The Trakia University leads a consortium of academic institutions working on the implementation of the National Scientific Programme Smart Stockbreeding, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. The consortium involves:
- Agrarian University Plovdiv
- Technical University of Sofia
- Angel Kanchev University of Ruse
- Institute of Information and Communication Technologies - BAS
- Institute of Mechanics - BAS
- Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction Acad. Kiril Bratanov - BAS
- Agrarian Academy
The programme team includes nearly 300 leading scientists in the field, of which over 20% are young promising researchers. The National Scientific Programme’s duration will be three years with a budget of BGN 4 500 000.
The main purpose of the scientific programme is to conduct fundamental and applied research that would provide innovative methods and tools for smart and effective stockbreeding with reduced human resource involvement and limited impact on the environment. It reflects the priorities of:
- The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda
- The European Green Deal
- Horizon Europe, Research and innovation funding programme until 2027
- The Digital Europe Programme
- National Programme Digital Bulgaria 2025
- Strategy for Digitalization of Agriculture and Rural Areas of Republic of Bulgaria
The scientific programme’s specific objectives are:
- providing competent support for targeted research in key fields like stockbreeding and bioinformation, genetics and selection, ecology and biodiversity, food, transport, energy efficiency etc., including for utilization of the achieved research results
- automation and robotization of operations in stockbreeding such as raising, feeding, milking, cleaning etc.
- interdisciplinary teams using the modern achievements in stockbreeding, veterinary medicine, genetics, selection, reproduction, economics and management and information and communication technologies
- modelling of processes and phenomena with big data and complicated mathematical and computer models
- provision of open access to digital infrastructure for teams of scientists and PhD students from a variety of scientific disciplines
- increasing the involvement of the Bulgarian scientific community in the European Research Area and the international; research cooperation
- greater participation of Bulgarian research teams in European projects and research programmes
- upgrading of ongoing projects and programmes with national.
The programme has the following thematic fields:
- robotization and automation of technological operation in stockbreeding
- optimization of reproductive technologies for genetic progress
- precise animal feeding methods and tools
- smart waste management
- monitoring of health and humane treatment of animals
- digitalization of stockbreeding and provision of open public access to the received results
- use of research results for digitalization of education and creation of new educational resources in the field of smart stockbreeding.