In the presence of Sofia’s Mayor Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova and Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev signed a declaration, by which Bulgaria joins the cooperation in the high-performance computing - EuroHPC.

The ceremony was also attended by BAS’s chairman Acad. Yuliyan Revalski and representatives of the European Commission, working in the area of digital high performance and scientific infrastructure.

The Minister of Education and Science emphasized that “according to the Bulgarian National Strategy for Scientific Research Development 2017 – 2030, Bulgaria intends to modernize its scientific research system in a very short time horizon, in order to be able to cover the needs of the Bulgarian scientific community, the Bulgarian economy and the Bulgarian citizens. In this respect, by signing the declaration, Bulgaria joins the club of Member States, committed to the digitalization of Europe with the help of the high-performance computing power. This is our national step forward, which will contribute to the development of our scientific, innovation and industrial potential."

The European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel added after the signing ceremony, that she was extremely happy that our country became part of this important European initiative, which will positively play a decisive role the everyday lives of people – from the healthcare personalization, through cybersecurity to the improvement of design and weather forecasts. According the European Commissioner the access to high-performance computing will be of great significance for both the private and public sphere. Gabriel added that in this respect it is necessary to ensure unity and cooperation on European level, since none of the Member States is capable to develop alone such a computing high-tech resource.

Sofia’s Mayor Yordanka Fandakova also welcomed the initiative and Bulgaria’s joining, reminding that Sofia is the regional leader in the area of high-tech, computer sciences and outsourcing, where over 200 thousand people are employed. The chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Science /BAS/ Acad. Yuliyan Revalski announced that the use of supercomputers will shortly bring positive changes to the society.

Bulgaria will join an association of countries, based on the framework for cooperation in the High-Performance Computing (EuroHPC), which held their first meeting on 5 October 2017, as the objective of that first meeting was to provide information regarding the progress achieved in the declaration and strategy of EuroHPC. The Member States, who have signed the declaration, committed themselves to working for the development of a framework for cooperation – EuroHPC, for the acquisition and development of integrated supercomputer infrastructure, to be available to the scientific communities in the EU, as well as to various public and private partners, irrespective of the physical location of the supercomputers.

The Member States agreed to work jointly with the European Commission for the development of a road map for the construction of the supercomputer infrastructure, which should specify the technical and operational requirements and the necessary financial resources for the acquisition of such infrastructure; defining the appropriate legal and financial instruments for its acquisition; purchasing two supercomputers in the period 2019 – 2020 and another two in 2022 – 2023; development of highly competitive European technology, its optimization and integration; development of test-spots for using big data for scientific, management and industrial purposes.