GATE CoE is the first Research Institute of Sofia University. In 66 months it managed to build strong scientific capacity and innovation potential. This has been achieved through:
Having managerial, administrative, financial, operational, HR and research autonomy, as well as supple governing and organizational structure and effective operational processes. The administrative, business and research units are fully operational. Polices fostering openness, respect and honesty, and transparent management practices empower staff and ensure integrity and engagement.
GATE infrastructure is crucial to enable operation and research. GATE sustainable building is now fully operational and hosts 3 advanced labs for Digital Twin, City Living and Visualization and GATE data platform and Urban Data Space.
The flexible human resource policy, including OTM-R recruitment, provides for competitive remuneration, career development opportunities and personal growth through training, mobility and research collaborations.
With 46 researchers and 26 business development and administration experts, the CoE has sufficient capacity to support its challenging research projects and ambitious innovation plans. 16 young researchers and 60 interns were involved in international collaborative teams.
Diverse opportunities for capacity building and training and targeted knowhow transfer framework and environment allow for more intense transfer.
Visionary agenda paves the way for prospective research and innovation, aligned with the global long-term trends, and with the national and EU priorities. It is also based on the collaborations with Big Data Value Association and IDSA. The intense research within Future Cities, Digital Health and Intelligent Government resulted in excellent results in City Digital Twin, Alzheimer’s Disease and Disinformation areas and continues in about 20 EU and nationally funded projects.
GATE strategic partnerships have been widened through new agreements, the stakeholders’ community expanded, especially at national/regional level and with over 700 partners, GATE is having a strong research network from EU, America – US, Asia – Japan and Korea, Australia.
GATE visibility is growing through organized 37 events, including the 2 “Up to GATE” conferences, through 178 conferences participations and 74 impactful scientific and media publications and through active social media presence.
The business models for collaborative and contractual research, professional training, Digital Innovation Hub, Data Space, Regulatory Policy Lab and sandbox have been elaborated. They provision stable revenue streams to ensure independence from public funding. The collaborative research business model (through 93 proposals for EU and national funding) managed to achieve significant income.
