Project description
Paving the way for Bulgaria’s hydrogen future
Bulgaria’s transition to a low-carbon economy faces a challenge in replacing its coal-dependent energy sector with sustainable alternatives. The city of Stara Zagora, historically an energy production hub, is poised for transformation through the EU-funded H2START project that aims to establish a centre of excellence (CoE) for renewable hydrogen production. This initiative will position Stara Zagora as a key hydrogen valley in Europe. Supported by Trakia University and the Bulgarian Hydrogen, Fuel Cell and Energy Storage Association, and with international partners Politecnico di Torino and the Italian National Research Council, the CoE will lead research and innovation, attract talent and foster industry collaboration. This initiative promises modern infrastructure, institutional reform and skilled employment opportunities, driving Bulgaria’s clean energy transition and placing the nation at the forefront of renewable hydrogen technologies.
Objective
The H2START project aims to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Stara Zagora to spearhead the advancement of innovative technologies for renewable hydrogen production and uptake. As an essential component of the transition towards a low-carbon and energy-secure economy, renewable hydrogen holds tremendous promise for Bulgaria, particularly in regions like Stara Zagora, historically developed as the energy production “heart” of the region, economically developed and well connected to infrastructure and trans-European roads.
The CoE, situated in the heart of Stara Zagora, is strategically positioned to lead the change in replacing coal mining with renewable energy and green hydrogen production, deployments and export. Recognised as a Hydrogen Valley by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (ZAHYR HV), the region's successful transformation hinges on excellence (R&I activities, attracting talents and gaining recognition and international collaboration).
Led by TrU and supported by BGH2A, the CoE aims to drive R&I initiatives, which will bring institutional change to the higher education sector in the whole system opening up to reforms linked to creating highly skilled employment opportunities, and positioning Bulgaria as an attractive hub for scientific and technological advancement. Collaboration with esteemed partners such as POLITO and CNR alongside the guidance of international recognized leaders, will ensure robust governance, management, and administration systems.
The CoE will revolutionize Bulgaria's research ecosystem, offering modern infrastructure and services to attract, nurture, and retain research talent while fostering collaboration with industry for enhanced innovation and technology transfer. As Bulgaria's research infrastructure outside of the capital Sofia, the CoE in Stara Zagora will serve as a beacon for bringing R&I in regions, positioning the nation at the forefront of clean energy transition technologies based on renewable hydrogen production.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- social sciencessociologygovernance
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfossil energycoal
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
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Keywords
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
(opens in new window) HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-01
See other projects for this callFunding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
6000 Stara Zagora
Bulgaria