Bulgaria hosted the SPARK phase of NATO’s Innovation Continuum 2026 (IC26) at the GATE Institute in Sofia from February 24 to 26, 2026. According to the NATO Allied Command Transformation innovation network, the event drew 118 in-person participants and 102 online participants, doubling overall participation compared to 2025.
Bulgaria’s Caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth, Irena Mladenova, attended the event on her third day in office. NATO’s Allied Command Transformation described SPARK as the launchpad of the annual Innovation Continuum cycle, where operational challenges are scoped and scenarios are shaped for subsequent experimentation. The 2026 cycle’s themes included AI, autonomous systems, electronic warfare, and cyber resilience.
Bulgaria’s QUASAR Competence Centre at the Institute of Robotics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was separately included in the IC26 initiative, according to QUASAR’s own reporting. The GATE Institute, which hosted the event, is Bulgaria’s Centre of Excellence in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence at Sofia University.