A series of international research workshops were organized in the last week of November as part the capacity building project SCHOLARNET. The research panels were digitally mediated within the jubilee international scientific conference Just and SMART Transitions: New Deals, Markets and Governance where prominent scholars and researchers made remarkable presentations. The Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration – Associate Professor Atanas Georgiev presented the SCHOLARNET project in the frame of the National scientific program “European Research Networks” at the official opening session of the prestigious forum.

Mrs. Maria Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovations, Research, Culture, Education and Sort addressed the conference participants: “I support you in your efforts to achieve the best possible collaboration between education and research. Congratulations on the project Building Scientific Capacity through Knowledge Transfer, Exchange of Hands-on Practices, Linked Academic Research and Networking (SCHOLARNET), which aims at strengthening the research capacity of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration by developing a comprehensive research strategy with the support of leading researchers from European universities and research institutes in Europe.”

Prof. Kai-Ingo Voigt and Oscar Pacos from Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen and Nurnberg (Germany) made a prominent presentation in the first workshop that was moderated by Prof. Stefan Petranov. The two researchers discussed various aspects of the activity-based workplace mechanisms and their role in organizational behavior change, including the correlations with communication, leadership and work style. Assoc. Prof. Daniela Georgieva and Prof. Teodora Georgieva presented an analysis of the hidden research and innovation activities, emphasizing that Bulgaria is raked quite far from most of the EU countries. Despite the ambition to get closer to the so-called group of moderate innovators, Bulgaria is still in the group of timid innovators together with Romania. Assoc. Prof. Todor Yalamov argued that companies continuing to invest in innovations in times of crisis perform better during and after the crisis period. Prof. Albena Vutsova ignited the curiosity of the participants in the research workshop by presenting the conceptual framework of academic spin-offs. Prof. Vutsova discussed the main factors for a successful spin-off: highly motivated team, excellent management expertise, knowledge transfer, long-term vision, viable business model, support by the scientific institution and venture capital availability. The research debate was significantly enriched by a study on digital transformation in higher education presented by Stella Raytcheva from the University of Versailles and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (France).

The Entrepreneurship and Transforming Universities workshop that was moderated by Professor Zhelyu Vladimirov began with a presentation made by Prof. Thierry Come and Prof. Gilles Rouet from University of Paris-Saclay (France) who discussed the various ranking systems of universities around the world – the goals, benefits and main active participants in this process. Prof. Desislava Yordanova presented the motives, the existing barriers and the entrepreneurial activities of students in STEM courses in Bulgarian universities who are starting a technology business. Prof. Trupti Almula form India, together with her PhD student Prabir Chandra Padhy outlined the entrepreneurial culture framework. Assoc. Prof. Nadia Sokolova analyzed the new challenges facing Education 4.0, emphasizing that some of the essential skills include creativity, critical thinking, communication and interaction.

Ambition for intensive progress of the young scholars was declared during the PhD workshop that was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Boryana Bogdanova. Prof. Albena Vutsova initiated the academic debate with an analysis on the EarlyBirds Platform which supports PhD students in their efforts to complete a research paper. Assoc. Prof. Deyan Radev discussed the current trends and methodologies in finance research. Some of the young scholars presented the results of their researches and received valuable feedback from their mentors. Prof. Stanislav Ivanov, Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Tourism Research, Prof. Mitko Dimitrov from the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, and Prof. Laura Rondi, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial Business and Economics, provided extensive advice for preparation and elaboration of successful research project. “Be bold”- Prof. Ivanov invoked the young scholars.