The seminar entitled “Transformational Triggers for Next-Generation Security: Industrial-Scientific Synergy in the Age of AI” with a roundtable, held on 22 October 2025 at the Central Military Club in Sofia, brought together representatives from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, defence institutions, industry, and international partners to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming global security. The event ran from 09:30 to 18:30 and was organised into two main sessions, concluding with a roundtable and informal networking session.
In the morning session, the introductory report by Assoc. Prof. Dr Zlatogor Minchev outlined the main “transformational triggers” for next-generation security in the context of AI. This was followed by presentations on: (1) “the development of UAVs (TERES 02) in Bulgaria” presented by Kontrax, (2) “data sovereignty in the AI era” presented by Fujitsu-Bulgaria, and (3) “the need for innovation against unregulated drones” – International Drone Defense Association, emphasising that technology, if not managed, becomes a vulnerability. In summary, it was concluded that the synergy between industry and science is the only sustainable model for defence modernisation.
The afternoon session highlighted the capabilities of Bulgaria’s defence industry and specific research achievements, including ML-based EDR protection against adaptive malware and remotely controlled training of military targets. A keynote speaker was Prof. Emanouil Atanassov, who presented on “New Trends in High Performance Computing (HPC) and Their Implications for Cybersecurity”. He demonstrated that without reliable HPC capacity, AI-based defence systems cannot be trained, tested, or defended at scale. Cybersecurity now must develop alongside the computing infrastructure, rather than being added afterwards. This directly connected the seminar’s focus on AI and security to Bulgaria’s need to develop national and secure HPC platforms for defence, crisis management, and critical infrastructure protection.
The roundtable (4:00–5:30 p.m.), moderated by Zlatogor Minchev and Vilis Tzourov, brought together various perspectives: AI is evolving into an operational environment, which means that data, platforms, autonomous systems, and HPC systems must be viewed as a unified ecosystem. The final informal networking session provided an opportunity for scientists, industry representatives, and security officials to discuss next steps.
In summary, the seminar confirmed that Bulgaria has genuine scientific and industrial potential in AI-related security; however, its impact will depend on close cooperation between academia, defence, and industry, as well as the development of secure, sovereign HPC and data infrastructures on which these “smart” systems can operate.
