Over 140 million euros in new projects: Sofia Tech Park opens a new chapter in its development

Mr. Danovski, could you introduce yourself – what is your role as the CEO of Sofia Tech Park and what attracted you to the mission of developing the first science and technology park in Bulgaria?

For the past 12 years, I have been working in the public sector to develop our economic and innovation environment in a modern competitive form.

I have held various mandates and roles in the field of institutional entrepreneurship, an area that develops the public sector through the best practices of the corporate world.

I joined the management of Sofia Tech Park at the beginning of 2026 to support the team of the company on its path to a new orbit with two new strategic directions in its operations and secured new projects worth over 140 million euros. After years of working on aligning public policies, funding programs, agencies, and tools for their implementation, and specifically managing state-owned companies, I envisioned that I could be useful with this experience. I am not one for missions. I prefer to say "hop" after I have jumped.

How did the story of Sofia Tech Park begin and how has its role in the Bulgarian innovation ecosystem changed from its establishment to today?

The story begins back in 2013, when the idea for the first science and technology park in Bulgaria emerged, going through securing funding for this project from the European Commission and the construction of the infrastructure and its opening in December 2015. In the first years after the opening, the focus of the work was entirely on transforming the park into an environment to support startups, small and medium-sized companies, building a community and an environment for the development of entrepreneurship and science, to stimulate innovations and technologies. Services and opportunities for companies and research teams were activated, and partnerships were created. Thus, ten years later, Sofia Tech Park is now an established hub for innovation and business in the country and the region, participating in large national and european projects.  

Which stages of the development of Sofia Tech Park would you define as the most significant and why were they turning points?

The first turning point was the completion of the main physical infrastructure and the launch of the laboratory complex. The second major stage was positioning the park as a regional hub with the installation of the Discoverer supercomputer and later upgrading it with artificial intelligence systems. Currently, the Park has entered its third stage, in which new key areas are added to the main priority areas - technologies, life sciences, and clean energy - on a global scale - technology transfer, artificial intelligence, defense, and dual-use technologies. The Park is among the main entities whose task is to establish national technological sovereignty and industrial capacity.

If you take stock of the last few years, what are the most important conclusions we can make about the development of Sofia Tech Park and its place in the technological ecosystem?

The technology park has managed to establish itself as a trusted partner for over 200 companies that have passed through it to start or accelerate their development. In Sofia Tech Park, the ecosystem in our country already has a large part of the elements needed for the development of innovative projects and technologies – acceleration and incubation services, testing laboratories, access to a network of partners, mentors, professionals, experts, high-performance computing, all connected in a functioning system.

What do you consider to be the greatest achievement of Sofia Tech Park so far – the built infrastructure, the attracted companies and organizations, the created partnerships, or the community that is forming around it?

The greatest achievement is the synergy between all these elements. Infrastructure without a community is just real estate, and a community without technological resources cannot develop.

What are the main priorities in the current development strategy of Sofia Tech Park and what do you want to be different in the park in the coming years?

We are preparing a business program for a new 3-year cycle. We plan priorities in the field of AI through the project for building a Bulgarian artificial intelligence factory BRAIN++, defense innovations, and dual-use technologies through the Defense Innovation Center, the Center for Excellence in Kazanlak, and our participation in NATO's innovation network DIANA. Another priority of strategic importance is the National Center for Technology Transfer. We are also working to change the model of the Park, with the goal of expanding into a more open system for sharing resources with businesses and scientific communities, to attract strategic scientific, educational, and corporate partners, and to integrate even more deeply into European innovation chains.

What new initiatives, projects, and partnerships are upcoming and in which areas do you see the greatest potential for development?

I have already mentioned some of them, but I will provide more details. The AI factory BRAIN++, which is funded by the state and the EU, will have over 1000 graphics processors and will be used by businesses, research teams, state and municipal institutions.  The Defense Innovation Center has already opened a procedure for developing 6 types of unmanned aerial systems worth over 10 million euros. Through NATO's DIANA accelerator, Bulgarian companies will have the opportunity to use a network of testing centers in the 32 member states of the Alliance. The establishment of the Center for Excellence in Kazanlak is upcoming, with the first digital services available to companies as early as 2027.

Innovation is in the very DNA of Sofia Tech Park. How is the understanding of innovation changing today and what does it mean to create an environment where ideas can turn into real business or technology?

The understanding of innovation is no longer limited to the emergence of a good idea or prototype, but to the process of turning a scientific result into a market product. Creating an innovative environment means offering a complete cycle - from the incubation program, like SEEIP at Sofia Tech Park, through laboratory testing and validation, to securing corporate capital, international markets, and a legal framework for technology transfer.

We are entering a period in which artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the technological environment. How is this affecting the work of Sofia Tech Park and the companies, scientists, and entrepreneurs in its ecosystem?

Artificial intelligence requires enormous computational resources and specific capacity. For Sofia Tech Park, this means transformation through the BRAIN++ project, which will upgrade the Discoverer+ supercomputer. The project is not just a hardware purchase, but the creation of a comprehensive AI platform that will provide data, expertise, legal security, and computational power for startups, researchers, and established companies, as well as the public sector, to implement AI in their products and processes, along with training that will create a critical mass and a community of potential users of this computational resource. Sofia Tech Park is gradually becoming one of the key factors in building and ensuring the technological sovereignty of the country, where complex technologies are connected with real industrial needs.

Which technological directions do you think will have the strongest influence on the development of the Bulgarian innovation ecosystem in the coming years?

The strongest influence will come from artificial intelligence, defense and security technologies, dual-use solutions, biotechnology, microelectronics, autonomous systems, and clean energy technologies. In these areas, Bulgaria can build its own industrial capacity and not be critically dependent on external suppliers. Areas such as software engineering, robotics, mechatronics, sensor systems, and others also hold great potential for the country, and in these areas, we need to invest both resources and policies to stimulate them.

What have you learned over the years about building a functioning innovation community – what brings it together, what develops it, and what can destroy it?

Being a community is not enough; it is time to fill the concept of ecosystem with content.  In the innovation ecosystem, there is no center; in this sense, each participant connects with others based on clear interest, motivation, and stimulation - in the Western model, it is called a thirst for competitive collaboration. These are the ingredients of the formula for ecosystem connections. Resources, knowledge, and opportunities for growth are exchanged. Transparency, open models, and the ability for each participant to see direct benefits for their business or scientific work develop it. What can destroy it is encapsulation, lack of trust, and treating infrastructure as isolated property rather than as a shared resource.

The role of Sofia Tech Park is nothing more and nothing less than to be a mediator that produces models of collaboration between these parties and builds a framework of trust, shared risk, and clear distribution of benefits.

What do you think is still missing in Bulgaria to turn good ideas, scientific developments, and technology companies into a stronger and more sustainable engine of the economy?

We still lack a sufficiently well-developed mechanism for technology transfer and a closer connection between science and business. The percentage of Bulgarian innovative high-tech products is low. We also lack a sufficient number of large corporate partnerships that systematically invest in Bulgarian scientific developments.

If we look several years ahead – how do you want "Sofia Tech Park" to look and what would you like its place to be in the Bulgarian and European technological ecosystem?

I see Sofia Tech Park as a fully integrated hub at the European level, an established national center for technology transfer, a leading AI factory in the region, and an active accelerator for defense technologies in NATO's DIANA network. Its place should be as a main driver that helps Bulgarian companies compete in the global market.