IICREST (Interdisciplinary Institute for Collaboration and Research on Enterprise Systems and Technology) is an international IT institute domiciled in Bulgaria. It conducts research on the modeling of enterprises and the design of advanced ICT systems supporting them, focusing on applications in a variety of application domains. IICREST aims as well at disseminating knowledge in the mentioned areas.

IICREST is an independent organization in the form of an NGO and is therefore in a position to offer an objective unbiased opinion in the evaluation of needs, study of requirements, organization of the working teams and implementation of new services and technologies, outside political and economic influences. For this IICREST draws expertise from key academic/public figures not only from Bulgaria but also from its extended network to Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, and The Netherlands.

The mission of IICREST is to be an internationally acknowledged interdisciplinary research and knowledge transfer institute in the area of design (and development) of automated (software) systems and their application in domains of high societal relevance, rooting this in proper enterprise models. Hence, among the institute’s strategic goals are envisioned the following:

• To advance interdisciplinary research in enterprise systems and their related technological support systems, through possible funding from EU and other sources
• To disseminate relevant knowledge among academia and business in different European countries, through scientific events, such as conferences and workshops
• To provide advice and consultancy services, possibly through knowledge transfer initiatives.

IICREST is being led by its Chairman, Dr. Boris Shishkov. Among the other key participants in IICREST are the former Bulgarian Foreign Minister and Vice-President of the Bulgarian Parliament, and current MEP Mrs. N. Neynski, the outstanding Bulgarian Professor – M. Konstantinov, as well as distinguished academicians from different European countries, such as Prof. Dr. J. Filipe (Portugal), Prof. Dr. D. Konstantas (Switzerland), Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. van Sinderen (The Netherlands), and Assoc. Prof. Dr. D. Mitrakos (Greece), who are all members of the IICREST Board.

The research orientation of IICREST concerns three strategic research areas, namely: (i) Enterprise systems and aligned IT services; (ii) High-speed and media-rich networking; (iii) Enterprise optimization and applied numerical methods, as well as five strategic application domains, namely a) Wellbeing; b) Learning; c) Transport; d) Education; e) Environment. Topics of interest in more detail:

ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS AND ALIGNED IT SERVICES
- business modeling
- enterprise service architectures
- inter-enterprise collaboration
- enterprise interoperability
- business-IT alignment
- enterprise application modeling
- model-driven development
- service-oriented infrastructures
- virtualization and integration approaches
- monitoring and self-adaptation approaches
- domain-specific applications

HIGH-SPEED AND MEDIA-RICH NETWORKING
- audio/video streaming
- IPv6 infrastructures
- media search and retrieval

ENTERPRISE OPTIMIZATION AND APPLIED NUMERICAL METHODS
- numerical methods in system design
- enterprise data analysis
- quantitative methods in information systems
- formal support for enterprise simulation.

IICREST has contributed to project initiatives, has organized scientific events, and has established collaborations with prestigious European universities/institutes. More information on all this can be found in the current web site.