In the material of Teodora Angelova in the Dnevnik newspaper under the title "EURAXESS: The Bulgarian universities took the long and difficult road to modernization and change", Svetlana Ivanova tells about how EURAXESS Bulgaria works and what the current problems of the Bulgarian researchers are.

    To promote mobility of researchers within the European Union, to increase the exchange of knowledge and best practices - this is the mission of the EURAXESS network, which has one more fight in Bulgaria - to assist the universities and research organizations to upgrade their standards.     EURAXESS is a network created by the European Commission. It operates in 40 countries, as its Bulgarian representation has existed since 2004, 3 years before Bulgaria joined the European Union. The network in Bulgaria consists of 15 contact points in different organizations. 11 private and public universities in Sofia, Varna, Ruse, Plovdiv, Burgas and Stara Zagora, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a nonprofit organization that maintains contacts with the business sector and industry and ICT Cluster.

    The Bulgarian scientific institutions need to decide on their own to open up     To be competitive and desirable for career development of researchers, the universities and research institutions in Bulgaria have a long way to go, experts say.

    The European Commission developed with the assistance of EURAXESS European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The principles which should be taken into account by the scientific institutions to ensure qualitative development of its employees are specified in both parts of the document. The document is not binding, and this implies that scientific organizations should express desire on their own to join these principles.

    "The purpose of the Charter and the Code is to ensure that the relationship between researchers and employers or funding institutions is supposed to lead to successful performance in activities such as generating, transfer and dissemination of knowledge and technological development, as well as career development of researchers. The Charter and the Code recognize the value of all forms of mobility as a way to improve the professional development of researchers," the document says.

    "Nothing has been initiated for a long period of time"     "Until recently, in Bulgaria there was not a single organization that has fully implemented these principles. The Rectors Council had signed this document, but it does not represent a specific organization, and despite discussions nothing has been initiated for a long period of time," said Dimitrova.     The universities are autonomous and nobody can oblige them to take certain steps. Any reform should be implemented voluntarily by internal decision for a change.

    The traditional practices in Bulgaria clearly diverge seriously with what theCharter and the Codestipulate. But the situation is slowly changing.     "For example, for a certain period of time all scientific organizations, either universities or institutes of BAS have already been obliged to publish announced competitions for vacancies in the State Gazette and this is the only "openness" in the market. But in this way the information does not reach many people, "said the coordinator of the network.    

    The aim of the European Commission is to make the labour market more popular and open for researchers and highly skilled professionals, so what was formerly called brain drain, to turn into mobility and openness for researchers, was explained from EURAXESS.

    "If no one else outside the building of the institution knows that there is a vacancy, practically there is no competition. That means that continuously will be used only the available internal human resources" and this in turn hampers both the exchange of experience and skills and the upgrading of the respective organizations, says Svetlana Dimitrova.

    The ethical rules at national level in the field of research and higher education will be innovation for Bulgaria.     Except that the European Charter and Code are not fully applied, Bulgaria has no national documents defining ethical standards for researchers.     "In most countries in Europe there are national or organizational ethical codes that had to be changed slightly to be in line with EU requirements. In Bulgaria there is no national code of conduct in the field of research, nor there is such a widely included element with the internal rules of the institutions, "said Dimitrova.

    In practice, research organizations and universities will open and adopt the principles of the European Charter and Code only "when they themselves decide that they are benefited and that it makes sense for the future development of their scientific researchers," add from EURAXESS.     So far there is only one Bulgarian university which has adopted and implemented all requirements and implement "transition" to liberalization of its policy on human resources, and this is Varna Free University. It is followed by nine institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski".

    The government is willing to assist in the modernization of universities       "We are currently seeing a snowball effect in the Bulgarian academic institutions which are willing to meet European standards, but by the government point of view, desire and willingness were also expressed to support this process," expressed her hope Dimitrova.     That with which the government is ready to support the process of change in scientific organizations is to provide support with priority to those who undertake the task and achieve results. Scientific organizations which have adopted the principles of the European Charter and Code will have priority when applying not only for European projects, but also for  national programs, respectively, and for easier access to funding.

    Another form of support, which the state will provide is working out a national code of ethics. Currently within a working group, the Deputy Ministers of Education develop a preliminary project code of ethics and professional ethics committee, which will regularize at a national level the rules of the relationships between scientific institutions and researchers in conducting scientific research.

    Researchers need assistance in the labour market.       The task of EURAXESS in Bulgaria, as in other European countries is the provision of assistance for the career development of the researchers. This is due to the inability of institutions producing highly-qualified workers (universities and research institutes) to offer their staff adequate preparation for entering into the labour market. The problem is particularly noticeable among young researchers.

    "While Masters are ready to enter into the labour market and apply their skills, the situation with PhDs is different. Up to now, nobody has paid attention to the fact that of all PhDs, only 20% (the percentage varies in different countries, but everywhere is considerably less than half) of candidates develop scientific career.80% of these people enter into the labor market outside the academic institutions without being prepared for it. Right there we have decided to   focus our efforts in the EURAXESS ", says Svetlana Dimitrova.

    The network in Bulgaria is committed to projects on organizing training of researchers and specialized courses for researchers in the early stages of their career development. EURAXESS aims to promote the acquisition of skills often missing, which the academic organizations fail to give their staff, for example entrepreneurship.     "When a researcher reaches a breakthrough or progress, this achievement could be applied in the economy by launching an enterprise or by development of existing production or service - these people lack the skills how to implement what they have achieved and that can not be learned at universities for the present. And here is the place where EURAXESS will put a lot of effort. "saidSvetlanaDimitrova.

     The network has a career portal for young researchers, which contains updated information on career opportunities.       If you need financing for a research project.       In addition to the concern for the integration of researchers who come to work in Bulgaria from third countries, the main focus of the network is to consult researchers about the preparation of project proposals and identification of programs and adverts for financing, including national, international and European programs:

    "Our colleagues are interested in how and through which programs to implement their ideas and we direct them to the relevant contact persons for the various European programs, telling them where to get assistance for project preparation - this is the focus of the work of the network in Bulgaria".  

    EURAXESS helps researchers who are asylum seekers fleeing  from war and highly qualified specialists.     At the height of the refugee crisis, the European Commission with the help of its network of researchers scheduled a month ago a new initiative to help refugees and in particular those who are highly qualified.     EURAXESS will work as an intermediary for the organizations ready to accept such specialists from among the refugees and provide them with career prospects.

    Although the percentage of refugees in Bulgaria with higher education is relatively low, the network provides assistance also to those who would like to improve their qualifications when they receive status, said Svetlana Dimitrova.    EURAXESSonTour initiative for the second consecutive year is visiting Bulgarian Universities     For the second consecutive year the road show EURAXESS passed through some European countries to give more information about the career development of researchers there. Bulgaria is one of the countries that were visited for the second time. This year's hosts are Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar" and Ruse University "Angel Kanchev".