Center for National Security and Defense Research

The Center for National Security and Defense Research (CNSDR), founded in 2002, assists, coordinates, and organizes security and defense research within the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The Center’s activities are focused on providing information to the institutes and laboratories of BAS, research groups and individual scientists about the needs and programs of potential end-users, the opportunities for bilateral and multilateral cooperation within NATO and the European Union.

In parallel with its co-ordination activities, CNSDR organizes, conducts, participates and performs large-scale interdisciplinary research, the most important of which are:

  • Force Modernisation Study, conducted for the Ministry of Defense in 2002;
  • A Study on the Restructuring of TEREM EAD (major Bulgarian state owned defence company), conducted for the Ministry of Defense and TEREM EAD in 2003;
  • White Paper on Civil Security, conducted for the Permanent Government Committee for Protection of the Population in Emergencies in 2004;
  • Methodology for Planning of Critical Infrastructure Protection, conducted for the Permanent Government Committee for Protection of the Population in Emergencies at the Council of Ministers in 2005;
  • EU TACOM – 2006: Exercise for Terrorist Act Consequences Management, a project funded by Directorate-General “Environment” of the European Commission in 2006;
  • Methodology for Critical Infrastructure Protection at Municipal Level – developed within the framework of a public tender for the Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidents in 2007;
  • Participation in Saber Guardian 14, a multinational practical exercise designed to optimize the capabilities and commitments of the American Army in Europe in order to achieve greater flexibility, preservation and enhancement of NATO interoperability as well as facilitating multinational training;
  • Establishment of a specialized Aero-Space Technology Transfer Office for Crisis Management and Disaster Resilience in the Field of Protection of Citizens’ Health. The project was funded by the Operational Program “Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian Economy” 2007-2013. The Technology Transfer Office is a participant in the Bulgarian Technology Transfer Network and takes part in various initiatives, conferences, symposia, forums, workshops, etc.

In these studies, CNSDR attracts the best Bulgarian scientists and researchers from BAS, other research organizations and universities and in fact serves as the National Center for Security and Defense Studies Coordination.

The Center also functions to provide national teams with information on the launching of the EU’s Seventh Framework Program on the thematic area “Security”. The Director of the Center is a member of the Security Programming Committee of the 7th Framework Program, and an expert from the Center is a National Contact Person on Priority Security. The CNSDR Director is a national representative of the NATO Scientific Committee, and a scientist from the Center is a member of the NATO Research and Technology Board.

CNSDR regularly organizes a national competition under the motto “Scientific support for the security sector transformation” and a national conference “Protection of the population and critical infrastructure”.

Reports of conferences and competitions are published in specialized collections. In addition, CNSDR, together with Sofia Security Forum, organizes seminars and roundtables (3-4 times a year) devoted to current security issues on a global and national scale.

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