ITS Research Intelligence
Bulgaria University Research Rankings
Compare Bulgaria universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 45 index-ready universities in Bulgaria. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 1,275 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 4,069. The average publication-growth signal is 18.1%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.
Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.
Top research universities in Bulgaria
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|
| #1 | Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" | Bulgaria | 76.6 | 8,480 | 34,030 | 44.0% |
| #2 | Medical University of Sofia | Bulgaria | 71.0 | 4,863 | 34,118 | -4.8% |
| #3 | Medical University Plovdiv | Bulgaria | 66.7 | 3,446 | 18,221 | -6.5% |
| #4 | Technical University of Sofia | Bulgaria | 65.7 | 4,992 | 9,667 | 16.1% |
| #5 | College of Tourism | Bulgaria | 64.3 | 2,891 | 5,047 | 110.8% |
| #6 | Medical University of Varna | Bulgaria | 63.6 | 3,259 | 9,268 | -13.9% |
| #7 | Trakia University | Bulgaria | 62.6 | 2,442 | 6,097 | 3.1% |
| #8 | Plovdiv University | Bulgaria | 61.2 | 1,815 | 8,447 | -23.3% |
| #9 | Angel Kanchev University of Ruse | Bulgaria | 60.7 | 2,248 | 4,418 | 41.1% |
| #10 | University of Food Technologies | Bulgaria | 60.0 | 1,204 | 4,643 | 21.5% |
| #11 | University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy | Bulgaria | 59.9 | 1,089 | 3,751 | 20.0% |
| #12 | University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy | Bulgaria | 59.0 | 1,693 | 2,809 | 35.2% |
| #13 | Medical University Pleven | Bulgaria | 58.2 | 1,426 | 4,777 | -4.5% |
| #14 | University of Forestry | Bulgaria | 58.1 | 1,284 | 6,457 | -17.1% |
| #15 | Agricultural University Plovdiv | Bulgaria | 57.0 | 1,043 | 2,275 | 27.3% |
| #16 | University of National and World Economy | Bulgaria | 57.0 | 1,403 | 2,227 | 62.9% |
| #17 | New Bulgarian University | Bulgaria | 56.7 | 1,167 | 3,271 | 0.9% |
| #18 | Prof. Assen Zlatarov University | Bulgaria | 56.1 | 823 | 1,514 | 22.4% |
| #19 | South-West University "Neofit Rilski" | Bulgaria | 55.7 | 1,208 | 2,738 | 6.0% |
| #20 | National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases | Bulgaria | 54.3 | 460 | 2,264 | -12.8% |
| #21 | St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo | Bulgaria | 53.0 | 801 | 1,137 | 52.1% |
| #22 | Technical University of Varna | Bulgaria | 53.0 | 1,005 | 1,338 | 5.8% |
| #23 | Technical University of Gabrovo | Bulgaria | 52.5 | 587 | 1,338 | 25.8% |
| #24 | Food Research and Development Institute | Bulgaria | 52.2 | 242 | 551 | 78.9% |
| #25 | Shumen University | Bulgaria | 51.4 | 866 | 892 | -9.4% |
| #26 | University of Agribusiness and Rural Development | Bulgaria | 50.8 | 350 | 475 | 135.7% |
| #27 | University of Economics Varna | Bulgaria | 50.6 | 722 | 874 | 46.7% |
| #28 | Burgas Free University | Bulgaria | 50.5 | 510 | 1,300 | -0.5% |
| #29 | University of Library Studies and Information Technologies | Bulgaria | 49.3 | 599 | 888 | 32.2% |
| #30 | Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy | Bulgaria | 49.1 | 449 | 578 | 64.9% |
| #31 | Varna University of Management | Bulgaria | 48.9 | 183 | 2,895 | -30.6% |
| #32 | Varna Free University | Bulgaria | 48.8 | 376 | 437 | 87.3% |
| #33 | University of Mining and Geology "Saint Ivan Rilski" | Bulgaria | 47.5 | 537 | 715 | -50.9% |
| #34 | American University in Bulgaria | Bulgaria | 47.3 | 246 | 585 | 36.5% |
| #35 | D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics | Bulgaria | 46.0 | 364 | 846 | -2.1% |
| #36 | University of Telecommunications and Post | Bulgaria | 45.8 | 271 | 473 | 46.6% |
| #37 | Vasil Levski National Military University | Bulgaria | 45.7 | 327 | 208 | 72.2% |
| #38 | National Sports Academy Vassil Levski | Bulgaria | 45.3 | 566 | 380 | -6.1% |
| #39 | University of Security and Economics | Bulgaria | 42.5 | 133 | 429 | 68.4% |
| #40 | Todor Kableshkov University of Transport | Bulgaria | 39.8 | 194 | 350 | -31.3% |
| #41 | Institute for Bulgarian Language | Bulgaria | 39.0 | 315 | 94 | 4.1% |
| #42 | National Academy of Arts | Bulgaria | 37.2 | 153 | 166 | -46.3% |
| #43 | G. S. Rakovski National Defence College | Bulgaria | 35.1 | 141 | 92 | -38.0% |
| #44 | Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts | Bulgaria | 26.5 | 109 | 22 | -60.3% |
| #45 | National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts | Bulgaria | 20.1 | 108 | 0 | 6.7% |
Transparent methodology
How ITS Research Score v2 is constructed
Every index-ready institution has a base score from recent output, citations, h-index, i10-index and publication growth. After deep enrichment completes, ITS Research Score v2 uses six dimensions: 25% output strength, 30% Research Impact Score, 20% Momentum Score, 10% international-collaboration share, 5% open-access share and 10% topic-diversity signal. Output and citation-scale terms are log-normalized to reduce domination by the largest universities.
Research Impact Score combines citation intensity, h-index, two-year mean citedness when available and i10 visibility. It is intentionally not called field-normalized impact. International collaboration is based on recent works with authors from more than one country. Research diversity is an entropy-based summary of the institution’s leading topic signals, not a department count.
These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.