Clean hydrogen is entering a more demanding phase. The question is no longer whether the technology matters. The question is who can turn it into infrastructure, skills, industrial capacity and bankable projects.
That was the point H2START brought to Green Transition Forum 2026 in Sofia.
The Forum gathered 6,500+ attendees, 450+moderators and speakers, 32+ countries sharing experiences – policymakers, investors, researchers, companies and innovation leaders to discuss Europe’s next chapter: competitive, innovative and secure. For H2START, this was the right setting for a practical message: Bulgaria and Southeast Europe have hydrogen potential, but potential only counts when it becomes capacity.
H2START is being built for exactly that purpose. The Horizon Europe project is establishing a Centre of Excellence in Stara Zagora, led by Trakia University with BGH2A, CNR and Politecnico di Torino. Its task is concrete: develop research infrastructure, attract and train talent, support industry cooperation, and help position the region in the European clean hydrogen value chain.
Hydrogen Strategy Needs an Engine
Prof. Daria Vladikova, Executive Director of H2START CoE at Trakia University, took part in the panel “Hydrogen Strategy as a Driver of Energy Security, Competitiveness and Industrial Leadership in Southeast Europe.”
The panel moved quickly past general ambition. Hydrogen technologies are advancing; the harder work is implementation. That means production, infrastructure, demand, regulation, skills and finance moving together.
Prof. Vladikova presented Stara Zagora as one of Bulgaria’s strongest candidates for a hydrogen hub. The region has industrial experience, strong solar potential, academic capacity and strategic connectivity. Through H2START, this potential is being turned into research and innovation infrastructure: laboratories, test facilities, demonstrations, education, technology transfer and policy support.
The discussion also connected directly to national policy. Developed within the H2START project, the BGH2A Action Plan gives Bulgaria’s hydrogen ambitions a practical route into the update of the National Hydrogen Roadmap. It links policy reform, investment, industrial hubs and regional cooperation, including proposals for a Hydrogen Council, dedicated financing mechanisms, up to 500 MW of electrolyser capacity, and up to 100,000 tonnes of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production per year by 2035.
Cleantech Must Leave the Slide Deck
Ioanna Mincheva represented H2START in the Main Stage panel “Europe’s Catalytic Transformation Moment: How the CEE and SEE Regions are Powering our Common Clean European Futures.”
The panel asked where Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe can compete as AI changes the economics of software. The answer was clear enough: in deployment-heavy innovation, where hardware, energy systems, infrastructure and industrial know-how matter.
That is where hydrogen belongs.
Digital tools can help model, optimize and coordinate. They cannot build laboratories, produce hydrogen, retrofit industrial systems or create trust across a new value chain. H2START works in that real-world space between research, industry, policy and skills — the place where clean technologies either scale or remain conference material.
For the region, this is the opportunity: move faster from ideas to systems, from pilots to value chains, and from isolated initiatives to shared industrial capability.
Skills are Part of the Infrastructure
Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov, Member of the Board of Trakia University and the H2START project, joined the panel “Education of the Future – Teaching for a World That Doesn’t Yet Exist.”
The discussion focused on education in a world shaped by AI, climate pressure, new professions and industrial change. For H2START, this is not a side issue. A hydrogen economy cannot be built without people who know how to design, operate, regulate, finance and improve it.
Prof. Kostadinov presented Trakia University’s approach through the quintuple helix model, connecting education, business, government, civil society and the environment. He highlighted five core skills: curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, capacity to recover and cooperation.
H2START and ZAHYR were presented as examples of how students and researchers can work on real scientific and applied challenges. This is how skills become useful – as experience inside emerging industries.
From Forum Talk to Regional Capacity
H2START’s participation in Green Transition Forum 2026 pointed to one simple conclusion: clean hydrogen in Bulgaria now needs fewer slogans and stronger systems.
The pieces are visible — Stara Zagora, Trakia University, European research partners, hydrogen valleys, industrial interest and policy momentum. H2START’s role is to connect those pieces into something that can last: research infrastructure, trained people, industry-facing services, policy support and international cooperation.
That is how hydrogen moves from strategy to capability.
And that is where H2START is putting its work.