PhD student Eva Filipova from the Forest Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the winner of the special award for significant contribution to the development of research in Bulgaria at the National Representation of Student Councils. The award is given for the first time within the competition “Student of the Year” and is awarded for research on the wild chestnut pests which contributes to the protection of chestnut forests in Bulgaria. Eva Filipova thanked for the support of the scientists from the Forest Research Institute and the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of BAS and wished young people to keep their enthusiasm and inspiration and to believe in science. […]

The implementation of the first stage of the project "Distributed system of scientific collections - Bulgaria (DiSSCo-BG)" started with an online meeting of the team. Тhe project will be implemented by the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER-BAS) and the National Museum of Natural History (NMNHs-BAS), united in the consortium "Upgrading distributed scientific infrastructure: Distributed system of scientific collections-Bulgaria (DiSSCo-BG)". The consortium is the Bulgarian unit in the pan-European distributed research infrastructure DiSSCo, recognized as a research infrastructure of European importance and included in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) in 2018. The project is also realized as part of the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures for the period 2020-2027. The main goal of the scientists from BAS is [...]

Scientists from three institutes of BAS and the University of Forestry have started work on the project "Upgrading Distributed Scientific Infrastructure "Bulgarian Network for Long-Term Ecosystem Research” (LTER-BG). The aim is to summarize the scientific information on conservation and sustainable management of the unique biological diversity in the Republic of Bulgaria, ecosystems and their services for the benefit of society. On 21 January 2021, a kick-off online meeting was held between the partners in the consortium with the coordinator Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research and partners the Institute of Oceanology "Fridtjof Nansen", the Forest Research Institute and the University of Forestry. The upgrade of the existing scientific infrastructure will combine centralised activities (virtual infrastructure and mobile equipment), as well as distributed physical infrastructure located [...]

The palaeontological branch of NMNHS-BAS https://www.nmnhs.com/palaeontological-museum-in… was established in February 1990 with a tripartite agreement between BAS, NMNHS-BAS and the municipality of Asenovgrad at the initiative of Prof. Nikolai Spassov, then research associate at the museum. The basis was the unique collection by students from the high school in Asenovgrad who under the guidance of biology teacher Dimitar Kovachev participated in palaeontological expeditions, supported by the local municipality. The collection was initially stored in the high school of the city, and when the museum was established it became part of the collections of NMNHS-BAS and was moved to the building provided by the municipality as a branch of the museum. Dimitar Kovachev was appointed the first curator of the museum and today the museum bears [...]

Petar Beron was awarded with the Sign of Distinction of the President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences at a ceremony held on 9 October 2020 in the Academy. Prof. Julian Revalski, Full Member of BAS, conferred the award for his merits in the field of acarology and zoogeography and on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The award ceremony was attended by representatives of the Board of BAS and the National Museum of Natural History of BAS (NMNHS). […]

Camera traps captured rare footage showing Felis chaus chaus, the northern subspecies of the reed cat (or swamp cat) in the Korchay and Turyan-chay reserves (northern Azerbaijan). The cameras were installed as part of a joint study by the Institute of Zoology at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, WWF-Azerbaijan and the National Museum of Natural History-BAS. The study, which began in 2018, involved three Bulgarian scientists and one Azerbaijani scientist. The condition of rare and endangered predators in the Transcaucasia is being studied and also includes the leopard and the striped hyena. The reed cat is an Asian species that weighs up to 16 kg. It inhabits mainly wetlands overgrown with dense vegetation. Northern Azerbaijan is one of the northernmost parts of the range [...]