site.btaBTA and Sofia Tech Park Sign Cooperation Agreement, Support Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Media Initiative

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and Sofia Tech Park have become official partners following the signing of a cooperation agreement between BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Sofia Tech Park Executive Director Todor Mladenov, in the presence of Sofia Tech Park Chair of the Management Board Vassil Karaivanov. The signing ceremony took place at BTA National Press Club in Sofia on Thursday, a symbolic day for Sofia Tech Park, which is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding. Discussions about cooperation between BTA and Sofia Tech Park began in 2024.

Beyond establishing systematic media coverage of Sofia Tech Park’s activities and those of the companies within the technology park’s ecosystem, the agreement also provides for joint work within the BTA Institute (BTA-I) initiative, aimed at developing and implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies both within the Agency and across the media sector in general.

The cooperation agreement formalizes regular receipt and reporting of news about Sofia Tech Park, regulates copyright matters, and outlines partnership mechanisms for events organized by the tech park and companies in its ecosystem.

“I hope this will make Bulgaria’s achievements in high technology even more visible. More importantly, we want to showcase the people who are driving major technological progress in the country, because they are proof that Bulgaria has highly educated talent,” Valchev said at the event.

In his remarks, Todor Mladenov highlighted Sofia Tech Park’s evolution from a physical space into a community of innovators, emphasizing the mission of the leadership team. “Sofia Tech Park may have started as a territory, but today it is a platform. It is an ecosystem, but most accurately, it has become a community of innovators,” Mladenov said.

He added that investing all available resources to ensure that Bulgarian innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers have the best conditions to create high-quality products, and thereby strengthen the visibility and competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy, is the leadership’s core mission. “In the tech sector, this is already a reality,” Mladenov added. “The past 10–12 years have seen tremendous growth in Bulgaria’s technology community. Bulgarian researchers are positioning themselves increasingly successfully on the innovation map, and their services are in growing demand, including from Bulgarian businesses.”

Vassil Karaivanov also emphasized the leadership’s ambitions and long-term vision for Sofia Tech Park. “At Sofia Tech Park we have great ambitions, based on Bulgaria’s most valuable resource, its people. We have many young people working in science and technology who are reaching remarkable heights. Thanks to you, their achievements have always been highlighted,” said Karaivanov. “Our vision is to support young scientists, researchers, and all emerging businesses in science and tech, giving them ever more opportunities to bring their ideas to life.” Karaivanov also drew attention to the infrastructure already available and currently being developed within the Tech Park.

At the signing ceremony, Kiril Valchev officially presented the BTA Institute (BTA-I) initiative, designed to develop and implement AI technologies within the Agency and in Bulgarian media, based on broad cooperation among more than 15 organizations. “You are the first organization BTA is approaching as a partner in creating the BTA Institute, modelled after the Reuters Institute,” Valchev said. “Its main goal will be to develop AI technologies for the media sector, improving the work not only of BTA but of all Bulgarian media.”

Its primary mission, he explained, will be to produce a clear roadmap for how and what AI-driven software tools should be adopted by BTA and the media as a whole, covering more than 20 identified applications. These include translation, transliteration, transcription, subtitling, summarization, error checking, and more advanced tasks such as facial recognition in photos and videos, audio recognition, geolocation, background and context generation, monitoring foreign media for news about Bulgaria, synthetic voice audio, video editing, infographics, content targeting, and archive processing. Valchev noted that BTA is currently digitizing the country’s largest news archive. Additional applications include data analysis, training, monitoring, and financial modelling.

Enumerating these AI applications for the Agency and the media, Valchev emphasized that BTA will rely heavily on the support of Sofia Tech Park.

“As part of the Sofia Tech Park team, I fully support this initiative, and Sofia Tech Park will help in every way we can. Establishing such a technologically advanced information centre, based on a world-leading model, is extremely important for our society,” Todor Mladenov said. “It will be built on a foundation of cutting-edge technologies and, I am sure, a highly capable team. We will join the impressive list of Bulgarian institutions and companies you plan to invite. You can count on us. I believe our joint work will begin early next year,” Mladenov added.

Valchev listed more than 15 organizations that will be invited to participate in the initiative, including the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), the National Robotics and AI Laboratory at the BAS Institute of Robotics, INSAIT (Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology) at St Kliment Ohridski Sofia University, the Big Data for Smart Society Institute (GATE), the Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Technical University of Sofia, the AI Laboratory at the Technical University of Gabrovo, the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in the Economy at the University of National and World Economy, the Artificial Cognitive Systems Lab at New Bulgarian University, the Centre for Informatics and Computer Sciences at Burgas Free University, the Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality Lab at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, the Space Research Laboratory at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in partnership with Bulgarian satellite technology company EnduroSat, the Artificial Intelligence and CAD Systems Lab at Sofia Tech Park, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM), the Bulgarian Employers’ Association Innovative Technologies (BRAIT), and Information Services (the National System Integrator).

Valchev presented Mladenov with several gifts, including a volume of BTA publications from the past decade documenting the history of Sofia Tech Park, as well as a set of photos from BTA’s extensive archive, featuring early images from 2012 and the official opening of the Tech Park in 2015 by President Rosen Plevneliev. Valchev also gave issues of LIK magazine devoted to Bulgarian science and technology, along with a commemorative medal minted by the Bulgarian National Bank for BTA’s 125th anniversary and a special anniversary postage stamp. Mladenov said the publications would become part of Sofia Tech Park’s library.

At the signing of the cooperation agreement between BTA and Sofia Tech Park, Valchev noted that the Agency has similar agreements with BAS, its institutes, the Patent Office, all 51 Bulgarian universities, and various high-tech associations. He also announced that work is underway on a special LIK magazine issue dedicated to high technology in Bulgaria.