| 9:00 |
Opening
- Atanas Zapryanov, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria
- Prof. Sylvia Ilieva, Director, GATE Institute
- Dr. Todor Galev, Director of Research, Center for the Study of Democracy
- Prof. Dimitar Vatsov, President, HSS Foundation – Sofia (HSSF)
- Dr. Keith Peter Kiely, Experienced Researcher, GATE Institute
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| 9:30 |
Technology, Democracy, and Cognition: From Pressure Points to Resilience
Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol
Moderator: Prof. Milena Iakimova, HSSF
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| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:00 |
Practical policies to counter disinformation campaigns
Bozhidar Bozhanov, Member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria
How Can We Build a Resilient Information Space
Saman Nazari, Alliance4Europe
Moderator: Prof. Milena Iakimova, HSSF
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| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 |
Navigating the Information Landscape: Bulgaria’s Policy Pathways from Regulation to Resilience
Peace-building in the Black Sea region: the scenario method in Russia-Ukraine conflict and the EU’s role
Neli Kirilova, PhD Fellow (Graduated), Doctoral School on CSDP/CFSP at European Security and Defence College (ESDC)
Identity Narratives and Polarisation in Bulgaria
Elizaveta Polyakova, Analyst, Center for the Study of Democracy
Pravda’s Web / Systemic Manipulation of Search Engines and LLMs via Automated Networks
Goran Georgiev, Senior Analyst, Center for the Study of Democracy
Digital Services Act: Anticipating Challenges in Regulatory Implementation
Simona Veleva, Chairwoman, Council for Electronic Media
Moderator: Gloria Trifonova, Center for the Study of Democracy
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Faster >> Better >> Stronger: Defending and Reinforcing Information Integrity with Frontier Technology
AI and LLM Against Disinformation – fact-checking examples from the ATENA project
Miran Čoklo, Analyst, Hybrid Warfare Research Institute
Building trustworthy AI in the age of disinformation
Andrey Tagarev, Researcher, Graphwise
Fighting visual disinformation: Synthetic images detection in the wild
Olga Papadopoulou, Researcher, Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH)
Revealing propaganda with OSINT & AI: 24,000 Russian Articles on Pogled.info
Gennadiy Vorobyov, Co-Founder & CEO, Netpeak Bulgaria
Strengthening the cognitive deterrence: Lessons learned from 450 Stratcom Campaigns (online)
Sviatoslav Hnizdovskyi, CEO, OpenMinds
Moderators: Todor Kiriakov, Information Integrity Specialist, Identrics & Devora Kotseva, Information Integrity Specialist, Identrics
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| 15:00 | Coffee break |
| 15:30 |
From Reach to Meaningful Connection: Earning Trust of Disinformation-Affected Audience (session organized by SCIENCE+)
Participants:
- Dominika Stawarz, Audience Lead, Free Press for Eastern Europe
- Maksym Eristavi, Senior Product Strategist, Free Press for Eastern Europe
- Jan Paťawa, Head of Strategic Communications at the Czech Ministry of Interior
- Jonáš Syrovátka, Researcher in Russian politics, non-democratic regimes and information security, Charles University
Moderator: Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach, FPEE/FPU/CEPA
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Technology for Information Integrity: Products
Tracking Narrative Dynamics in Disinformation Campaigns on Bulgaria’s adoption of Euro
Vassil Velichkov, CTO, Sensika
From Reaction to Strategy: How Predictive Models Are Streamlined into Prediction Systems for Simulation Exercises
Nesin Veli, CEO, Identrics
Echoes Across Borders: Tracking Russian Propaganda in the EU
Michal Trnka, CEO, Gerulata
Business as stakeholder in disinformation countering: analysis of CEO messaging consistency on energy transition
Elena Mihalska, Project Manager, Commetric & Slavi Slavov, ML Engineer, Commetric
Kronkite: building a new revenue stream for quality journalism
Garvan Walshe, Founder, Article 7-Intelligence for Democrats
Moderator: Nikola Tulechki, Graphwise
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| 17:00 |
Hacking Dictatorships with AI: Real-World Cases of Digital Sabotage and Propaganda Warfare
Chris Kubecka, Cyberwarfare Specialist/Founder & CEO, HypaSec
Moderator: Nikola Tulechki, Graphwise
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Workshop · hybrid
Election Integrity in SE Europe Workshop
Representatives of BROD 2.0 partner organizations – SNSPA, AFP, Funky Citizens, GLOBSEC, GATE (short presentations and panel discussion).
Moderator: Iglika Ivanova, GATE
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| 18:00 |
“Architects of Chaos” Screening
Maya Dimitrova, Journalist, Bulgarian National Television
Moderator: Ruslan Trad, De Re Militari
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Hands-on
Hands-on CheckFirst OSINT Platforms: Oppi and RADAR
Hervé Letoqueux, COO, CheckFirst
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| 19:00 | Closing |