On March 26, 2025, at the Bulgarian Defence Institute "Prof. Tsvetan Lazarov", a working meeting was held on the topic: Space for Security and Defence between representatives of Bulgarian science and state administration and the European Space Agency - Major General Pascal Legai - Senior Security Adviser to ESA DG Director General’s Services and Dr. Christopher Topping - Head of the ESA Civil Security from Space (CSS) programme. The event was jointly organized by the Bulgarian Defence Institute, the Armaments Policy Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Center for National Security and Defence Research (CNSDR) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The meeting was officially opened with a welcome address on behalf of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria and continued with two thematic sessions – “Civil Security from Space” moderated by Corr.-Member Stefan Hadjitodorov and “Space for Disaster Management and Resilient Critical Infrastructure”. Other key international speakers who participated in the event were Monika Krzyżanowska, Business Development Director at CloudFerro, and Athanasios Sfetsos – project coordinator of the recently launched Med-IREN project under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation "Horizon Europe". Within the framework of the project RST-TTO, BAS partners with the Municipality of Burgas - a demonstration region for Bulgaria.

The event was attended by an exceptionally high level of interest. Over 80 participants took part – experts from the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria, Ministry of Interior Republic of Bulgaria, as well as other Bulgarian ministries and their agencies related to crisis management, natural disasters and accidents, representatives of the regional and municipal administrations of Plovdiv and Burgas, representatives of the Institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences participating in the National Scientific Program "Security and Defense".

For more information: https://cnsdr.bas.bg/?p=8241