Critical and strategic raw materials in Bulgaria: an outline of the new National Scientific Program

The political course towards energy production dominated by renewable sources requires massive amounts of rare raw materials. The current supply, production and refining of many of these commodities is: 1) insufficient to meet global demands, which creates economic incentives for mining; and 2) dominated by few countries, which creates global supply risks. Faced with these challenges and opportunities, most of the world is racing to catch up on the systematically neglected exploration, mining, processing, and recycling of critical and strategic raw materials. Upon initiative of the broad geologic scientific community, the Bulgarian government has launched a new 5-year National Scientific Program: “Critical and strategic raw materials for green transition and sustainable development”. Here we present the overall structure of the Program, its main goals, and the planned scientific activities.