The National Museum of Natural History, Sofia participated in the National Scientific Conference “Nature and Knowledge: New Horizons for Natural History Museums in Bulgaria”

On 28 November 2025, at the Boris Hristov House of Culture, in Plovdiv, the National Scientific Conference “Nature and Knowledge: New Horizons for Natural History Museums in Bulgaria”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Regional Museum of Natural History — Plovdiv was held. The Director of the Museum, Dr Ognyan Todorov, officially opened the conference, and two representatives of the Municipality of Plovdiv — Mr Plamen Panov, Deputy Mayor for “Culture, Archaeology and Tourism” and Mr Stefan Posliyski, Chairman of the Committee for “Culture, Tourism, European Integration and International Relations” offerd their greetings to the participants.

Scientists from the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia made four presentations.

Prof. DSc Prof. Zlatozar Boev opened Panel 1: The educational mission of the natural history museum in a rapidly changing world with the presentation “The Regional Natural History Museum in Plovdiv and the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia — 70 years of collaboration in favor of natural history”.

In the same panel, Dr Zlatka Yaramova presented the topic “Overcoming barriers: towards best practices for more inclusive and accessible natural history museums in Bulgaria”, prepared in co-authorship with Prof. Pavel Stoev, Sen. Assist. Dr Stefaniya Kamenova and Sylvia Tosheva.

The two topics “Digitization of museum collections and modern methods for collecting data on biodiversity” by Assoc. Prof. Dr Tihomir Stefanov and Assoc. Prof. Dr Georgi Popgeorgiev, and “Digitization of biological collections in the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia — activities and results” by Assoc. Prof. Dr Borislav Gueorguiev were part of the program of panel 3: Innovations and digitalization in natural history institutions.

The conference was also attended by researchers and curators from the Regional Museum of Natural History — Plovdiv, the National Museum “Earth and People”, the Regional History Museum — Blagoevgrad, the Regional History Museum — Burgas, the Museum of the Rhodope Karst, the Natural History Museum — Cherni Osam, the Regional History Museum — Pleven, the Regional History Museum — Ruse and the Zoo — Plovdiv.

The conference provided an opportunity to improve communication between institutions dedicated to the study and protection of nature, to exchange experiences, ideas and create new partnerships.