Annual Report

The elaboration of the current annual report coincides with the beginning of the second decade of the creation of "EVRIKA" Foundation and this is another reason to scrutinize the activities during the report period. The most important is to evaluate the degree of the achieved results of the main mission of our organization-stimulating, promoting and enabling the development of scientific and technical creativity and economic entrepreneurship of young people, supporting young innovators and entrepreneurs; facilitating the dissemination of scientific, technical and economic knowledge and creating the necessary environment for education, specialization and scientific research of young scholars and specialists in Bulgaria.Our efforts during the last year were concentrated on realization of our main purposes,presented in the five programs of the foundation-"Talents", "Information, publications, events and international cooperation", "Stimulation of Entrepreneurial Ventures", "Scientific research" and "Development". We followed the proven effective principles of work - competitive basis for supporting the projects of young people and organizations, reporting the expert opinion in certain fields, collective decision making, transparency and accessibility of information etc. It is clear that all taken decisions and realized activities are co-ordinated with the main statutes of the foundation, the accepted priorities and approved annual budget. The main efforts and funds of the foundation were channeled towards the realization of our programs and all the activities related to the non-profit character of "EVRIKA".

The support for the education, qualification and change of qualification of young people with expressed interest in the field of science, techniques and management was carried out mainly through our program "Talents". Our priorities still are supporting financially students and pupils according to their academic performance. Consequently, we granted financial support to 139 people of which: 63 winners of national or international Olympiads, 22 winners of national science and technology competitions and 44 students from 22 university subjects which were first in their classes and 10 on the grounds of directed grants. The money granted for this purpose is 57 400 lv which is with 6900lv more than previous year although the number of the people receiving support is with 33 people fewer. This shows that the requirement of the last meeting of the Bureau for enlargement of the real amount of the scholarships is being achieved.According to the programs the winners of Olympiads and competition will be supported until the end of their studies. After carrying out the relevant competitions "EVRIKA" granted financial support to 5 young specialists for long-term specialisations and Ph.D. studies abroad as well as to 11 people for participation in international scientific events and short-term specialisations abroad. In fact an effort is done to one of the directions agreed during the last General Assembly of the foundation- to enlarge the real amount of the granted supplements to the scholarships.

We think that not only should we support the creation and management of School Institute for Mathematics and Information technologies but also we should become major partners in this initiative. It has been proposed by the Bulgarian Mathematical Union, Bulgarian Science Academy and IF"Sv.Sv. Kiril I Metodii".

We continue our traditional support for the education of pupils with outstanding talents during the summer in summer camps. EVRIKA is committed to organizing such summer camps in the sphere of science and technology and because of the astronomical phenomenon, which we witnessed this year, the foundation supported the organization of an astronomy summer camp.

The stimulation of scientific, research and invention activities of young people is realized in three program directions. Significant places among them take the activities incorporated in the "Scientific Research" program. In cooperation with the National fund "Scientific Research" "EVRIKA" Foundation carried out the annual competition for financing research projects for young people in the sphere of information technologies and communications. There were 23 projects chosen in the sphere of the Chemistry-3, Organism Biology and Ecology-6, Molecular and cell Biology-7, Medecine-4 and Agriculture-3. Resources were allocated also for research projects from previous years, which have proven their effectiveness and benefits. In the future it is planned to widen the theme spheres of the financed projects and make the competition procedure more flexible. This will allow the resources to be allocated more effectively and a greater mobility will be given to young scholars wishing to continue their work in Bulgaria.

Another direction in this activity of EVRIKA Foundation is sustaining a permanent consultation office in the sphere of protection of industrial property and the problems of innovation. This is a very beneficial activity with regard of the young people for two main reasons. First, because it is necessary for innovators to receive professional competent help in today's dynamic legislative world and also because of the lack of such services offered in Bulgaria.

The third priority in our approaches is connected with the supporting of the possibilities for showing of the knowledge and achieved results by the young people. The foundation by itself or in co-operation with other partners organizes numerous national competitions, conferences, schools and other contributions. Traditionally this is made within the programs "Information, Publications, Events and International projects" and "Development". With great success were organized events for pupils which are yet another way for provoking interest in children and young people for the problems of science and technology.

Among the projects organized and financed by us, the traditional competitions for the "EVRIKA" awards take a prominent place. For the tenth consequent time the best young scientist,inventor, manager and farmer were selected. Gergana Petrunova Vasileva received the “EUREKA” award for achievements in science for the year 2000. Mrs. Vasileva has specialised Biology in the Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski.” She also made a Doctoral Dissertation in 1999. She works as a scientist 1st class in the Central Laboratory of Ecology in the Bulgarian Academy of Science.She was awarded because of her dissertation work on “Cestuses and populatoins of Cestuses of divers (Aves: Podicipedidae) from the Bulgarian Black Sea. Her research is based on a large material of divers and a comparative material of parasitologic collections of the National Museum of Natural History – Paris; the Museum of Natural Science in Geneva; the Museum of Natural Science at the Berlin University, the National Parasitologic Collection of USA – Bletsvil,the Museum of Natural Science in Kopenhagen and the Parasitologic Museum “Merguro” – Tokyo.The attained scientific results are an original contribution to the study of parasites and their populations. Their major components, structure and factors which determine them have been found. A comparison between the cestus and thermatodic populations of divers in one and the same habitat, as well as between these from the Bulgarian Black Sea and these from Canada have been made. The results from the scientific research are published in 7 scientific articles in international parasitologic and zoologic magazines with impactfactor. Teodor Millev – director of “Microsoft Bulgaria” LTD. - received the “EUREKA” award for a young manager for the year 2000. He was born in 1968. He has specialised “Computer systems” in the Sofia University of Technology. He continues his education on business information science in Aston Universty, Birmingham, and on “Management of financial and bank work” in the Sofia University of National and World Economy.His career begins in 1993 in IBM Bulgaria. He works as a business- partner manager in the field of microcomputers. In 1998 works as a manager of “Sales and Marketing” in “Deloit & Tush”. Since September 1998 he has been recognised as a director of the newly registered “Oracal” in Bulgaria. His merit is based on his proper selection of team, as well as on his capability of affirming the authority and prestige of the firm in Bulgaria. Since the summer of 2000 he has been head of the newly established representation of Microsoft in Bulgaria. For this period of time Mr. Millev managed to affirm his authority as a manager in the Microsoft system, to build the team of the firm by employing young Bulgarian specialists. The Microsoft branch in Sofia works actively for circulating the software products of Microsoft, for gradual limitation of software piracy and it incessantly broadens its network of business-partners throughout the country. It has established a program for teaching of different groups of Microsoft clients and of business-partners. The days determined for teaching of programmers are very popular. A cooperation with Bulgarian software firms in developing of Microsoft products has already begun. Thanks to the initiative of Mr. Millev the firm has started several projects in support of the education system in high schools and universities. A special attention is paid to the schools with childrens with phisical disabilities. Branimir Russev Pavlov from Burgas received the award “Eureka” for a young farmer for the year 2000. He was born in 1976 and he has been dealing with farming for 4 years on his own farm in Ravnez village. He cultivates 270 decares of land, 180 decares of which are private land and 90 decares are rented. 1550 ares are for pastures, 900 ares for vineyards and 250 ares for vegetables. On the farm are cultivated mushrooms on a land of 400 sq. km (2000 bags of mushrooms). There is also a place for production of compost for mushrooms. The farm has its own machine park .The obtained production throughout the year is as follows: wheat 80 decares 37tons sunflower 75 decares 12tons ,vineyards 90 decares 135tons , melons 15 decares 25tons, tomatoes 8 decares 50tons, hot-house tomatoes 2 decares 16tons, mushrooms 2000 bags 6tons The production has been realised . Branimir Pavlov has graduated high school. He is unmarried. On the farm he has regular workers for cultivating of mushrooms and seasonal ones for the other crops. Rumen Krustev Krustev from Sofia has received the “EUREKA” award for young inventor. He is 31 years old. He has graduated the Sofia University of Technology. He will soon complete his Doctoral Dissertation. He works in the Central Laboratory for phisico-chemical mechanics in the Bulgarian Academy of Science. His device “internal combustion engine” is patented and it suggests a solution connected with the improvement of the efficiency of the engine. It suggests a new construction of the cylinder head and a sine mechanism instead of mechanism. This task is solved by a combination of two four-stroke cylinders with one compression and one expansion cylinder. They are formed in the cylinder head by being connected to each by orifices. It is supposed that the characteristic of the engine could be determined by the expansion of the gases to a pressure which is near the atm. pressure. This could be determined when the duration of the combustion process is increased and a complete balance of the inertial forces from the moving parts is achieved. The inventor supposes that during the experiment after the creation of the real model the efficiency of the engine can be improved

Due to our support, events for young scientists and specialists are still held. Among these are high-technology schools, which have already won recognition. Support is also given to projects for preparation and qualification of teachers, which is of great influence for students.

For support and development of natural, scientific, technical and economical knowledge and information.

One of the main factors for making children and young people take part in scientific and technical activities, is arousing their interest in these. In recent years 6 projects were supported. They deal with publications or scientific and technical initiatives in some periodicals. Among the most valuable initiatives was the initiative of the National Polytechnical Museum, which owing to our financial support, keeps editing the "Tehnicharche" newspaper. Some new editorials in youth magazines are also of great interest. Together with the magazine "Rodna Rech" we started a column entitled "Evrika" , in which the science-fiction works of Bulgarian students are published.All awarded literature productions related with the theme "The human and the space" were published in "Rodna Rech". Due to our co-operation with many magazines and newspapers, our projects and the results from them appear frequently in the media. During the year, on the National television, over the radio, in specialized newspapers and even in some daily newspapers, there were more than 35 publications about our work and activities. We must add the successful beginning of the new newspaper "Telescope".We also support the publishing of the newspaper of the future engineers "New technical avangard" of the Technique University.

. Another project is the magazine "Science", devoted to the young scientists. The problems of these people and the methods for their solution are presented there.

We have also retained the practice of providing subscription for Bulgarian scientific and technical magazines for libraries in universities, high-schools and vocational schools as well as for 80 out-of-school organizations for the development of science and technology. We believe that by supplying such organizations with computer technology we have indirectly enabled their access to information, mainly through the Internet. To this we can also add the achievements of the international project "Internet and Virtual Communications ".

Inspecting our co-operation with the mass media we must evaluate positively the tendency for more detailed presentation of the foundation in the periodical press and electronic systems. It has become a common practice our most significant activities to win a public recognition through live reports, correspondences and problem materials.

Describing the activity about the dissemination of the scientific knowledge we must add some discovery projects,lmpelmented with our help. This is the publishing of the second volume of the "Physics, Mathematics and Technique Encenclopedy" of Bulgarian Science Academy.

Must be mentioned some more issues supported by the foundation through the "Information,issues, events and international co-operation" program. The book "Economy of the entrepreneur activity" continues the tradition to promote the publishing of editions with practical application.serving the interests of the young enterpreneurs. We have received for the first time a donation supporting the publishing of the book "Spin marked anti-tumor compounds". We also have and two already periodical issues.

Through the already mentioned and through the supplying of subscription to schools, universities and facultative establishments we succeed to create conditions for the improving of the awareness of the young people and to wield influence to their professional orientation.

Participation in international educational, scientific and technical programs and projects and international youth scientific and technical co-operation

These activities of the foundation have perspective, considering the continuing process of eurointegration and the opportunities for co-operation, which allow our youths to communicate with people their age and exchange information on professional topics under favorable economical conditions.

In the first place, our work in this line includes our partnership with international organizations whose members we are. We retained our full membership in the most prestigious organization in the third sector, European Foundation Center, which presented an opportunity for valuable contacts with the most important NGOs in Europe and the world. Our membership in MILSET is also beneficial. During last year, the major event of this organization, the European Science Expo, took place. It was held in Charleroi,Belgium and the participants approved by the organization were selected by a national competition devoted to the Space.Later last year we participated in another similar event of the organization-Expo "Youth, leisure,science and technics"held in Prague,Czech Republic during which were presented 5 projects of students from Bourgas,who has also taken part in the competition "Young talents".During the annual assembly of the organization, we received an invitation to become founders of the European structure of this organization which is a sign of respect towards our work from our foreign colleagues.Our second paritcipation was exceptionally profitable for the project expenses were paid by program "Youth" of EU.One of the most successful projects through the year was the first stage of "Internet and the virtual communications" within the program of the French-German Bureau for International Exchange - OFAJ.The realization of the project has been continued during 2000 with its third stage.It was held in Bulgaria and youths from France and Germany took part in it. We have before us one more stage in France. Unfortunately further projects are not anticipated because the priorities of the financing organization has changed in direction to Magreb and former Yugoslavia.This discovers that the possibilities for new youth exchange projects are supposed to be pursued in other financing programs of EU as the existing contacts with familiar youth organizations in transition should be completely used or the co-operation of registering systems should be asked. Following our current policy we must discuss future projects to be given for consideration to our potential partners.

As a continuation of our practice up to date to support projects of other organisations with similar activities, together with the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria we made possible the participation of the Bulgarian national high school and student mathematicians' team in the World and Balkan Olympiads in Romania and Macedonia.

Stimulation and support for the entrepreneurial initiative of young people
This activity of ours has two aspects. On the one hand these are the opportunities of the " Stimulation of entrepreneurial ventures" program. On the other hand these include the " Risk innovation" of the program "Development".

The first program mentioned presents opportunities of issuing loans to young people and their trade organizations for the implementation of projects dealing with the realization of new productions, products and services through the " Youth innovations" fund. During the last year were changed the conditions for implementation of the program which allows the received projects and applications to be monthly considered .The loans issued in the previous year are paid according to the liquidating plans and for the time being there are no delayed loans, a fact which shows that the mechanism used is the right one. In this sense we should evaluate the present state of things and should change our organization if needed. The reasons for such state of affairs are objective. There is no stimulus for the development of small business. The preparation of candidates for making a business plan, a main part of every project, is insufficient as well. In addition there are dead lines, which are not always met by the contestants. At present we would be able to temporarily change the program and consider the projects permanently. Thus we would be able to issue loans opportunity and satisfy the contestants' needs.

The interest in the competitions has perceptibly increased. Young people, interested in the sphere of the agriculture, services, food industry, etc, obtained application forms. Later many of the received projects were not fit to the attached conditions.Without excluding the activities about the risk innovations from the program the real results do not respond to the expectations and it can't be anticipated significant increase of this activity.