to the Prime Minister and Chair of Parliament of Bulgaria

Your Excellency,

The collaboration between the two Academies (Mathematical and Informatical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI BAS) and The Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI) started in’80 and it is also active still now and there is a bilateral agreement to continue our scientific collaboration. The meetings among the researchers are quite frequent and in many EU-projects joint participations are realized (FP6, LdV, etc.). We have successful scientific co-operation in the field of software development for multimedia systems in the framework of the bilateral projects: This cooperation is very important for both institutes, more so for development and participation in new EC-projects in the framework of FP7, ICT Work Program

Already as a young researcher, I was asked by Hungarian academician Tibor Vámos to start collaboration with Bulgarian academician Ljubomil Iliev for building connections among the IMI BAS and the Hungarian partner institute, MTA SZTAKI. Academician Ljubomil Iliev in his book “Panorama, jiva v pametta” (published by Federation of Mathematicians in Bulgaria, in 1986, c/o Jusautor, Sofia 51) several times mentioned me as one of the leading Hungarian mathematicians who was building not only the bridge between mathematics and informatics but also was one of the founders of Bulgarian and Hungarian cooperation in this field. Prof. Iliev underlined in his book the significance of the personal contacts between outstanding scientist as me (Head of Informatics Laboratory) and Prof. Dr. Radoslav Pavlov (Head of Mathematical Linguistics Department).

This initiative has led to a very fruitful cooperation. A characteristic result of these joint efforts is the book “Discrete Mathematics” written jointly by Jordan Denev, Radoslav Pavlov and János Demetrovics, which was published in Bulgaria in 1984. A Hungarian translation titled “Introduction to Computer Science” appeared in 1985. Since then 4 editions have been published, and this work is perceived as a fundamental text among the students of computer science. It is certainly worth mentioning, that I received more than 300 citations from Bulgarian scientists.

As a head of Informatics Department MTA SZTAKI I truly hope that you can solve this critical situation in Bulgaria and we can continue our cooperation in the future, too. 
János Demetrovics
academician