Since 2006, members of EURAXESS Bulgaria have organised 12 European Researchers Nights (ERN), and have attracted several new consortium members with different profiles – universities, research institutes, NGOs, entrepreneurs. Based on past experience, the main goal of Researchers in the Knowledge Triangle (K-TRIO 4) project is to bring researchers closer to society, attract young people to STEM and boost citizens science. The project will contribute for increasing the number of researchers and innovators in Bulgaria by making the society, and young people, aware of excellent European achievements in research and innovation, and of the success of Centres of Excellence (CoE) and Centres of Competence and their contribution to the Intelligent Strategy for Smart Specialisation in Bulgaria and regional development. Aware of the need of changing stereotypes and nurturing a new culture in research and innovation, the consortium will make young people aware of the multiple career paths of researchers (incl. MSC fellows), best-practice examples of researchers achievements, and research infrastructure in Bulgaria. Special emphasis will be made on European policy and on funding for research and innovation provided by EU RTD programs and Structural Funds. With a large variety of pre-events, online activities and 2-days ERN events in many Bulgarian cities, the project will create greater understanding on how research and innovation contribute for well-being of people and sustainable development, and highlight the common European efforts for building Digital Single market, Factories of the Future, Smart Cities, and take full advantage of BIG Data and Cloud computing. With the involvement of all CoE UNITe partners, and their large network, in addition to EURAXESS Bulgaria, K-TRIO 4 will cover all Bulgarian regions. Forum Science will guide a professional science communication, and ensure greater visibility of K-TRIO 4 activities.

The Feel4Diabetes project addresses “HCO5-2014: Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases: prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes”. The aim of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate a community-based intervention aiming to create a more supportive social and physical environment to promote lifestyle and behaviour change to prevent type 2 diabetes among families from low and middle income countries and from vulnerable groups in high income countries in Europe. Methods: The PRECEDE-PROCEED Model will provide the theoretical framework for the development, implementation and evaluation of the Feel4Diabetes intervention. The framework has two phases, namely the PRECEDE and PROCEED phase. During the PRECEDE phase, the target population as well as behaviours related to type 2 diabetes and their determinants will be identified. Existing research programs and guidelines for type 2 diabetes prevention, policies, legislation, local infrastructure and human resources will also be recorded. Based on the knowledge gained from this phase, a low-cost and applicable in low-resource settings community-based intervention programme will be developed, with the active engagement of local stakeholders, providing access to the existing infrastructure and human resources wherever feasible. During the PROCEED phase, the intervention will be implemented and its process, impact, outcome, cost-effectiveness and scalability will be evaluated. The results of the intervention will be disseminated, aiming to embed it into policy and practice. Consortium: The Feel4Diabetes multidisciplinary consortium incorporates the necessary expertise on diabetes prevention, behaviours, nutrition, physical activity, policy and health economics. It consists of 10 partners from 7 universities, 1 research institute, 1 advocacy group and a small-medium enterprise, representing European low-middle income, high income and under socioeconomic crisis countries.

Breast cancer is the most common incident form of cancer among women bellow seventy years of age. Early diagnosis is recognized as a critical factor that improves the chance of survival. In this research, anthropomorphic physical three-dimensional models of the breast are necessary, whenever a real tissue background is required to investigate the detectability of lesions, the performance of image processing algorithms, the reconstruction algorithms, the whole imaging chain and to replace real breast in virtual clinical studies. Manufacturing of such phantoms, however, is still not widely accepted due to cost and challenges of current 3D technology, limited number of suitable printing materials and availability of anthropomorphic computational models. This project aims to form an international network of organizations working on a joint research programme on the development of a complete technology for the production of physical models of the breast based on their computational models. The overall goal is to utilize partners’ experience and expertise to improve research, researcher training and skills and increase knowledge transfer from research to practice, which will be achieved through international and intersectoral collaboration and staff exchange. Expected results are related to new methodology for design of anthropomorphic breast phantoms, new methodology for producing materials and a methodology for development of a prototype of complete equipment and relevant technology for the fabrication of realistic breast phantoms, structures or part of them including health and cancerous tissues. An application in x-ray imaging is targeted. The consortium is with an expertise in rapid prototyping technology, modelling, validating and use of anthropomorphic phantoms, software and hardware design. Joining the efforts of engineers, anatomists, physicists, x-ray imaging specialists in this project will guarantee the successful implementation of the project aims.

The K-TRIO 2 consortium organized in several years Researchers’ Night in Bulgaria in different cities making people and especially children and youth aware of researchers’ profession and the contribution of research to economy and society. The public opinion surveys show that the Researchers’ Night became a popular event in many Bulgarian cities. People enjoy the variety of activities offered and would like to make the Researchers’ Night a regular “Fall rendez-vous” in their city with a lot of fun and interaction with researchers. Taking into account the objectives of the Researchers’ Night initiative of the EC, and the previous experience of the consortium, the project K-TRIO 2 sets as its main goal to enhance public recognition of researchers and innovators and their role in society and to encourage young people in Bulgaria to embark on research career. In the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy, the project focuses on the need for increasing the number of researchers and innovators in Europe and to foster the interest of the society and the youth, in particular, to research and innovation. For achieving the main goal, the following project objectives are defined:  to disclose to the public the hidden sides of life and work of researchers, and show them as professionals and ordinary people;  to highlight the EU emphasis on its researchers, the role of researchers in the Knowledge triangle and for building the Innovation Union;  to involve citizens in debates on the contribution of researchers to European economy and society, as well as in ideas generation and open innovation;  to foster active citizens position on the policy for growing research talents and making research and innovation attractive for young people. The target audience of the project will be on first place young people – children, teen-agers and students, and secondly – their parents and the public at large. The project K-TRIO 2 will provide various opportunities to citizens in Bulgaria to meet and entertain with researchers.