Programme: Science and Education for Smart Growth

Bulgaria ranks the second lowest among EU member states in terms of performance of national innovation systems. The country is
categorized as 'emerging innovator' in the European Innovation Scoreboard 2021, which means that its performance level is below
70% of the EU average. The overall objective of the ExcellCity project is to boost the research and innovation excellence of University
of Library Studies and Information Technology (ULSIT) and its local partners - Sofia Development Association (NGO)and Virtech (SME),
in the area of Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities based on a FIWARE powered research infrastructure through twinning with top-class
leading counterparts at EU level – University of Messina (IT) and University of Murcia (ES), as well as with FIWARE Foundation (DE)
and Ubiwhere (PL). A coherent set of twinning activities and the expected outcomes of the project are defined in the ExcellCity
Work Program. The main principle of capacity building will be training through research. ExcellCity will support ULSIT in building a
dedicated research and innovation infrastructure (based on FIWARE) in the framework of the Centre of Excellence in Informatics and
ICT - CoE (funded by the European structural and investment funds - ESIF), which will be shared with the other Bulgarian partners:
Institute of ICT , Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, and Institute of Mechanics under the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) ,
Medical University in Sofia and University of Plovdiv. The project will stimulate technology transfer and open innovation activities
with the other counterparts aiming to build an appropriate local innovation ecosystem in the area of Climate-Neutral and Smart
Cities. Some expected outcomes: publications in high impact journals – increased by >20%(2025) & by > 50%(2030); joint
publications BG-EU->20(2025)& >50(2030); citations - increased by>30%(2025) & by > 70%(2030); published open data sets -
increased by>30%(2025)&by 70%(2030).