The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics is an independent permanent research unit in BAS and carries out its activities in accordance with the Act of BAS, the BAS Charter and the institute's interior rules of procedure, within the current legislation. The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics is a multidisciplinary academic institution with the primary task of raising the level of all activities in the country associated with the development, implementation and reproduction of mathematics and informatics.

In compliance with the European priorities and scientific research programmes and the world trends in the development of mathematics and mathematical informatics and in the context of the international agreements and the necessity of socially significant applications for Bulgaria, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics set out the following high-priority strategic research fields:

1. Mathematical structures:
   • Discrete mathematical structures and applications;
   • Differential equations;
   • Analysis, geometry and topology.
2. Mathematical modeling:
   • Stochastics;
   • Operations research;
   • Numerical methods and scientific calculations;
   • Approximation theory and foundations of mathematical models.
3. Mathematical informatics:
   • Mathematical foundations of informatics;
   • Mathematical linguistics and knowledge processing;
   • Modeling of software and cognitive processes;
   • Modeling of information processes.
4. Modeling of educational processes in mathematics and informatics.

For the achievement of these priorities, bilateral and multilateral contracts have been made with dozens of research centres in Europe and the world. The full integration into the European Research Area is seen by the management of the IMI as one of the main approaches to making science a major driving force for the development of national economy and a society based on knowledge. IMI—BAS has long-term bilateral and multilateral agreements for scientific cooperation with more than 40 research centres and universities in Europe and the world—in Belgium, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Ukraine, etc.

In 2013, 22 research projects within reciprocity-based exchange contracts between BAS and academies and scientific institutions from 12 countries were under way.

In 2013 members of the Institute's staff worked on a total of 19 research projects financed by the Scientific Research Fund, many of them with the participation of foreign leading scholars of the respective fields. IMI was a leading contractor in 10 projects and a co-contractor in the rest.

16 permanent research seminars operate in IMI, including the National Seminar on Informatics and the National Seminar on Stochastics. As a rule, foreign scholars who visit IMI are invited to give talks at these seminars.

IMI is actively involved in the development of computer science with an emphasis on computer, communication and information systems and technologies enabling the country to participate in the global information community. This activity provides direct access to information databases and acquaintance with the achievements of global leading research centres in all fields of science and human knowledge.