Every year in April, the National Competence Center (NCC) for High Performance Computing (HPC) organizes and conducts an open workshop, where the results obtained are analyzed, new trends in high-performance computing, high-performance data analysis, and artificial intelligence are discussed, the specific tasks of the Center for 2025 are presented, and key collaborations are highlighted.

The fifth edition of the open workshop took place this year on April 24, in Hall 218 of IICT- BAS. The forum was attended by team members from the partner organizations IICT, Sofia University, and UNWE, as well as experts and specialists in the field, along with interested business participants. Special guests of the event included Corr. member Margenov, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the NCC Bulgaria and Director of IICT- BAS, and Prof. Dimov, Bulgaria’s representative on the Board of the EuroHPC JU, heads of major projects, and business representatives.

The Head of NCC Bulgaria, Professor Aneta Karaivanova, provided an overview of the work done in 2024, analysed the results and conclusions from the achievements, and reviewed the new challenges. The excellent results of the NCC during the past period are attributed to the competence, motivation, synergy within the team, and active cooperation at both the national and international levels.

Professor Emanouil Atanassov presented the highlights of the Center’ s work planned for 2025. In the second part of the workshop, the major projects in the field of ICT, funded under the “Research, Innovation, and Digitalisation for Smart Transformation Program” (RID4STP), which are expected to commence in 2025 with active cooperation planned, were discussed.

Traditionally, the workshop concluded with an open discussion about new trends in high- performance technologies, artificial intelligence, high- performance data analysis, collaboration with other national competence centers, Bulgaria’ s position on the European competence map, and the new tasks facing the team.