The Bulgarian chapter of the Association for Information Systems convened its inaugural full-format international workshop at Sofia University's Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics in early October, bringing together more than seventy researchers from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, and several Western European institutions. The two-day program centered on digital innovation, but spilled productively into adjacent territory: cybersecurity in financial systems, AI-assisted software engineering, and the institutional question of how a small national IS community sustains itself between major European conferences.
A look at how the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" has built up its information systems research portfolio over the past five years — from doctoral pipelines to industry partnerships with the country's growing software sector.
Bulgarian research groups are publishing increasingly sophisticated work on cybersecurity for banking and fintech systems. We survey the recent literature and ask why the country has emerged as a quiet but credible voice in this niche.