SDRUZENIE BULGARSKA ASOCIACIA NA SOFTUERNITE KOMPANII BASCOM

Their core work

BASSCOM is the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies — a national trade association representing Bulgaria's IT and software industry. Their role in EU projects is to act as a bridge between the Bulgarian ICT sector and European innovation ecosystems, bringing industry voice, member networks, and sector reach rather than research capacity. In H2020, they connected software companies to digital transformation initiatives, supported the rollout of Digital Innovation Hubs in Bulgaria, and contributed to research-to-policy communication through industry channels. They are not a research or development actor but an ecosystem enabler: they open doors to companies, facilitate industry uptake of research results, and represent the business side of digitalization agendas.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

BASSCOM's H2020 involvement began with COMPACT (2017), a project about translating research into policy through social media — a role consistent with a trade association's communication and lobbying function, though the project left no documented technical keywords. Their second project, SmartAgriHubs (2018), marked a shift toward ecosystem infrastructure: Digital Innovation Hubs, competence centers, open calls, and innovation experiments in digital agriculture. The trajectory suggests they moved from passive dissemination toward active ecosystem brokerage — positioning Bulgaria's software sector within the European digital transformation machinery for specific verticals, starting with agri-food.

BASSCOM appears to be positioning itself as an entry point for Bulgarian software companies into EU sector-specific digitalization programs, with agri-food as a first vertical — future collaborations in agritech, smart specialization, or national Digital Innovation Hub programs are the natural next step.

How they like to work

BASSCOM never led a project — they joined as a participant in both cases, contributing industry reach and member network access rather than technical or research outputs. Both projects placed them in large multi-country consortia (SmartAgriHubs in particular was one of the largest H2020 agri-digital projects, with hundreds of partners across Europe). This suggests they are most valuable in projects that need broad industry engagement, dissemination pathways, or national ecosystem coverage in Bulgaria — not in technically intensive research partnerships.

Despite only two projects, BASSCOM accumulated 129 unique consortium partners across 26 countries — a footprint almost entirely explained by SmartAgriHubs, which was a pan-European network project by design. Their direct working relationships are broad geographically but shallow in depth, reflecting participation in large open-network consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships.

What sets them apart

BASSCOM is the only national IT trade association in Bulgaria with documented H2020 participation, giving them a rare dual identity: they represent the Bulgarian software industry to EU programs, and they represent EU digital innovation agendas back to Bulgarian companies. For any consortium needing Bulgarian ICT sector buy-in, industry dissemination in Bulgaria, or a connection to national smart specialization and Digital Innovation Hub infrastructure, BASSCOM is the natural contact point. Their value is not technical depth but institutional reach into a fast-growing Eastern European software market.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SmartAgriHubs
  The flagship project of their portfolio — a major EU initiative connecting 140+ Digital Innovation Hubs across Europe for agricultural digital transformation, giving BASSCOM its largest funding (EUR 70,000) and widest network exposure.
• COMPACT
  An early-stage policy communication project that established BASSCOM's EU project credentials, focused on using social media to bridge research outputs and policy audiences.