On June 4 and 5, 2026, the Plovdiv International Fair will host the XIII International Scientific Conference “Scientific Research, Technologies and Innovations for Defense and Security“. The prestigious forum is an integral part of the XVII International Exhibition of Defense Equipment and Services “Hemus 2026“. The conference is organized by the “Professor Tsvetan Lazarov“ Defense Institute, “Armaments Policy“ Directorate at the Ministry of Defense and the “Hemus'95“ Foundation under the patronage of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The official opening will begin on June 4, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. in the “Bulgaria“ Hall of the Congress Center with greetings from Ms. Katerina Gramatikova – Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Mr. Atanas Maznev – Deputy Minister of Innovation and Digital Transformation. The participation of the two ministries emphasizes the key state priority for the development of technologies and innovations in the field of defense and for the integration of Bulgarian science into the innovation ecosystem of Europe and the Alliance.
Immediately after the opening, the key plenary session “Innovations and Promising Technologies for Defense” will be held. Three plenary reports will be presented in it. The first is by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Boyan Zhekov – national coordinator of the EU's Horizon Europe Programme and on the panel "Science and Technology Incubator" at the NATO Science and Technology Organisation. The second is by Dr. Violeta Misheva - a specialist in artificial intelligence and data analysis at the NATO Communications and Information Agency - NCIA. The third report will be presented by Mr. Matteo Merialdo - Director of "Technology and Innovation" at Starion Group, Belgium and technical manager of European projects under EDF.
After the plenary part, the forum will continue with the presentation of over 60 scientific reports from the country and abroad. They are distributed in specialized panels covering armament and combat systems, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, military-political aspects of defence, as well as military medicine and health management.