 Bulgaria spends 0 @.@ 25 per cent of GDP on scientific research , thus having one of the lowest R & D budgets in Europe . Chronic underinvestment in research since 1990 forced many scientific professionals to leave the country . As a result , Bulgaria scores low in terms of innovation , competitiveness and high @-@ value added exports . Principal areas of research and development are energy , nanotechnology , archaeology and medicine . The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences ( BAS ) is the leading scientific establishment and employs most Bulgarian researchers in its numerous institutes . It has been active in the field of space science with <unk> @-@ 7 radiation monitoring experiments on the International Space Station and Chandrayaan @-@ 1 , and domestically developed space greenhouses on the Mir space station . Bulgaria became the sixth country in the world to have an astronaut in space with Georgi Ivanov 's flight on Soyuz 33 in 1979 . Bulgaria is an active member of CERN and has contributed to its activities with nearly 200 scientists since its accession in 1999 . 
