
ary researrch e-infra
astructure for integraation and
d
developmen
nt of electro
onic resourrces for Bulgarian lang
guage as ppart of the
Language Resource
E
European CLARIN (Common
(
es and Teechnology
ernational Centre for Radio A
Infrastructurre), and 7)
7 the Inte
Astronomy

29
9

Research
h. None of these infra
astructures is exclusiv
vely SSH ddirected, bu
ut
some of them might be used fo
or SSH relatted research e.g. CLLARIN or the
Bulgarian Supercomputing Centtre.
es
2.6.2 International infrastructure
dmap also introduces a procedure
e for Bulgarrias future participation
The Road
in the European infrrastructuress. The procedure will include an internationa
al
evaluation
n of the scie
entific instit utions and an analysis
s of the effeectiveness of
o
the participation of th
he Bulgaria
an scientific community
y in the new
w regional or
o
European
n infrastructural projectts. Bulgaria is already included in a number of
o
European
n projects to prepare the establis
shment of research innfrastructurre
facilities, but this involvemen
nt is fairly limited to
o few of the curren
nt
infrastructtural projec
cts. For the SSH field these are: ESSurvey - European
Social Su
urvey (Bulgaria is incl uded since
e round 3 in 2005, wiith the main
contact point being the
t Agencyy for Social Analysis, and
a other oorganization
ns
involved including th
he Institute
e of Sociolo
ogy at the Bulgarian A
Academy of
o
Sciences,, the Nation
nal Science
e Fund, and
d Vitosha Research
R
LLtd.); EURO
OARGO - Global Monitoring of the oceans
s and seas
s; CLARIN - Electroniic
linguistic patterns; PRACE
P
- P
Partnership for critical computing research in
Europe (2
projects such as SHA
2010). In other large p
ARE (Surveey of Health
h,
Ageing an
nd Retireme
ent in Euro pe), DARIA
AH (Digital Research
R
Innfrastructurre
for the Arts
A
and Hu
umanities) and CESS
SDA (Counc
cil of Europpean Socia
al
Science Data
D
Archive
es) the cou ntry does not yet partic
cipate.

30
0

3
3. Funding
g System
3
3.1 Overvie
ew of funding flows
T
The followin
ng diagram provides a
an overview
w of the maiin sources of funding
in Bulgaria.

Council of Ministers

Direct
budget
subsidies

Budget Appropriations
A

Direct
et
budge
subs
sidies

Ministry of
o Education,
Youth and Science
Bulgarrian Academy
of Sciiences (BAS)

Public Un
niversities

Natio
onal Science
Fu
und (NSF)
Bu
usiness Enterprise
es
/ NGOs

Business Enterprrises
/ NGOs
Priva
ate Universities &
Colleges

Private Universities &

Colleges
Internatio
onal Funding
Sources
s (incl. EU)

T
The funding
g system ha
as undergon
ne considerable chang
ges since thhe country
sstarted its trransition to a market e
economy in 1989 and in preparatiion for the
ccountrys acccession to
o the Europ
pean Union
n. However, there hass not been
a
any reliablle coordination mecchanism between the differen t funding
instrumentss available in the counttry. In addittion, the budget processs has not
g
guaranteed such coord
dination eith
her.
T
The govern
nment secto
or is the m
main sourc
ce of SSH research ffunding in
B
Bulgaria through the National S
Science Fun
nd. NSF operates witth a wide
rrange of funding
f
sch
hemes, su
upporting mainly
m
public funded research
o
organization
ns (e.g. the institutes a
at the BAS and
a univers
sities) also N
NGOs and
b
business en
nterprises.
In 2011 the
e total R&D
D spending was 0.57%
% of GDP, lower thann most EU
ccountries. There
T
has been increa
asing recog
gnition of the need too increase
R
R&D, includ
ding SSH, funding. A
As part of the
t
prepara
ation of thee national
p
position und
der the Europe 2020 in
nitiative, in 2010 the Bulgarian
B
goovernment
sspecified a national go
oal of invesstments in R&D
R
at 1.5 % of GDP
P by 2020.
H
However, th
here is no strategic fframework underpinnin
ng this goaal and the

31
1

budget ap
ppropriation
ns on R&D (GBAORD
D) declined from 0.34%
% in 2009 to
t
0.25% in 2011 as percent of the
e GDP.62
The role of private funding
f
of SSH resea
arch is relatively smal l and highlly
variable.
SSH and total GERD
D expendittures (mln euro)
2005
SSH
GERD
Total
GERD

2006

2007

2008
2

20
009

201 0

2011

17.25

12.60

13.06

17.18

20
0.37

14. 78

106.42

121.20

139.61

166.61
1

18
84.61

2155.57 219.64
(p)

Source: Eurostat
E
[rd_
_e_gerdsc] Total intram
mural R&D expendituree (GERD)
by sectorss of perform
mance and ffields of scie
ence. 2012. (p) proviisional value

arch fundin
ng
3.2 National public SSH resea
3.2.1 Ove
erview of fun
nding imporrtance
The main governmen
ntal financia
al instrumen
nt for fundin
ng the reseearch of botth
public and
d private re
esearch perrformers is the Nationa
al Science Fund, whic
ch
is oversee
en by the National
N
Cou
uncil for Sc
cientific Research at thee Ministry of
o
Education
n, Youth an
nd Science. The respo
onsibilities of
o the NSF encompass
s:
implemen
ntation of the
t
nationa
al and the
e European
n research policies in
Bulgaria; provision of interna
ational exp
pertise duriing the evvaluation of
o
research project pro
oposals, ba
ased on which
w
the subsequent
s
t funding is
i
allocated;; and workin
ng out speccific scheme
es to support the nationnal researc
ch
potential (such
(
as su
upport to yo
oung researc
chers, research infrasttructure, and
preparatio
on of rese
earch proje
ects). In ad
ddition to NSF, the governmen
nt
provides direct subsidies to tthe public research organization
o
ns (e.g. the
Bulgarian Academy of
o Sciencess and the un
niversities).
Budget of
o the Natio
onal Scienc
ce Fund (Mln. euro)

2005

NSF

6.4

2006
2

20007

2008

6.9

8.1

30.7

2009
69.5

2010

20011

na

naa

201
12
15.3

t
Bulgariian Parliam
ment adopte
ed the Law
w for Amenndment and
In 2009 the
Suppleme
ent of the Law
L
on Scie
entific Rese
earch Promotion, whicch envisage
es
both the establishme
e
ent of large scientific and
a research centres, aand the start
of more effective
e
monitoring
m
a
and evaluattion of projects fundedd under the
National Science Fund. Howe
ever, these changes happened against the
backdrop of continuin
ng strategicc policy plan
nning uncerrtainty and ffalling publiic

62

Eurostat [g
gba_nabsfin07] 2012. Accesse d January 22 20
013

32
2

ssupport forr research. The Bulga

arian gove
ernment cut the budgget of the
B
Bulgarian Academy
A
off Sciences,, the bigge
est public R&D
R
organiisation, by
rroughly 40%
% of what was
w initiallyy approved in the state
e budget foor 2010. In
p
practice, tha
at meant that in 2010 the state su
ubsidy for the BAS am
mounted to
E
EUR 30.7 million,
m
as the numberr did not change drastically in 20 11 EUR
3
30.8 million
n. The sta
ate subsidyy for the SSH rese
earch instittutes was
rrespectivelyy decreased
d to EUR 4
4.3 million in 2010 and EUR 4.99 million in
R&D in the
2
2011. The budget sub
bsidies for R
e state univ
versities havve remain
vvery modesst and despite the rule that up to 10% of the
e total univeersity state
ssubsidy sho
ould be allo
ocated for R
R&D, the universities still
s allocatee between
2
2% and 3%.
3
3.2.2 Institu
utional fundiing
T
The Law on
n the State Budget63 re
egulates go
overnment expenditure
e
es on R&D
in public funded resea
arch organi zations for each budg
get year, buut only as
p
part of a wider budgett line that i ncludes als
so non-direct R&D exppenditures
((e.g. expen
nses for education
e
in the un
niversities or remuneeration of
a
administrative staff in both acade
emia and university).
u
There is noot specific
ffunding for SSH
S
and th
he research budgets arre a lump su
um. In the ccase of the
B
BAS, the am
mount of th
he budget ssubsidy dep
pends mostly on the nnumber of
sstaff while in the state universitiess, it depend
ds on the nu
umber of sttudents. In
b
both cases, the budget is not bassed on in-de
epth performance asseessments,
a
although in
n 2010 a university rating sys
stem was introducedd and an
internationa
al evaluation
n of the BA
AS was impllemented. However,
H
inn 2011, for
tthe first time
e the university rankin g system were
w
used to
o determinee the level
o
of additiona
al funding, given
g
as an incentives to better pe
erforming unniversities.
A
As a result, in 2011, 19 and in 2012 29
9 universitie
es out of 551 in total,
rreceived ad
dditional fun
nding, whicch was 5,1 Mln EUR in the firstt year and
7
7,7Mln in the
t
second
d year. Acccordingly the SSH departmentss in these
u
universities were gran
nted with the respec
ctive amounts as parrt of their
b
budgets. According
A
to
o the regu
ulations of the Bulgarian Law oon Higher
E
Education (LHE),
(
up to 10% of the total annual
a
budget subsidyy of each
u
university sh
hould be se
et aside for rresearch, although
a
som
me evidencce from the
C
Council of University
U
Rectors
R
and from the 3 biggest sta
ate universitties points
tto a much lower
l
actua
al percentag
ge being sp
pent on research abbout 2% to
3
3%64. Acco
ording to th
he LHE, e
each university has implementeed internal
rregulations for distrib
bution of re
esearch fin
nding us
sually throuugh grant
sschemes fo
or small-sc
cale researcch projects
s, awarded to single scientists
w
within comp
petition on fa
aculty level . In most un
niversities, where SSH
H exist, the
sshares of allocated
a
res
sources forr the respec
ctive faculties is predeefined and
h
have not varied during the last 5 yyears.
W
Within the NSF, univ
versities ca
an compete for funding in thee biannual
S
Stimulating of Scientific
c Research in Universiities competition, whichh supports
tthe impleme
entation of projects
p
in sscientific fie
elds, concen
ntrated in unniversities.
((Section 2.5
5 Important Research P
Programme
es has more
e informatioon on NSF
p
programmes and funding data)
6
63
6
64

th

Available in Bulgarian
B
langua
age at http://lex .bg/laws/ldoc/21
133886466, retrrieved July 17 , 2011.
ERAWATCH Research Inven
ntory Guideliness of the Country
y Fiche 14/12/20
010

33
3

In 2009-2
2011, BAS state
s
subsid
dy decrease
ed with 30%
% from 43,33 Mln to 30,8
Mln euro despite the
e fact that t he GDP of the country
y increasedd by 10% on
an annual basis for the same pe
eriod. BAS total
t
externa
al funding fr
from nationa
al
and foreig
gn sources
s also drop
pped. The biggest ga
ap was expperienced in
2010, whe
en externall funding sa
aw 38% decrease, while in 2011 due to 28%
%
increase in
i external national fun
nding, the to
otal externa
al funding reeached EUR
R
24.1 millio
on.
BAS fund
ding Mln. euro
e
(2009-2
2011)
4331
13.1
29671.0

30678.1

30
0819.6
24077.0

184553.4

2
2009
Staatesubsidy

2010

2011

ExternalFuunding(nation
nal+foreign)

Source: BAS
B
Annual Reports
External funding
f
of th
he SSH insstitutes at th
he BAS had
d been increeasing in the
period prior to the fin
nancial crisiss. In 2005 this
t
funding amounted to roughly 1
million Eu
uros, whereas in 2009 it amounted
d to EUR 4.1 million. T
The situation
changed in 2010 and
d 2011 due to the budg
get cuts and
d the followeed decrease
of externa
al national and
a foreign financing (s
see the grap
ph below).
SSH instiitutes fund
ding Mln. eu
uro (2010-2
2011)

4856.7
428
85.0

2413.55
2043.2

2010
2011
421.9 39
95.8

Stattesubsidy

External National
Funnding

ExternalFo
oreign
Fundin
ng

Source: BAS
B
Annual Reports

34
4

B
Best perforrming SSH institutes at BAS in 2011 (external fundin
ng in euro
p
per capita)
Institute
e

ernal
Exte
National
Fun
nding

xternal
Ex
Foreign
Fu
unding

Total
External
Funding

N
National Institute of Archaeolog
A
gy
w
with Museu
um

11 365
3

11 365

Institute for Bulgarian

n Language
e

1 611

2 704

4 315

87
72

586

1 458

Institute for the Study

y of Societiies
a
and Knowle
edge

S
Source: Ow
wn calculatio
ons, based o
on the data
a from the BAS Annual Reports
3
3.2.3 Individ
dual funding
g
T
The main source
s
of individual
i
ffunding for SSH researchers is the NSF.
H
Historically the NSF fin
nances indivviduals on a competitive basis thhrough two
Bulgarian
sschemes: support for young
y
scien
ntists and support for established
e
sscientists. New
N
schem
me was inttroduced in
n 2007: rein
ntegration grants for
B
Bulgarian scientists
s
working abro
oad.,. In 20
008-2011, these
t
sche mes were
kkept and ne
ew ones were launched
d. (see Tablle below)
N
NSF schem
mes for individual fun ding
S
Scheme

Calll sessions

Tarrget Group

R
Reintegratiion
G
Grants for
B
Bulgarian
R
Researchers
W
Working
A
Abroad

200
08, 2009 (1--3yea
ars terms off
imp
plementatio
on)

earchers, woorking
Bullgarian rese
abrroad, Highe
er educationns
institutions and
d research
units/centres; Technologyy and
innovation cen
ntres (non-pprofit)

B
Bilateral
c
cooperation
w
with variou
us
c
countries,
including the
R
RILA
p
programme
e
w
with France
e

08, 2009, 20
012
200
bud
dget (1-3-ye
ears
term
ms of
imp
plementatio
on)

searchers (aas
Sciientists / res
individuals); Higher educaations
institutions; Otther non-proofit
res
search organisations (nnot HEI);
Tec
chnology an
nd innovatioon centres
(no
on-profit)

Y
Young scie
entist
c
competition

08, 2009, 20
011
200
(1-3
3-years term
ms of
imp
plementatio
on)

You
ung scientis
sts in publicc and
priv
vate funded
d research
org
ganisations and HEIs, bbusiness
entterprises an
nd NGOs

08
200

Doctoral stude
ents, preparring their
PhD theses in business
entterprises in Bulgaria annd abroad

G
Grants for
d
doctoral
s
students in
n
b
business

35
5

enterpris
ses
Sabbatical year
of Bulgarrian
scientists
s

2008
2

Senior
S
scien
ntists, prepaaring
academic
a
pu
ublications aas result off
th
heir multian
nnual researrch activitie
es

National
competition for
academic
c
monogra
aphs,
collection
n of
papers an
nd
periodica
al
journals

2011
2

In
ndividual re
esearchers oor research
h
te
eams, HEIs
s, public funnded
re
esearch org
ganisations

Source: National
N
Science Fund,, 2013
The Minisstry of Edu
ucation, Yo
outh and Science
S
als
so run andd coordinatte
several bilateral
b
prrograms wiith various
s countries that allow
w individua
al
scientists to become funding bu
ut none of th
hem is direc
cted only toowards SSH
H.
There is no availablle data on how many
y scientists in the SSH
H field hav
ve
benefited from these programme
es.
on to the NSF
N
funding
g, there is only a sing
gle organissation in the
In additio
country th
hat has offe
ered individu
ual funding without a break
b
in thee last eleven
years, directed partticularly tow
wards SSH
H and namely
n
the Centre fo
or
Advanced
d Study So
ofia (CAS). The Centrre is registe
ered as a not-for-proffit
organisatiion and sup
pports interrdisciplinary
y and intern
national ressearch in the
social sciences and
d the huma
anities. It is a member of the internationa
al
network of
o Institutes
s for Advan
nced Study in the US
S and Europpe. Since itts
establishm
ment in 200
00 the Cen
ntre has ho
osted about 15 major internationa
al
and interd
disciplinary research p
projects, ha
aving suppo
orted the w
work of morre
than 240 researcherrs from ove
er 25 countrries. Since its establis hment, CAS
S
owships to
o individual researche
ers and thhe share of
o
offers ressearch fello
Bulgarians among th
hem is 56%.. The Centrre relies on annual aveerage budge
et
of 350 thousand euro, fundraissed from diifferent pub
blic and privvate funding
agencies.. About 75%
% of the bud
dget is allocated to res
search whille the rest is
i
spent for institutionall expenses.
gramme Fu
unding
3.2.4 Prog
Programm
me- and prroject-based
d public re
esearch fun
nding is onn the rise in
Bulgaria. According to the ann
nual govern
nment budg
gets for edducation and
science, project-bas
sed funding
g has gained in im
mportance ssince 2007
7.
Operation
nal program
mmes, man
naged by respective ministries,
m
also ensurre
programm
me- and pro
oject-based
d funding. Currently
C
th
here are 2 Operationa
al
Programm
mes dedica
ated to SS
SH researc
ch funding - Human Resource
es
Developm
ment and Administrati
A
ve Capacitty, while fe
ew specificc operation
ns
within OP
P Competittiveness an
nd OP Reg
gional Deve
elopment aalso provide
support. The
T NSF prrovides co--financing under
u
COST
T (a total vaalue of EUR
R
74,306 for 7 projects) and FP7 ((EUR 581,4
462 for 28 projects) proogrammes.

36
6

N
NSF co-fina
ancing for projects u
under COST
T and FP7 programm
mes (20072
2012)
12
2

250000
11
1
200000

10
0

236588
8

150000

146078
1
6

135936

100000
4

628559

50000

1
5752

34768

19470
0

2
1
14316
0

BAS
FP7

Sofia University OtherUniversit

O
ties
COST

No.ProjectsFP7

Othher

No.ProjectsCCOST

S
Source: NSF

3
3.3 Private research funding
f
S
SSH funding from the private secctor is generally quite low, and preecise data
o
on top perfo
ormers is un
navailable.

3
3.4 Founda
ations/ not--for-profit fu
unding
F
Funding fro
om not-for--profit orga
anizations in Bulgaria
a is quite low and
rrepresents about 4% of
o the total SSH R&D expenditure
es in 2010 according
tto the officia
al statistics. Hence, the
e SSH-related non-proffit sector is one of the
important re
esearch perrformers in tthe country, attracting mainly pubblic funding
ffrom EC and
d OPs.
S
Spending on
o SSH res
search (in m
million Eurro) by secto
or
Total
T

G
Govern
m
ment

Higher
Educati
on

Nonprofit

Business

S
SSH GERD
D 2009

20.368

13.85

5.398

0.761

0.359

S
SSH GERD
D 2010

14.776

9.108

4.778

0.634

0.257

S
Source: Eurrostat
A
Among the major not-ffor-profit org
rganisations
s, offering projectp
andd programb
based fundiing for SSH
H related ressearch in th
he last deca
ade are Opeen Society
F
Foundation,, Trust for Civil
C Societyy in Central and Easterrn Europe, Centre for
A
Advanced Study
S
Sofia
a and few o
other smalle
er organisations (e.g. Workshop

37
7

for Civic Initiatives /W

WCI/). All o
of them are
e project-ba
ased organ isations tha
at
redistributte external financial rresources, successfully fundraiseed by them
m.
Recently, OCF and WCI mana
age the NG
GO Fund as
s a sub-proogram of the
EEA Gran
nts and No
orway Gran
nts, aiming at reducing
g economicc and socia
al
disparitiess and to sttrengthening
g bilateral relations with
w 15 EU countries in
Central an
nd Southern
n Europe.

3.5 Europ
pean and internationa
al funding
Private se
ector and in
nternational programme
es, notably EU RTDI pprogrammes
s,
are availa
able to Bulg
garian publi c and priva
ate research
h organisatiions, though
their resp
pective relattive shares in the total R&D finan
ncing have been rathe
er
small in 2007-2008
8 but incre
eased durin
ng the perriod of 20 09-2012. In
compariso
on with FP6, Bulgaria
a shows a stable
s
positive trend oof increased
participatiion in FP7. For the p
period 2007
7-2012, the
e total num
mber of FP7
projects with
w Bulgarian participa
ants is 565, that amou
unt to 78,77m for these
participan
nts. Major research p
performers remain the
e BAS andd the Sofia
Universityy but anotther positivve trend is the app
pearance oof busines
ss
enterprise
es (e.g. Sirrma Group, an ICT prrivate comp
pany) and not-for-proffit
organisatiions (e.g. ARC
A
Fund, innovation policy research think-ttank) among
the research leaders
s both in terrms of numb
ber of projects and of aattracted EC
C
funding.
n participattion in FP7
7 (2007-2012)
Bulgarian

Source: Ministry
M
of Education,
E
Y
Youth and Science,
S
201
13
ow many of
o these pro
ojects are S
SSH related
It is difficcult to be estimated ho
because except forr the priori ty areas Science in Society aand Socio
oeconomicc Sciences and Huma
anities the
ere are ma
any other pprojects tha
at

38
8

m
might be classified as
s SSH rese
earch, even
n falling un
nder differeent priority
a
areas65. To
ogether with
h the three
e projects, funded through the European
R
Research Council,
C
thatt are strictlyy in the SSH
H field, the total numbber of SSH
p
projects is 37, with 6,5m

EC contribution for the respective Bulgarian

p
participants. A rough estimation of the oth
her projects
s, outside tthe above
tthree prioritty areas, ba
ased on afffiliation of the
t
participa
ating instituutions to a
sspecific scie
ence field, shows thatt there are more than 55 projectts with 3,3
m
mln euro tha
at might be classified a
as SSH-rela
ated.
B
Bulgarian participatio
p
on in FP7 2
2007-2012 (selected
(
priority areaas)
3
35000000
3
30000000
2
25000000
2
20000000
1
15000000
1
10000000
5000000
0

356
3

12

22

56
14

53

52

400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

ECRequestted
Contributioon
(EUR)

S
Source: Min
nistry of Edu
ucation, You
uth and Science, 2013
arian Coo
as launche
ed the Swiss-Bulg
S
In March 2011 wa
operation
P
Programme
e, part of the recent Bilateral Framework
F
Agreemen t, through
w
which Switzzerland supports Bulga
aria with a total
t
amoun
nt of 76 mil lion Swiss
ffrancs (61,5
5 mln euro)) for the pe
eriod 2008 2012. Th
he thematicc priorities
a
are: Securrity, stabiliity, and ssupport fo
or reforms; Environm
ment and
infrastructurre; Promotion of the
e private sector; and Human aand social
d
developmen
nt. In all of them and particularly
y in the lastt one, theree are subttopics focussed on SSH
H related ressearch.
A
Another imp
portant interrnational fun
ce is the alre
eady mentiooned EEA
nding sourc
G
Grants and
d Norway Grants, aiiming at re
educing eco
onomic andd regional
d
disparities of
o Central and
a South E
European countries
c
with the EU1 5. For the
p
period 2009
9-2014, EEA and Norrway Grants
s amount for 1.8 billioon euro in
ttotal, while 126,6 mln
n euro are
e allocated to Bulgaria. Each bbeneficiary
ccountry agrees on a se
et of progra
ammes with
h the donorr countries, based on
n
national nee
eds and prriorities and
d the scope
e for cooperation with the donor
ccountries. All
A program
mmes mustt adhere to
o standards relating to human

6
65

E.g. Marie-Cu
urie Actions, Re
esearch for the e
enfit of SMEs, Regions
R
of know
wledge, etc.

39
9

rights, good governa

ance, sustaiinable deve
elopment an
nd gender eequality. Fo
or
Bulgaria, the agreed areas of su
upport are:

Streng
gthening the
e justice se ctor through
h reforms

Assistting in the fight againstt organised crime, inclu

uding trafficcking

Comb
bating violen
nce against women

ulnerable groups, inclu

Improving the situ
uation for vu
uding Romaa

Promo
oting green industry inn
novation

Improving public health and reducing health inequalities

e priorities, tthere are SSH related sub-topics or funds arre

In most off the above
allocated to SSH-rela
ated beneficciaries.
EEA Gran
nts and No
orway Gran
nts (Mln. eu
uro)

Source: EEA
E
Grants and Norwa
ay Grants web-site,
w
Jan
nuary 2013

40
0

4
4. Perform
ming Syste
em
4
4.1 Overvie
ew of the performers
p
A
According to
o national statistics
s
the
ere were 4,,972 SSH research peersonnel in
2
2011. This represents
s a 118% increase frrom 2000 when
w
the ffigure was
2
2,281. The Bulgarian Academy o
of Sciences
s continues
s to be the dominant
p
performer of
o SSH research em
mploying 19
9% of the total SSH research
p
personnel (963 people
e in 2011). O
Out of them
m, the 12 SSH
S
institutees at BAS
e
employed a total of 67
76 research
hers. The second
s
imp
portant SSH
H research
p
performer are
a the univ
versities (b
both public and private
e) but exacct data on
S
SSH related
d staff and projects iss missing. In
n general, the main a ctivities of
tthe universities are sttill directed towards te
eaching, while researcch is only
a
additional. In most of them (e.g
g. the bigge
est and the
e oldest onne - Sofia
U
University), research activity of the staff have been
n evaluatedd annually
he former are not us
ttogether with the teac
ching but th
sed to deteermine the
p
personal acchievements
s and subse
equently the
t remune
eration. As m
mentioned
main SSH
a
above, the not-for-proffit organisattions have emerged as
s the third m
rresearch pe
erformer in the countryy in last ye
ears. They could
c
be diivided into
ttwo parts autonomous think-tan
nks and org
ganisations
s, set up byy research
sstaff from universities
u
or academ ia, that usu
ually work within
w
the innstitutional
fframework of
o the respe
ective publi c funded re
esearch unit. The latterr ones are
ccalled usua
ally academ
mic NGOs and many of them arre used to reallocate
ffinances to their founde
ers and me mbers, ben
nefiting from
m the track-rrecord and
tthe cost-fre
ee use of the resou
urces of the respecttive public research
ast three to
o
organisation
n.66 In addition, in the la
o five years, few privatee business
e
enterprises have arose
e as resea
arch perform
mers, mainly participatting in the
F
FPs and in in a lesser degree in the OPs
s. Particula
arly, if the pper-capitaccriterion is applied to
o all resea
arch perforrmers in terms of nnumber of
cconducted projects
p
and
d budget tu rnover, sev
veral of the think-tanks appeared
tto be the mo
ost success
sful SSH ressearch perfformers.

6
66

Novakov, S. and
a Danova Ts. 2010. Non-govvernmental orga
anisations as an
n additional careeer. In:
Slavova, P. 20
010. What Shou
uld I be? What jjob is right for me?
m
Professional trajectories oof sociology
graduates form
m Sofia University: 1990-2006, East-West Pub
blishing House, Sofia
S

41
1

Number of
o SSH researchers in
n Bulgaria

Source: National
N
Sta
atistical Instiitute, 2013

er Educatio
on Institutio
ons
4.2 Highe
4.2.1 HEIs as educattion perform
mers
Currently,, there are
er educatio
e 51 highe
on institutions in Buulgaria. Thiis
comprisess 42 unive
ersities and
d higher ed
ducation in
nstitutions, 41 college
es
within the
e higher sc
chool system
m and 9 in
ndependentt colleges. 63% of the
universitie
es are loca
ated in the
e three majjor cities: Sofia
S
(17 uuniversities),
Plovdiv (5
5 universities) and V
Varna (4 universities). A total oof 44 highe
er
education
n institutions
s are accre
edited for prrogrammes in the fieldd of SSH. Of
O
these, 13 are private
ely-funded a
and 31 rely
y on state subsidy.
s
Thee number of
o
universitie
es has expa
anded rapid
dly in the past
p
two de
ecades whille personne
el
have rem
mained larg
gely unchan
nged. As a result ed
ducational aand support
expensess are increa
asing and th
he quality of
o teaching is decliningg. The majo
or
problems facing the
e higher ed
ducation sy
ystem in Bulgaria
B
todday are: the
distributio
on of the lim
mited publicc budget res
sources am
mong a largee number of
o
institutions; the lack of researcch experience in the majority
m
of tthe teaching
staff, espe
ecially in th
he SSH field
d; constantlly decreasin
ng quality oof education
n;
and the la
ack of mana
agement ex perience67.
According
g to statistics availablle through the Bulgarrian Nationaal Statistica
al
Institute th
here were 224,396
2
stu
udents in te
ertiary education in 20001/2002 and
264,082 in
n 2011/2012, represen
nting an 18%
% increase.

67

ERAWATC
CH country repo
ort 2009, p 26.

42
2

S
Students in
n tertiary ed
ducation (iin thousands)
B
Bulgaria

2007/20
2
08

2008/
2009

2009/
2010

2010/
2
2011
2

20011/
20012

N
Number of sttudents

260,110
2

2
270,298

283,236

28
81,170

2644,082

S
Source: Nattional Statis
stical Institu te, 2013
D
Despite the slight ups and downs in total num
mber of students in SS
SH-related
a
areas, the average
a
increase in the
e last 5 years is very marginal
m
(0.004%). The
sshare of SS
SH students
s out of the
e total num
mber of all students, aalso varies
sslightly, whe
ereas in 20
011/2012, 5
59% of all students
s
were enrolledd in SSHrrelated univversity progrrammes.
S
SSH studen
nts in Bulg
garia (2007--2012)
2007//
2008

2008/
2009

S
SSH Studentts (BA* and
M
MS)

155,90
05

158,608
8

A
All Students (BA* and MS
S)

260,11 0
60%

S
SSH Studentts as a % of
ttotal studentss

2009/
2010

2010/
2011

2011/
2012

161,791

157,719

156,028

270,298
8

283,236

281,170

264,082

59%

57%

56%

59%

**Also includ
des Profess
sional Bacccalaureate
S
Source: Nattional Statis
stical Institu te, 2013
T
There are seven
s
main universitiess in Bulgaria
a for SSH. Their
T
overaall capacity
in the field of
o social sciences and humanities
s is 92,866 students,
s
w
which takes
in to acco
ount Profes
ssional Ba
accalaureate
e, Baccala
aureate annd Master
sstudents.
U
University capacity (n
number of s
students) in
i the SSH field
Profess-ional BA
A

BA

Masterr

Total

S
Sofia Unive
ersity "St. Kliment
K
O
Ohridski"

13750
0

7415

21165

""St. Cyril and St. Meth

hodius"
U
University of Veliko Tarnovo
T

320

9135

3905

13360

P
Plovdiv University "P
Paisii
H
Hilendarski

11805
5

4278

16083

S
South-Wes
st Universitty "Neofit
R
Rilski" Bllagoevgrad
d

8438

3562

12000

University

43
3

American
n University in
Bulgaria

169
98

1600

1858

Universitty of Nation
nal and
World Ec
conomy Sofia
S

1587
70

68330

0
22700

New Bulg
garian Univ
versity

358
81

21119

5700

Source: National
N
Eva
aluation and
d Accreditattion Agency
y, 201368
Data from
m the Bulga
arian Nation
nal Statistica
al Institute shows that the numbe
er
of doctora
al students in SSH durring the 201
11/2012 aca
ademic yeaar was 2201
1,
which is a 17% increase from th
he previous academic year.
y
Regarding
g education
n policy, in M
May 2010 th
he Bulgarian Parliamennt adopted a
new Law
w on the Developme
ent of the Academic Staff (LD
DAS), whic
ch
abolished
d the previo
ous act datting back to 1972. Th
he main poolicy change
introduced
d by the LDAC is the
e abolishme
ent of a sin
ngle nationaal body tha
at
manages all academic care
eer promottions (the Supreme Attestation
Commission) and its replacem
ment with scientific
s
jurries hostedd within an
ny
particular academic institution699. In the sam
me year the
e Ministry oof Education
n,
Youth and Science introduced
d the first university
u
ra
ating systeem, which is
i
intended to serve as
a a tool ffor discretio
onary state
e funding aaccording to
t
universitie
es achieve
ements. Ass mentioned
d above, the universsities rating
gs
were use
ed in 2011 budget-yea
ar and then
n in 2012, and about 10% of the
available budget su
ubsidy wass redistribu
uted among
g the bestt performing
universitie
es according to the ressults of the rating systtem. Additioonally, again
in 2010, a credit sch
heme provid
ding loans to
t students has been llaunched fo
or
the first tim
me since 19
989.

ers
4.2.2 HEIs as researrch performe
e central planning systtem before 1989, the research oorganization
ns
Under the
and highe
er educatio
on institutio ns were diivided, whille the latteer have only
limited ressearch capacity. In the
e field of SS
SH, researc
ch institutess at the BAS
S
still domin
nate the res
search secto
or. Universities in Bulg
garia have oonly recently
been form
mally recogn
nised as ressearch perfo
ormers. Tho
ough univerrsities had in
effect don
ne research
h in the passt, before th
he adoption
n of the Law
w on Highe
er
Education
n in 1995 th
hey were so
olely teachiing and edu
ucation insttitutions witth
no researrch tasks. The law n ow states that up to 10% of thhe universitty
budget sh
hall be dev
voted to re search. No
o formal stu
udy has beeen done of
o
whether universities
s comply with the rule, thou
ugh most universitie
es
sporadica
ally complain about no
ot spending more than 2-3% of thheir budgetts
70
on researrch .

68

Reference
e for NEAA capa
acity for the acccreditation of uniiversities, profes
ssional fields annd education
programme
es from the regu
ulated profession
ns, as of April 2011
2
(in Bulgaria
an). Accessed 226 January 2013
3.

69
70

ERAWATC
CH country repo
ort 2009, p 4
ERAWATC
CH country repo
ort 2009, p 25

44
4

In 2009 HE
ERD for SSH was EUR
R 5.4 millio
on. This rep
presents moore than a
4
400% incre
ease from the 2003 level whe
en HERD for SSH w
was EUR
1
1.07million. The overa
all trend of increase was
w discontinued in 20010, when
H
HERD for SSH
S
amoun
nted to EU R 4.78 milllion (markin
ng an 11% decrease
ffrom 2009).
In terms of university participation
n in the EU
U FPs, two of the pubblic funded
u
universities (Sofia University and
d Plovdiv University) th
hat have laarge SSHrrelated facu
ulties, have
e appeared
d among the most successful iin gaining
p
projects butt the availab
ble data sho
ow that mos
st of the pro
ojects, contrributing for
tthis situation
n are condu
ucted by en
ngineering, technical
t
an
nd nature ssciences in
tthese unive
ersities. The case of the privatte New Bulgarian Unniversity is
sspecific, beccause it em
merged amo
ong the 7FP
P beneficiarries with a ssingle, but
sstrictly SSH
H project funded by th
he Europea
an Research
h Council. The other
ttwo Bulgarian projects
s funded byy the ERC,, are also in the SSH
H field and
w
were won by
b the Sofia
a Universityy and the Centre
C
for Advanced
A
Sttudy Sofia
((a not-for-prrofit organis
sation).
B
Bulgarian participatio
p
on in FP7 (2
2007-2012))

S
Source: Min
nistry of Edu
ucation, You
uth and Science, 2013

4
4.3 Public Research
R
Organisatio
O
ons
T
The Bulgarian Academ
my of Sciencces is by fa
ar the larges
st research performer
in Bulgaria, and is the only autono
omous natio
onal research organizaation. BAS
h
has hybrid functions
f
off both a socciety of acad
demics and
d a national centre for
b
basic and applied res
search, witth research
h units in all
a fields of science.
A
Although both parts are relative
ely distinctt with theirr own stru cture and
g
governance
e, they are working
w
und
der the com
mmon umbre
ella of the ccentralised
m
managemen
nt bodies.
U
Under stro
ong politica
al pressure
e, in 2009 BAS ha
as initiatedd serious
rrestructuring
g, including
g a decreas e of both scientific and
d administraative staff,

45
5

and a deccrease of au
utonomous research units
u
from 72
2 to 42 by m
mergers and
acquisitions. The fu
unding of tthe academ
my comes from an aannual statte
budget subsidy and
d external ffunding fro
om grants schemes aand industrry
contract research.
r
The state bu
udget is spe
ent mainly on labour ccosts (abou
ut
80%), wh
hile the on
nly source for researrch expend
ditures is tthe externa
al
funding, which
w
reach
hed about 40% of the
e total fund
ding of the academy in
2011. The
e biggest pa
art of the exxternal fund
ding comes from reseaarch projectts
and grantts, funded mainly thro
ough intern
national organizations (Frameworrk
Programm
mes of the EC,
E NATO, etc.) and a few national sources ((Operationa
al
Programm
mes and Na
ational Scien
nce Fund). As already discussed, 2010 saw a
reduction in the pre
e-approved budget forr BAS of 40%
4
with oonly a sligh
ht
increase in next two years but still under the level off 2008 in booth absolutte
terms and
d as share of
o the GDP
P. This left the academy with a tottal budget of
o
EUR 53.6
6 million in
n 2010 and
d EUR 51.2
2 million in 2011. Natturally, SSH
H
institutes also operrated with restricted financial re
esource. O
Overall statte
subsidy fo
or SSH insttitutes in 20
010 amountted to EUR 7.5 million and slightlly
increased
d in 2011, despite
d
the overall dec
crease in th
he total BAS
S budget, to
t
EUR 7.7 million.
m
BAS budget (mln eu
uro)

Source: BAS
B
Annual Reports
10 the SSH
H institutes within the BAS are situated in tw
two thematiic
Since 201
areas (Cu
ultural Herittage and N
National Ide
entity, and Man and S
Society) and
include:

ute for Bulga

arian Langu
uage:
Institu

Institu
ute for Litera
ature:

Institu
ute for Balka
an Studies w
with Centre for Thracology:

Institu
ute for History Studies:

Institu
ute for Ethno
ology and F
Folklore Studies with Museum
M
of E
Ethnography
y

46
6

Institute for Arts Stu

udies

National Archaeolo
ogical Institu
ute with Mus
seum of Arc
chaeology

Scientific Centre for Cyrillo-Me

ethodian Stu
udies

Institute for Econom

mic Studies

Institute for the State and Law

w

Institute for Populattion and Hu

uman Studie
es

Institute for the Study of Socie

eties and Kn
nowledge

T
The instituttes with the
e largest e
external fun
nding for SSH projects
ts in 2011
w
were: the National Institute of Arch
haeology with
w Museum
m with 1.3 m
million euro
((all from nattional sourc
ces); the Insstitute for Bulgarian Language witth 358,172
e
euro (133,7
741 from Bulgaria
B
and
d 224,431 from foreig
gn funding)); and the
Institute forr the Study of Socie
eties and Knowledge with 211,,435 euro
((126,467 eu
uro national and 84,968
8 euro foreign funding)).

4
4.4 Private research performers
p
s
S
SSH researrch is carrie
ed out pred
dominantly in public fu
unded instittutions but
n
not-for-profit organizations are pa
articularly strong
s
in EU and inte rnationally
ffunded rese
earch. In terrms of rese arch perforrmance per capita, sevveral thinkttanks outstrip the pub
blic funded research organization
o
ns. (see seection 3.5.
E
European and international fun
nding) Whiile there is no resttriction on
rresearcher mobility between the
e public an
nd private sector, it is a rare
o
occurrence.. Mobility exists
e
prima
arily toward
ds foreign research innstitutions.
W
Within the private sector, non-g
governmenttal organiza
ations carrry out the
m
majority of SSH rese
earch, altho
ough precis
se figures regarding the main
p
performers are not ava
ailable, exce
ept for the FP7,
F
mentioned above..

4
4.5 Researrch perform
mance
4
4.5.1 Scienttific publications
T
The latest SCOPUS
S
da
ata puts the
e number off the Bulgarrian SSH puublications
in 2011 at 156,
1
while the average
e annual gro
owth rate 2005-2011 iss 14,8%.71
T
The data demonstrate
d
e the existi ng positive
e trend of constantly
c
increasing
n
number of peer-review
wed SSH p
publications, the more so as the period of
2
2004-2008, as compa
ared to 19
999-2003, has
h
seen a 118% inncrease in
B
Bulgarian sccientific pub
blications in
n the social sciences.
s

7
71

Source: Tech
hnopolis Group, SCOPUS datab
base; SSH defin
ned without multidisciplinary jouurnals, only
articles and reviews wer acco
ounted.

47
7

SSH publications by year (num

mbers)

T
Group,
G
SCO
OPUS datab
base
Source: Technoplis
c
ons for the same period (2005-22011) show
ws
The data on SSH co-publicatio
ers works predominan
p
ntly with coountries tha
at
that Bulgarian SSH researche
have well established
d research institutions (e.g. USA, UK, Germaany, France
e,
etc.) and a bit over th
he half (51,2
2%) of all SSH
S
publications are coo-authored.
n SSH co-p
publication
ns by counttry (numbe
ers)
Bulgarian

Source: Technoplis
T
Group,
G
SCO
OPUS datab
base
ailable from
m the Bulg
garian Acad
demy of Sciences
S
22011 annua
al
Data ava
report72 put the number of SSH
H publication
ns by BAS scholars att 4,453. Thiis
72

BAS Annu
ual Report 2011. Accessed 27 JJanuary 2013.

48
8

rrepresents 44% of the

e total BAS
S publicatio
ons for 2011. This datta should,
h
however, be
e interpreted cautiouslyy as it migh
ht not stand
d the scrutinny of more
d
demanding internationa
al recognitio
on standard
ds.

4
4.5.2 Interdiisciplinarity
O
Overview
T
The public debate
d
in Bulgaria
B
abo
out science
e in general revolves aaround the
u
underinvesttment in inn
novations, th
he mismana
agement an
nd misdirecction of the
sscare resou
urces, delay
yed structura
ral reforms in
i both the state authoorities (e.g.
M
Ministry of Education,
E
Youth and Science, National
N
Science Fundd), and the
p
public funded researc
ch and hig
gher educattion instituttions (e.g. Bulgarian
A
Academy of
o Sciences
s, universiti es), and th
he problem
ms associatted with a
p
progressive
ely aging res
searcher po
opulation. Even
E
though
h the prevaiiling topics
ccorrectly suggest that issues
i
such
h as inter- and
a multidis
sciplinarity aare undera
appreciated
d, some refe
erences and
d incentives
s can be fou
und in:

strategicc documentts passed b

by the goverrnment in th
he last 3 yeaars;

the priorities and track record

d of the SS
SH research
h institutes within the
Bulgaria
an Academy
y of Science
es (BAS)

the prio
ority fields and
a
evaluattion criteria
a of the Na
ational Scieence Fund
(NSF)

the eva
aluation me
ethodology used by the Natio
onal Evaluaation and
Accredittation Agency (NEAA) for institutio
onal and pro
ogram accre
reditation.

H
However, itt is notewo
orthy that th
he stimulus
s incorporated in the functional
p
principles of
o these ins
stitutions an
nd in the official
o
docu
uments undder review
cconcern alm
most entirely
y the fosteriing of interd
disciplinary research.
S
Strategic documents
A
Adopted on
n 28.07.20
011, the N
National Re
esearch De
evelopmentt Strategy
73
2
2020 (NR
RDS2020) outlines
o
th e governm
ment policy and respoonsibilities
ttowards the
e developme
ent of Bulga
arian scienc
ce and inno
ovation poteential. The
ffew referencces to SSH-related inte
erdisciplina
arity appear almost excclusively in
rregards to advanced
a
re
esearch inffrastructures
s and facilitties (e.g. thhe national
rresearch in
nfrastructure
es in the field of SSH
S
such as ESSuurvey and
C
CLARIN74). Next to the
t
concen
ntration of resources and moree efficient
u
utilization off national and
a Europe an funds, the fostering
g of interdissciplinarity
is foreseen as one of the concrete
e measures
s of the NRD
DS2020 forr achieving
tthe task of increasing
i
the
t intensityy, effectiven
ness and effficiency of R&D. The
p
progress on
n this measure will b e assessed
d against the numberr of newly
fformed jointt research centres
c
with
h a capacity
y for carrying out interddisciplinary
rresearch.

7
73
7
74

National Rese
earch Developm
ment Strategy 2 020, State Gaze
ette, issue 62 of 12.08.2011

National Roadmap for Resea

arch Infrastructu
ures, Decision of
o the Council off Ministers No 6692 as of
21.09.2010

49
9

As mentioned in th
he previouss paragrap
ph, the other strategicc documen
nt
related to
o the scientiific landsca
ape of the country,
c
whiich treated the issue of
o
inter- an
nd multidisciplinarity is the Na
ational Ro
oadmap forr Researc
ch
Infrastructtures (NRR
RI), publishe
ed in the en
nd of 2010. Out of eighht prominen
nt
national RI,
R 6 of them
m being a p art of the European
E
RI, two were identified as
a
belonging
g to the field
d of SSH:

BG CLARIN,
C
an e-infrastru
ucture for in
ntegration and
a
develo pment of ee
resources related
d to the Bu
ulgarian lang
guage, partt of the Eurropean-wide
CLAR
RIN network.

ESSurvey, an Eu
uropean-wid
de institutio
onalization of the Euroopean socia
al
surveyy (ESS) initiative

In both cases the envisaged

d state sup
pport in te
erms of addministrativ
ve
measuress and funding still faiil to materiialize. Still, even in thhe terms of
o
developin
ng the national re
esearch in
nfrastructure
es, NRRI expressed
predominantly a co
ommitment to fosterin
ng the inte
erdisciplinarry than the
multidiscip
plinary rese
earch. How
wever, som
me of the non-SSH
n
R
RI are being
considere
ed as encou
uraging futu re multidisc
ciplinary effo
orts.
BAS institutes in th
he field of S
SSH
ently (2010)) there were
e 18 institutes within the
t Bulgariaan Academ
my
Until rece
of Sciencce that conducted res earch in th
he field of SSH.
S
Provooked by the
decrease of state budget
b
for the acade
emy and the publiclyy expressed
opinions of top gov
vernment offficials that the acade
emy does nnot produc
ce
tangible results, BA
AS commi ssioned an
n external evaluationn of all itts
institutes. It was carrried out byy the Europ
pean Scien
nce Foundaation and All
A
75
European
n Academie
es and pub
blished in th
he end of 2009
2
, andd displays a
diverse picture
p
with
h regards to the strructure, pro
oductivity, impact and
prospectss of the SH
HH institutess. Defining features of
o the majorrity of these
institutes are their in
nterdisciplin
narity and breadth
b
of scholarly
s
b ackgrounds
s.
nterdisciplinary approacches are co
ommonplac
ce and there
re is a clearrHence, in
cut strate
egy for addiing value th
hrough collaborations within and beyond the
context of
o BAS. Multidisciplin
M
narity on th
he other hand
h
is noot so highlly
developed
d and is usu
ually restriccted to techn
nical issues
s (e.g. the aapplication of
o
ICT and services within
w
SSH research projects
p
or partnershiips between
researche
ers or institutions in te
erms of traiining) and only in few
w cases to
t
limited co
ooperation in doing mu
ultidisciplina
ary research
h (in most ccases within
EU funded projects). The evalua
ation panel recommend
ded the impplementation
of multidissciplinary projects
p
with
hin the Aca
ademy as well
w as wideening of the
external cooperation
c
with unive rsities and private firm
ms. Becausee BAS is the
single larrgest and most
m
imporrtant institu
utional play
yer in the ccountry, the
identified flaws and
d crafted recommendations are to a grreat extend
representtative of the whole Bulg
garian resea
arch system
m.
Following these reco
ommendatio
ons and the
e internal bottom-up p ush toward
ds
reforms, in 2010 th
he BAS un
ndertook an
a overall restructurinng, including
reducing the number of instituttes from ov
ver 70 to 42
2 through m
mergers and
75

Panel 4 Re
eport: Social Sc
ciences and Hum
manities, Europ
pean Science Fo
oundation and A
All European
Academies, 2009

50
0

o
organizing the
t
new un
nits in 9 th ematic rese
earch fields
s.76 One off the main
g
goals of the
e restructurring was to foster the interdisciplinary reseaarch within
tthe new big
gger instituttes. This go
oal was confirmed also in the Prrogram for
S
Stabilization
n and Deve
elopment off BAS in the
e period 20
012-2014.77 However,
a
almost two years afterr the reform
ms, the interr- and multidisciplinaryy research
b
both within and
a with SS
SH institutess is quite lim
mited.
N
National Sc
cience Fun
nd
T
The Nation
nal Science
e Fund, th
he most im
mportant po
olicy impleementation
instrument in the co
ountry, dettermines through its priority aareas the
ccompetitive allocation of the bu
ulk of finan
ncial resou
urces desiggnated for
sscience and innovatio
ons. Apart from foste
ering resea
arch in matthematics,
informatics, natural sciences,
s
medicine, agriculture, engineerring, NSF
p
promote the
e uptake of scientific in itiatives in the
t field of SSH.
S
T
The recognized signific
cance of th
he principles
s of inter- and
a multidissciplinarity
is reflected in the crite
eria used fo
or the evalu
uation of prroject propoosals. The
sscientific qu
uality and value
v
of a proposal is assessed on the bbasis of 5
ccriteria, one
e of which is inter- an
nd multidisc
ciplinarity. Moreover,
M
iits relative
w
weight makkes it one of
o the most decisive fa
actor in this
s subsectionn. Another
e
evaluation criteria, this
s time rela
ated to the implementtation of thhe project,
a
assesses th
he intensity of collaborration with other
o
scientific teams, regarding
b
both inter- and
a multidis
sciplinarity.
T
The recentlyy published
d results of the latest NSF
N
funding session rreveal that
o
out of 95 selected
s
pro
oject propo sals a total of 24 fall into the caategory of
S
SSH. The call
c fiche underscored
d the pursu
ued multi-institutional iintegration
b
between un
niversities, BAS
B
instituttes, private enterprises
s and NGO
Os and, by
implication, the soughtt-after inter-- and multid
disciplinarity
y. Approxim
mately one
tthird of the projects
p
are
e interdiscip
plinary in na
ature. The only one whiich can be
cclassified ass multidiscip
plinary foressees digitalization of Bulgarian liteerature.
N
NEAA evaluation crite
eria
78
T
The Nationa
al Evaluatio
on and Accrreditation Agency
A
is the
t statutorry body for
e
evaluation, accreditatio
on and mo
onitoring of the quality
y in higher education
institutions and scientific organizzations (e.g
g. BAS). Th
hrough its eevaluation
m
methodolog
gy and crriteria, NEA
AA has the
t
power to influeence their
m
managemen
nt and be
ehaviour. A
According to
t the critteria for innstitutional
a
accreditation of univ
versities79, innovative
e research
h is an important
d
determinantt of their competitive
c
ness and it is weigh
hted accorddingly. An
interdisciplin
nary appro
oach is sta
ated as on
ne of the modes undder which
innovative projects co
ould be ca
arried out. However, the introdduction of
interdisciplin
narity is no
ot an oblig
gatory prere
equisite for receiving a higher
sscore. The concept
c
of multidiscipl inarity does
s not even find
f
expresssion in the

7
76
7
77
7
78
7
79

BAS Annual Report

R
2010, p. 62,
http://www.ba
as.bg/fce/001/00
079/files/bbb.pd
df
http://www.ne
eaa.governmentt.bg/

aa.government.bg/assets/cms//File/criteria/NAO
OA_Kriterialna%
%20sistema%200za%20IA_Ju
http://www.nea
ne%202011.pd
df

51
1

evaluation
n schemes. The criteri a for progra
am accredittation, that refer both to
t
universitie
es and BAS insttitutes, do
o not en
ncourage inter- and
multidiscip
plinarity an
nd in fact, do not tak
ke them as
s a factor ffor the fina
al
evaluation
n.
Interdisciplinary res
search cen
ntres
e three groups of rese
earch units
s in the field of SSH tthat perform
m
There are
predominantly interd
disciplinary research, while
w
some
e of them hhave limited
number of
o multidiscip
plinary rese
earch projec
cts. Still, to best of ourr knowledge
e,
there is not
n a single research ccentre, whic
ch is focuse
ed on multi disciplinaritty
as its major capability
y.
g
is rep
presented b
by a single and
a unique for Bulgariaa centre and
The first group
namely th
he Centre fo
or Advanced
d Study (CA
AS).80 Founded in 20000 out of the
Sofia Accademic NE
EXUS Projject, CAS has deve
eloped intoo a leading
institution for interdisciplinary rresearch an
nd scholars
s exchangee in Bulgaria
and South
h-Eastern Europe
E
in th
he field of SSH.81
S
The CAS is inddependent of
o
state stru
uctures and preserve
es high sc
cientific sta
andards byy approving
projects and
a
fellows
ships solelyy in accord
dance with scientific ccriteria. The
research conducted in the CAS is structure
ed in thema
atically focu sed projectts
on which several fellows collab
borated. Rec
cently, this has been eexpanded to
t
include fe
ellowships fo
or individua
al projects. Among the projects, hhosted at the
CAS is alsso an ERC Starting Grrant, headed by a foreign fellow off the Centre
e.
During the eleven ye
ears since its founding, the Centtre has awaarded abou
ut
200 fellow
wships to young
y
as w
well as esta
ablished res
searchers ffrom variou
us
scientific fields. Stro
ongly repre
esented are
e history, cu
ultural sciennces and art
history, ethnology
e
and
a
social anthropolog
gy, sociology, and jurrisprudence
e.
These arre joined with
w
marke
edly smalle
er parts fo
or philosopphy, politica
al
science, and
a the med
dia science
es, as well as
a Slavic Studies. Abouut half of the
fellowship
ps awarded so far have
e gone to Bulgarians. A majority oof the foreign
fellows ha
ave come frrom the neig
ghbouring countries
c
off South-Easstern Europe
(Romania
a, Serbia an
nd Montene
egro, Slove
enia, Greec
ce, Macedoonia, Turkey
y,
and Hung
gary); a sma
aller portion
n came from
m Central Eastern Euroope (Poland
d,
the Czecch Republic, Slovakia
a) and oth
her Europe
ean states (Germany
y,
Finland, France,
F
Brittain, Italy, L
Lithuania, Austria,
A
Russia, Swedden) and the
United Sta
ates.82
The seco
ond group consists off centres, established
d within unniversities or
o
research institutes both in forrm of auton
nomous nott-for-profit l egal entitie
es
or departtmental unitts at the re
espective organization
o
ns. In the m
most cases
s,
these centres supp
plement an
nd expand the core activities oof the hos
st
organizatiion or the
e respective
e research
hers teams
s and rem
main related
predominantly to a single
s
scien
ntific field. However,
H
all of them aare open fo
or
and coop
perate in practice with SSH resea
archers or similar cenntres outside
their main
n field of expertise. Main chara
acteristic off these ce ntres is the

80
81

www.cas.b
bg

The descriiption is based on:

o Evaluation R
Report on the Centre
C
for Advan
nced Study, Soffia. MC,
Wissentsch
haftkolleg zu Berlin, 2011

82

Ibid. p. 8

52
2

p
project-base
ed organisa
ation which
h often could not pro
ovide long--term and
ssustainable developme
ent.
A
As a recentt analysis stated out, tthe establishment of su
uch researcch centres
a
as autonom
mous not-ffor-profit le
egal entities
s is often a reactioon against
m
mismanage
ement and bureaucrati
b
c bottlenec
cks at the academic
a
innstitutions.
A
At the same
e time, therre are manyy cases, wh
hen this forrm of registtered legal
e
entity is use
ed as an in
nstrument fo
or duplicating existing research pprojects at
tthe academ
mic institutions, which rresults in misuse
m
of fun
nding throuugh double
rreporting an
nd payment of the sam
me activities..83
T
The third grroup of interdisciplinaryy centres consists of autonomous
a
s research
non-govern
o
oriented
nmental
o
organisation
ns
(think-tanks)
pperforming
SSH. First
p
predominan
ntly policy- and
a applied - oriented research in the
t field of S
o
of them we
ere establis
shed imme
ediately afte
er the colla
apse of thee socialist
rregime in th
he beginning
g of 1990-s and curren
ntly some off them are tthe largest
a
and the mo
ost well known within tthe country and abroad (e.g. Opeen Society
F
Foundation,, the Cente
er for the S
Study of Democracy, th
he Center ffor Liberal
S
Strategies, the Applied
d Research
h and Com
mmunications Fund, etc
tc.). In the
n
next years, with the constantly
c
iincreasing internationa
al donors programs,
including EU
U funding, the number of such org
ganisations increased.884 Most of
tthem have constituted themselve
es following not only th
he institutioonal model
b
but also the
t
themattic prioritie
es of theirr Western Europeann or U.S.
ccounterpartss and /or donors.
d
Du ring the las
st two deca
ades, somee of these
tthink-tanks have evolve
ed in interd isciplinary research
r
ce
entres with sstable and
long-term th
hematic div
vision of the
eir research activities and have employed
background
p
personnel with
w diverse
e scientific b
d. Examples
s of such t hink-tanks
a
are provided
d below.
E
Examples
E
Examples of
o interdisciplinary ressearch centtres (think-ttanks), regiistered as
N
NGOs (in allphabetical order):
A
American Research Center in
n Sofia wa
as established in 20004 as an
o
organization
n dedicated to facilitati ng academ
mic research
h in Bulgariaa for North
A
American scholars and
d collaborattion betwee
en scholars
s from Northh America
a
and countrie
es in South
heast Europ
pe (Bulgaria
a, Albania, Kosovo, M
Macedonia,
M
Montenegro
o, Romania and Serbia
a). Among its specific
c goals is too facilitate
a
and conducct research in the socia
al sciences and human
nities - in thhe fields of
a
anthropolog
gy, archaeology, art hisstory, epigra
aphy, history, philologyy, etc.
C
Center for the Study
y of Demo
ocracy is an
a interdisc
ciplinary pubblic policy
institute con
nducting res
search and analysis ov
ver a broad spectrum oof thematic
ffields with th
he aim of fo
ostering the
e reform pro
ocess in Bulgaria throuugh impact
o
on policy an
nd civil soc
ciety. The sstrong interd
disciplinary approach of CSD is
rreflected in
n the rese
earch activvities of its
s four pro
ograms - E
Economic,
E
European, Law and Sociologica
al. A synop
ptic view of
o the key topics of
rresearch revveal a diverrse picture, with projec
cts ranging from energyy security,
h
hidden eco
onomy, antii-anticorrup
ption, organ
nized crime
e over inteegration of
8
83
8
84

Civil Society in
i Bulgaria: Trends and Risks, CSD 2010
Ibid, p. 10-15

53
3

migrant and
a
vulnera
able groupss, competitiveness and innovatioons, interne
et
bullying behaviour to
o judiciary a nd penitenttiary system
m reform .
The expe
erts from the
e Center m
maintain goo
od relations
ships with a network of
o
partners outside Bu
ulgaria, with
h whom th
hey form re
esearch coonsortia and
participate
e in large-s
scale projeccts funded by differentt DGs of thhe European
Commission, incl. projects
p
un der FP6 and
a
FP7. Due
D
to its established
reputation
n and intern
national visiibility, CSD is also a preferred
p
plaace for botth
Bulgarian and interrnational sstudents wiilling to do
o a placem
ment in an
interdiscip
plinary public policy insstitute.
Centre fo
or Liberal Strategies
S
w
was created
d in 1994 as
s an indepeendent NGO
O.
It works on democrratization o
of post-com
mmunist cou
untries, poppulism, anttiAmericanism and the new w
world order.. It implem
mented inteerdisciplinarry
projects, combining several arreas of res
search expertise: ecoonomics and
internation
nal econom
mic relationss, law, political science
es, social ssciences and
sociology, philosophy
y, etc.
a is a non-governmen
ntal organizaation, acting
Open Society Instittute Sofia
for the pu
ublic benefit, defending
g the value
es of the op
pen societyy in Bulgaria
and supp
porting the integration of the cou
untry to the European Union. The
Institute is founded in 1990, and currently is worrking on thhe following
programs: Governan
nce and P ublic Policiies, Europe
ean Policiees and Civiic
Participation, Roma Program,
P
Le
egal Progra
am, Public Debate
D
Proggram.
SI combine
es research
h and analytical approoaches witth
The workk of the OS
advocacyy and lobby
ying activitie
es, includin
ng monitoring of statee authoritie
es
and publicc spending.
OSI perm
manent sta
aff represen
nts severall SSH field
ds: socioloogy, politica
al
sciences and public administtration, phiilosophy, finance andd economiic
discipliness, law, journ
nalism, histo
ory, philolog
gy, etc.
4.5.3 International Co
ooperation
atives to su
upport the preparation
n of Europe
ean projectts under the
New initia
7FP and COST hav
ve been la unched by the NSF in 2009 annd works on
rolling-basse in the ne
ext three ye
ears to boos
st cross borrder knowleedge transfe
er
and to stimulate
s
the
t
particip
pation of Bulgarian researcherrs in these
programm
mes. Additio
onally, in 2
2008 and 2009 the NSF openeed calls fo
or
Reintegra
ation Grants for Bulg
garian Res
searchers Working
W
Abbroad. The
Ministry of
o Educatio
on, Youth and Scienc
ce has sig
gned bilaterral scientifiic
collaborattion agreem
ments with o
over 10 cou
untries, imp
plemented tthrough callls
of the NS
SF, incl. the RILA Prog ramme. The Bulgarian
n Academy of Science
es
has conclluded its ow
wn bilateral scientific cooperation agreementts with abou
ut
30 Europ
pean counties and witth some co
ountries ou
utside Euroope. Most of
o
these agrreements arre on an an
nnual basis,, so the rec
cent list of thhe countrie
es
is available at the
e BAS we
eb-site.85 Various
V
na
ational andd European
es for interrnational co
ollaboration
n and co-publication oof Bulgarian
possibilitie
and foreign researchers also
o exist. Bo
oth the NS
SF and F
FP7 support
researche
ers mobility. Since 200
01 a consta
antly growin
ng number of Bulgarian
85

Bilateral Agreements
A
for Scientific
S
Coope
eration of the Bu
ulgarian Academ
my of Sciences,,

54
4

a
academic journals ha
ave particip
pated in th
he only full-text onlinne library,
sspecialized on scientific periodica
als from the
e SSH dom
main and puublished in
C
Central and
d Eastern European
E
ccountries Central an
nd Eastern European
O
Online Libra
ary (CEEOL
L). As of Ja
anuary 2013
3, CEEOL hosted morre than 40
S
SSH academic journals
s, published
d by more than 30 pub
blishers.86 U
Universities
a
and PROs have incrreasingly b
better acce
ess to inte
ernational kknowledge
tthrough lon
ng-term agreements w
with Europ
pean counterparts andd through
p
participation
n in the Fram
mework pro
ogrammes.
F
FP7 propos
sals with Bulgarian
B
p
participants
s (numbers
s)
SubmittedprooposalswithB
BGapplicant
Healtth

124

Foo
od,Agriculture,a
andBiotechnologgy

185

COOPERATION

ICCT

419

Nanosciences,Nanotechnologiees

58

Energgy

101

EEnvironment(incl.ClimateChangee)

19
99

Transport(incl.Aeronauticss)

122

SocioeeconomicScience
esandHumanitiees

261

Spacce

33

Securitty
PEO IDE
PLE AS

GeneralAcctivities(AnnexIV
V)

113
1

European
nResearchCounccil

0
70

MarieCurieActionns

227

ResearrchInfrastructurees

76

CAPACITIES

Researchforth
hebenefitofSMEEs

258

RegionsofKnowledgge

37

ResearchPotentia
R
al

140

ScienceinSocietty
Coherenttdevelopmentofresearchpoliciees

94
3

Euratom

ActivitiesofInternationalCooperatioon
FusionEnerggy
NucleaarFissionandRadiationProtectioon

27
2
20

S
Source: Min
nistry of Edu
ucation, You
uth and Science, 2013

8
86

th

Accessed at January
J
18 , 20
013.

55
5

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