The ceremony was opened by the Deputy Rector for e-Governance, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Rosen Radonov, together with the Executive Director and Head of the TU-Sofia Campus Project, Prof. Dr. Eng. Daniela Gotscheva, the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Systems and Technologies, Prof. Ognyan Nakov, and Kiril Geratliev. – Executive Director of the Executive Agency "Operational Programme "Science and Education for Intelligent Growth". A super-modern scientific research and technological laboratory complex with European funding is being built at the Technical University - Sofia. The complex is being constructed under Project BG05M2OP001-1.001-0004 UNiTe (Universities for Science, Informatics and Technologies in the Community) and is implemented under the Operational Programme "Science and Education for Intelligent Growth" (OP SEIG), Priority Axis 1 "Scientific Research and Technological Development", Procedure BG05M2OP001-1.001 "Construction and Development of Centres of Excellence", Component 2 "Informatics and Information and Communication Technologies". The project is funded by European Structural and Investment Funds, and the approved budget amounts to 29,781,883 leva. The contractor for the construction and installation works is EOOD "Proektstroy - Link" – Gabrovo, while "IKAR CONSULT" AD – Sofia will exercise construction supervision and investor control during construction. The ambitions of the Technical University - Sofia are to build an internationally recognized, significant distributed scientific infrastructure for regional development, which will be part of the national and European roadmap. In the context of a knowledge-based economy and the digital transformation of society, the laboratory complex is expected to be a driving force for sustainability and recovery from the crisis associated with Covid-19. Through scientific research in collaboration with business and partner scientific organizations within the UNiTe project, innovative technological solutions will be developed to provide competitive advantages. The project foresees the construction and development of a Centre of Excellence of the distributed research infrastructure type UNiTe, meeting the requirements for a high level of scientific research in the priority area "Informatics and Information and Communication Technologies" of the Innovation Strategy for Intelligent Specialization (ISIS) 2014-2020. The project objectives are focused on improving the opportunities for researchers and academic staff from various geographical regions in Bulgaria (Burgas, Ruse, Sofia, Shumen) to collaborate with each other, as well as with partners from Europe and the world, through access and work at the UNiTe CoE.
