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President Plevneliev: Ensuring a Connection Between Industry, Science and Education is Extremely Important

“Bulgaria’s membership in CERN raises the professional level of our scholars, engineers and computer specialists. I am convinced that Bulgaria has found the correct mechanisms ensuring that through science and education we can show that the Bulgarian talent can offer something to the world. However, above all I would like Bulgaria and the Bulgarians to see the result of the labor of our scholars.” This is what President Plevneliev said during his visit in CERN within the framework of his official visit to Switzerland.

President Rosen Plevneliev held talks with Professor Rolf Heuer, Director General of CERN, and with representatives of the leadership after which he held a meeting with the Bulgarians who work in the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The Head of State looked at the facilities of LHC and the experimental zone of CMS. The President said that way back since 1990 Bulgarians have made a significant contribution to the research related to the Collider. The Bulgarian Professor Leander Litov is one of the first thirty scholars who started working in CERN and currently is head of the renovation of CMS.

“The role of CERN as a place for the training and qualification of staff, for developing skills for working in an international team is extremely important,” the Head of State said.  Bulgaria’s cooperation with CERN started in the 1980’s. The center is regularly visited by students and teachers from Bulgaria, and their number exceeds 2,000. The research that the Bulgarian scholars have conducted so far in the sphere of physics and elementary particles is closely related to the scientific program of CERN and currently more than 70 Bulgarians work in CERN – they come from Sofia University, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Technical University.

The Bulgarian Head of State pointed out that the Bulgarian scholars are an indispensable part of the research center and their work in the program of CERN offers new prospects for the professional development and career of the young generation of Bulgarian physicists and scholars.

It is extremely important to ensure a connection between industry, science and education, the President commented and pointed out that this will be achieved by implementing the Sofia Tech Park project and the future operational program Science and Education for Smart Growth. In Rosen Plevneliev’s view, the priorities which will be financed should be defined in the context of a clear and open dialogue between all parties concerned – the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the universities and the Ministry of Education and Science.
The President pointed out that what was also debated during his visit to CERN was the project on a Bulgarian isotope center which should produce isotopes for all hospitals that have special apparatuses, the implementation of which is underway. Joint projects with CERN have been considered and planned within the project Sofia Tech and the innovative ecosystem which it creates.

Earlier during the day the President also visited the HP Innovation Center in Geneva in which “technologies of the future” are created. So far the company has two such centers in the world and the second one is located in Dubai.