At the end of September 2025, the contracts of Dr. Mihail Raev, Dr. Anna Kyosova, Dr. Lingling Ma, and Zlatan Dimitrov under the National Programme “Young Researchers and Postdoctoral Fellows – II” came to an end. This cohort of young scholars achieved remarkable results with minimal funding, amounting to BGN 38,419.76 over a period of 13 months.

Dr. Mihail Raev was the only postdoctoral fellow under the programme, having just defended his dissertation on “Economic Reforms in Greece and Portugal (1999–2018) – A Comparative Analysis” on July 15, 2024. Dr. Raev was the most productive, writing 7 articles for the project and participating in 4 international conferences. One of his papers, „Observations on the Bulgarian Fiscal Politics and International Commerce – a Survey on the Transfer of the Marketplace of Bulgarian Merchants from Constantinople to Thessaloniki in 893–894“ , is already indexed in Scopus.

Dr. Anna Kyosova was a young researcher under the programme, having just defended her dissertation at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. At the same time, she was also a postdoctoral fellow in the TWIN4ECO project at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Her article „E-Commerce Adoption Trends in Bulgarian Agriculture“ is already indexed in Web of Science. After the completion of her contract, she continues as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, for 18 months under dual academic supervision. From the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, her supervisor will be Prof. D.Sc. Zhelyu Vladimirov.

Dr. Lingling Ma was a young researcher in the programme but defended her dissertation at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration after its start. Her thesis, “Readiness for the Use and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in SMEs”, was successfully defended on October 24, 2024. Her article for the project, „Do Bulgarian SMEs Differ from Their International Peers in Adoption of AI?“, is already indexed in Web of Science.

Zlatan Dimitrov was a young researcher under the programme and succeeded in publishing the article „Machine Learning Techniques for Post-Processing Electromagnetic Exposure Simulations“ (co-authored with Assoc. Prof. Todor Yalamov, PhD) in a Q1 journal, already indexed in Scopus and awaiting indexing in Web of Science. Zlatan continues his academic research within a project at the GATE Institute of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

All four fellows actively participated in various activities of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – conferences, trainings, academic discussions, and competitions. Zlatan Dimitrov won second prize in the “Young Entrepreneur in Science” competition for 2024.