The Scholarship Program of the Bulgarian Cybersecurity Association (BCA) provides five one-year free subscriptions to the world’s most popular university e-learning platform, Coursera.
Five selected recipients will gain access to over 7,000 courses and specializations from more than 300 leading universities and corporations such as Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Google, AWS, Microsoft, and others, available through the global Coursera platform.
Each selected participant will be assigned personal mentors who will prepare individualized learning paths with courses in the field of cybersecurity to be followed over a period of 12 months. After completing the program, successful participants will be offered internships, employment, and collaborative projects with organizations that are members and partners of BCA.
In collaboration with the foundation of the same name, one of the scholars will receive a special award named after Associate Professor Alexey Petrov, which provides one year of access to all training courses of the “Cyber 360” Academy. The Cyber Academy, with extensive experience in training ethical hackers and IT specialists for the public and private sectors, is among BCA’s partners in implementing this pilot educational initiative.
Associate Professor Alexey Petrov is one of the pioneers in cybersecurity education in Bulgaria, having initiated specialized bachelor’s and master’s programs as well as research on cybersecurity and active corporate security at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (FESS) at Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski.” From 2019 to 2023, Associate Professor Petrov headed the Department of Political Science and National Security at the same faculty, where he taught for more than 15 years.
A named scholarship will also be awarded by the European Digital Innovation Hub Trakia to a student from the Plovdiv (South-Central) region, in memory of the first chairman of the EDIH Trakia, our dear friend and colleague Mr. Svetlin Iliev, who passed away in June 2024.
Application Process
Young people between the ages of 16 and 29 with an interest in cybersecurity can apply for the scholarship program, regardless of their residence, academic background, or professional experience.
Applicants should electronically send a current CV, a motivation letter (up to 2 pages), and a concept paper (up to 3 pages) on the topic “The Role of Digital Innovation Hubs in Developing Cybersecurity at National and European Level – Opportunities for Citizens, Businesses, and Institutions” to [email protected].
With their concepts, applicants will contribute to the successful realization of BCA’s most important project – “Cyber4AllSTAR,” also known as the European Digital Innovation Hub “Trakia.”
Through the “Cyber4AllSTAR” project, funded by the “Digital Europe” program of the European Commission and the national “Research, Innovation, and Digitization for Smart Specialization Program,” the Bulgarian Cybersecurity Association, together with experts from the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Union for Private Economic Enterprise, the EDIH Trakia, and the Municipality of Plovdiv, provides free services for businesses in the field of cybersecurity – from training and risk and vulnerability assessments to penetration testing of software systems and computer networks.
Applications for the scholarship are open from July to August 2024. Questions can be sent by email to [email protected] or by phone at 0882 333 225.
Applicants will be invited for interviews in September, and the selected recipients will start their training at the beginning of October 2024.