University Representatives Took Part in a Training Session As Part of the Intellectual Property for Open Science Project

Prof. Dr. Venelin Boshnakov, UNWE Chief Secretary for Scientific Infrastructure, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miglena-Molkhova Vladova and Chief Assist. Dr. Fanny Koleva, lecturers at the UNWE Industrial Business Department, Chief Assist. Dr. Ekaterina Bogomilova from the National and Security Department, and Alexander Hubenov, Head of the Library Collections and Information Activities Division, participated in a training session as part of the Intellectual Property for Open Science /IP4OS/ project under the Horizon Europe Programme, in which the UNWE was selected as the pilot institution for Bulgaria.

The objective of the training was for a small, multidisciplinary team from the University to explore how the intellectual property and open science could be better aligned across different institutional roles and workflows to support researchers and the UNWE strategy for advancing and leveraging knowledge. To achieve the objective, in the period 19 June - 3 July 2026 Mrs. Claire Fritz /EURICE/ conducted three interactive online sessions with our university team, during which the opportunities were identified to strengthen the cross-functional collaboration, improve institutional support for scientific research and utilize the results of such research.

The training encouraged the team to consider the knowledge utilization from an institutional perspective. Rather than discussing the various types of intellectual property and measures to promote open science separately, the focus was on how the individual categories of intellectual assets could contribute to achieving the university’s strategic objectives. Participants emphasized that the  UNWE produces a wide range of intellectual assets - publications, educational programmes and materials, methodologies, data, etc. - each of which requires a different management approach depending on its purpose and target audience.

The OpenLearn case study proved particularly valuable for the discussion. It demonstrated how the copyright, Creative Commons licenses and carefully selected strategies for opening up the university’s content could be used as complementary tools to maximize the visibility, social impact, educational reuse and achieving long-term sustainability, rather than being viewed as conflicting approaches. Participants discussed how such principles could influence the future development of UNWE’s institutional policy and framework and the potential creation of a unified digital repository for intellectual assets. The University’s institutional readiness in the critical area of education was highly praised and ideas were proposed for improvements in the management of intellectual assets, open science and the effective use of knowledge generated by the UNWE.