Bulgaria Advances on the Open Science Roadmap: National Priorities and Progress

Bulgaria continues to make significant strides in implementing Open Science policies and infrastructures, as highlighted in a recent national paper prepared by leading experts in the field. The paper outlines the country's latest developments, challenges, and next steps in strengthening open and responsible research practices, all of which were presented and discussed during the 16th National Information Day on Open Science, Open Data, Open Access, and the Bulgarian Open Science Cloud, held on September 26, 2025.

Building a Strong National Framework

In recent years, Bulgaria has consolidated its Open Science ecosystem around a coordinated national roadmap aligned with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The paper details how this roadmap connects policy, infrastructure, and training efforts across institutions to create a sustainable foundation for openness and research excellence.

Central to this framework is the National Program for Open and Responsible Science, structured around five pillars:

1. Open Access Publishing: supporting national journals such as Az-buki and expanding participation in transformative agreements with international publishers;
   
2. Infrastructure Development: improving connectivity among repositories and e-infrastructures;
   
3. Training and Education: advancing skills through national initiatives and projects like Skills4EOSC;
   
4. Policy Integration: promoting institutional adoption of Open Science principles; and Promotion and Engagement: fostering outreach, citizen science, and community participation. 

Expanding Infrastructures and Services

A major achievement is the continued growth of the Bulgarian Portal for Open Science (BPOS), which now hosts more than 87,000 open-access documents, primarily scientific articles, dissertations, and conference proceedings. The portal serves as a national hub connecting institutional repositories, datasets, and metadata standards.

Complementary infrastructures, such as repositories like the Bulgarian Digital Mathematics Library (BulDML) and the Digital Library of Sofia University, are being enhanced for greater interoperability. A new regulation also mandates data management plans for publicly funded research, reinforcing Bulgaria's commitment to FAIR and responsible data practices. 

Embracing Responsible and Ethical Research

The paper also examines the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in research, highlighting both its potential and its risks. Bulgarian experts stress the importance of maintaining transparency, reproducibility, and ethical oversight as AI tools become increasingly embedded in scientific workflows.

Citizen Science emerged as another growing area, with discussions focusing on public participation in data collection, education, and community-driven projects, all expected to expand under the national program's fifth pillar. 

Progress and Future Directions

The national paper and discussions at the Information Day identified several key achievements:

• Progress in national legislation supporting Open Access and data sharing;

• Increased Open Access publishing through transformative agreements with Elsevier and others;

• Institutional initiatives like ORBIT(Open Research Bulgarian IncubaTor) (mentoring for PhD students and researchers) and AURA (integrating Open Science into research assessment);

• Collaboration with OpenAIRE for policy support, training, and interoperability;

• Launch of the first national award for Open Science.

At the same time, the authors highlight areas requiring continued attention; notably, the need for a national center for Open Research Support, stronger institutional engagement, and more systematic training and incentives to ensure that Open Science principles are applied consistently across the research community. 

Sharing and Discussion at the National Information Day

These developments and findings were at the heart of the 16th National Information Day on Open Science, chaired by Prof. Peter Stanchev (Kettering University and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). The event gathered experts such as Aneta Karaivanova, Desislava Paneva-Marinova, Milena Dobreva, Jordan Iliev, and Mikaela Stancheva, who presented the national progress and discussed ways to strengthen Bulgaria's contribution to the broader European Open Science ecosystem.

Written by Peter Stanchev and Sandra Franco