The Centre of Information Society Technologies (CIST) is an interdisciplinary research and training institution of Sofia University, motivated by the challenge to support the development, introduction and wide use of Information Society Technologies (IST).

The main objective of the Centre is to create and establish fruitful co-operation between the University - the academic community and industry - SMEs, NGOs, public administration, local community, banking and financial institutions for co-ordinating the efforts in spreading the IST wide implementation and use.

The research activities performed by the CIST staff have a pivotal role in integrating awareness and understanding of IST, as well as their implementation in the Bulgarian Public Society. Regional development, local economic development and issues of cohesion are among the main goals in research, analysis and development of CIST in the last years
Strong efforts have been applied to promoting the global society development using the new technologies. The research activities of the Centre offer different ways how a large number of national institutions and organizations can best benefit from new IST.

The Centre brings together the theoretical and applied interdisciplinary research in IST and their applications in the economic, social and natural sciences. CIST provides its capabilities at the service of the economic and social needs of the region and the country, in its efforts to meet the standards of accession to the European Union.

The main aim of CIST is to become a national and regional Centre of Excellence in Information Society Technologies (IST) for South-East Europe. The Center devotes its capacity to strengthen the process of IST implementation and to shorten the process of scientific research development and industry applications.