A research team involving the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER) of BAS has won the Jury’s Prize at the 2026 Annual Biodiversity and Climate Awards.
On October 9, 2026, the annual award ceremony for the nominees of the Annual Biodiversity and Climate Awards 2026 took place at the “Peroto” Club in Sofia. The event celebrates the achievements of individuals, organizations, projects, and initiatives dedicated to nature conservation in Bulgaria.
This year, for the first time, a new category for scientific contribution was introduced featuring 12 nominated scientific papers, including two dissertations. The 2026 Jury Award was won by the scientific publication “Ecosystem Functioning under Climate Changes, Hydrological Confinement and Pollution Risks in the Shabla–Ezerets Lake System (Northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast): Controlled Seasonal Outlet as a Pathway to Nature-based Restoration” which examined the ecological challenges facing the Shabla-Ezerets lake system with the participation of Radoslava Bekova, Bogdan Prodanov, Todor Lambev from IO-BAS, and our colleague Chavdar Gusev from IBER-BAS.
An Honorary Award of the jury was presented posthumously to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Antoaneta Petrova, long-time Director of the Botanical Garden of BAS and our beloved colleague.
Several other remarkable scientific works from IBER-BAS were also nominated:
- Dr. Blagovesta Zheleva for her dissertation “Impact of Pesticides on Amphibian Species from Water Bodies with Different Degrees of Anthropogenic Impact in Central Bulgaria”
- Dr. Niya Toshkova for her dissertation “Characteristics of Hibernation of Cave-Dwelling Bat Species in Bulgaria in the Context of Global Climate Change”
- Dr. Maria Kachamakova and Dr. Yordan Koshev for a scientific study investigating the distribution and ecological niche of the European ground squirrel in Bulgaria
