News and Events
On 24.06.2024, professor Pavel Pavlovitch presented the volume “The Role of the Arabic Language in Cultural and Commercial Exchanges along the Silk Roads” at a scholarly conference in Rabat. This volume and the conference are part of a trilateral collaborative project involving UNESCO, the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation, and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).
On June 3, 2024, the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" became a full member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). The membership was officially confirmed by the EFMD's relevant committee. The full membership of FEBA, Sofia University was ratified by the EFMD General Assembly on 10 June 2024 in Bologna, Italy. FEBA's Dean Assoc. Prof. Dr. Atanas Georgiev attended the event as a full member of EFMD for the first time.
Department of Pharmaceutical and Applied Organic Chemistry (FPOH), Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, SU"St. Cl. Ohridski" held its annual Scientific Seminar from May 31 to June 2, 2024, at the "Prof. Tsv. Bonchev" educational and scientific base, Gyolechitsa.
"Prometheus" is a new project in the field of Digital Epigraphy, in which the University of Sofia represents Bulgaria in partnership with academic and cultural institutions from the region, such as the Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia in Skopje, the Institute of Balkan Studies in Belgrade, the University of Belgrade, and the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.
Department of "Climatology, Hydrology and Geomorphology" at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" installed an automatic weather station (AMS) in the area of the village of Elhovets, municipality of Rudozem, Bulgaria
Today, 28 March, Sofia University is hosting the international scientific conference “Representative Democracy in Crisis: Critical Narratives on Representative Democracy in Europe”. The event is organized by the research group European Values and Social Challenges in the framework of the SUMMIT project that the University is implementing.
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, through its Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, has been accepted in the Global Business School Network (GBSN). On March 15, FEBA received the official invitation to become part of the GBSN community, a prestigious network of over 150 leading business schools from 58 countries committed to making a profound impact on sustainable development worldwide through education, research, and community engagement.
At the end of February and the beginning of March 2024, a delegation from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski" visited Arizona State University in the USA, where a General Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two universities was negotiated and officially concluded.
The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski” will implement the TWIN4ECO twinning project with 100% grant funding in the amount of BGN 2 697 727,18 from the National Recovery and Resiliency Plan with an implementation period until May 2026. The contract for the funding was signed on 13.12.2023 by Sofia University and by the Executive Director of the Executive Agency "Education Programme" at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski” (SU), Sofia, Bulgaria and Izmir Kâtip Celebi University, Izmir, Tukey are going to sign an international agreement on cooperation in mathematics and informatics. The signing of a framework and Erasmus+ agreement was initiated after a visit of the Turkish colleagues from Izmir Kâtip Celebi University to SU at the invitation of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) of SU.
As part of the Transform4Europe Alliance Week, hosted by Sofia University, on the 29th of September 2023 the Alma Mater Gallery opened the exhibition The Pulse of Time. 135 years of Sofia University and City Being'.
As of the beginning of the academic year 2023–2024, the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in Modern Greek Philology once again enjoy the cooperation with the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation [ http://www.onassis.org/ ] in the promotion and development of Modern Greek language and culture studies at Sofia University.
In recent years, quantum technologies have experienced significant growth, offering immense potential in various areas. Quantum computers are expected to revolutionize optimization and search algorithms; quantum simulators help explore new quantum phases of matter; quantum sensors can achieve unparalleled precision in measurements, and quantum cryptography provides robust security for communication protocols. The advantage of these new technologies over their classical counterparts lies in quantum correlations (called by physicists quantum entanglement), and realizes phenomena beyond the scope of classical physics.
On September 4 in the city of Burgas, the team of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", together with the team of the Burgas Campus at SU, the British Embassy in Bulgaria and the Municipality of Burgas, officially opened the first edition of the "Marine Renewable Energy Academy" summer school. The initiative was organized by Chief Assist. Prof. Dr. Mariya Trifonova, coordinator of the Master's program "Energy Markets and Services" at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
Prof. Dr. Robert Penchovsky, head of the new laboratory of Synthetic Biology and Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Biology of Sofia University, received an Outstanding Scientist award from the 7th edition of the International Research Awards in Sensor Technologies.
The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski has officially received accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA), one of the world’s leading authorities on post-graduate business education, demonstrating its continuing commitment to excellence in management education. Only 300 of the world's best business schools are part of the AMBA family
Institute of the Ministry of Education and Science under the numbers KP-06-H31/18/13.12.2019 and KP-06-H63/1/13.12.2022 with scientific supervisor Prof. Dr. Robert Penchovsky.
On March 1, 2023, in the Great Hall of the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions, the "Outstanding Young Scientist in the Field of Polymers" award for 2023 in the name of Prof. Ivan Shopov was presented for the twentieth year. The award was won by Denitsa Nikolova, PhD student in the Laboratory of Structure and Properties of Polymers, Department of Pharmaceutical and Applied Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". The award is individual and is given to a young Bulgarian scientist, under the age of 35, for outstanding research in the field of polymer science, carried out in Bulgaria or partially abroad. The award was presented by Prof. Ivan Shopov himself, and the chairman of the Union of Chemists, Prof. Venko Veshkov, also offered congratulations.
Sofia University's new project SUMMIT (Sofia University Marking Momentum for Innovation and Technological Transfer) aims to attract world-class scientists and researchers, said at a BTA press conference Tuesday the university's Vice-Rector and coordinator of the project Prof. Eliza Stefanova. The initiative amounted to BGN 44 million and is financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The Project will be implemented over 42 months and will end on 30 June 2026.
The EXTREME project, funded by the National Program “European Scientific Networks” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria was held.
The Center for Regional Studies and Analyses (CRSA) and the Faculty of History of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski were pleased to organise the International Young Scholars Seminar “The Early Modern Period in the Balkans and Central Europe - Sources, Methods and Concepts”. The initiative took place at the Conference Hall of Sofia University between 22 and 25 June 2022.
RESILIENCE, the European Research Infrastructure for Religious Studies, is proud to offer its first service to the Religious Studies community: the Transnational Access (TNA) Program. Users of this program will gain direct, fast, and effective access to the collections of seven leading research institutions and universities in Europe, guided by experts in the field.
The work on the project “Design and experimental validation of chimeric antisense oligonucleotides as antibacterial agents” (BNSF grant DN13/14/20.12.2017) is completed successfully. The Princial Investigator of the project, supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, is Prof. Robert Penchovsky from the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
On 26 November 2021, Associate Professor Dr Maria Baramova received the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities Prize of Excellence for 2021 at a special ceremony. The event took place in the Nikolaisaal concert hall in Potsdam during the Einstein Day celebrations.
On 22nd and 23rd of November, 2021, the 2nd school organized within the project EXTREME with topic “Modelling, Simulation and Artificial Intelligence in Colloid and Interface Science” takes place as an online event. The programme of the school is attached and the link to join the school in Microsoft Teams is provided below: Microsoft Teams ( 2nd Extreme school ).
The Karl-Franzens University conferred an honorary degree on Prof. Dr Ivan Parvev of the Faculty of History at Sofia University on 27th October 2021.
The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University has become member of the largest global network of business educators – AACSB International . The membership in AACSB, starting from October 2021, is the first step toward applying for accreditation by the network.
During 4 days last week, young researchers, PhD, and MA students from 6 countries were trained in the encoding of ancient inscriptions and other primary documents in TEI XML for the purposes of digital publication and interchange. In the framework of the online workshop in Digital Epigraphy and EpiDoc ( http://epidoc.stoa.org ) organised jointly by the University of Sofia and the University of Cologne, Germany, the EFES platform for publication and visualisation of EpiDoc XML files (http://github.com/EpiDoc/EFES) was also presented.
According to the 23rd September, 2021 QS Graduate Employability Rankings for 2022 Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski? Is ranked in the 301-500 position interval.
From 18th to 21st of July, 2021, the first workshop “Colloid and interface research & innovations” of the project EXTREME took place at St.St. Constantine and Helena, Varna, Bulgaria. The EXTREME project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria within the National Program “European Scientific Networks” and is coordinated by Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”.
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski hosted the international workshop “Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc (1950s to 1991)”. The event was organized by the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) and the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies, Sofia University. In the course of the workshop, the team of the project bearing the same title and funded by the Max Weber Foundation, discussed with invited guests the interim results of the ongoing research.
The first summer school "Innovations and applied aspects of the science of colloid and interface science " was held from 14 to 16 July, 2021 at St.St. Constantine and Helena resort, Varna, Bulgaria within the project "EXTREME". The EXTREME project is coordinated by Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski ”and is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria, within the National Program “ European Scientific Networks”. Partners of Sofia University“ St. Kliment Ohridski” in the project are the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Spain and the Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
In June, 2021, the ESFRI Forum (European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures) included RESILIENCE in the Research Infrastructure Roadmap 2021. This means that RESILIENCE will take its place in the strategic Research Infrastructures for the European Research Area and that it can work on the further development of the Research Infrastructure for Religious Studies.
The Project „Excellence in colloid and interface research & innovations for better quality of life“, coordinated by the Sofia University St. Kl. Ohridski and funded by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science through the Bulgarian National Program "European scientific networks", has started since 1st of April 2021.
On February 22, 2021 within the bilateral agreement between Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski ”, (Bulgaria) and the Kazakh National Pedagogical University“ Abay ”, (Kazakhstan), the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, the Scientific-Educational and Cultural Center al-Farabi of the Sofia University“ St. Kliment Ohridski ”and the Institute of Philology and Polylingual Education of the Kazakh National Pedagogical University“ Abay ”held an international webinar on the topic:“ The Philologist in Digital Format ”.
For the first time ESA supports the development of university courses in Bulgaria. The „Space Education for Bulgaria“ project will develop nine modern courses on aerospace technologies and their applications.
Thirteen academic institutions from eleven countries are working on the establishment of a permanent European Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies, named RESILIENCE. On 10 september 2020 the RESILIENCE partners submitted an application for the Research Infrastructure to be included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2021. The inclusion of RESILIENCE in this Roadmap will assure partners that a framework to actually start the preparation phase of the infrastructure is in place.
The RDA BG Node was established by the end of 2019 at Sofia University, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics to act as a long-term central contact point between the Research Data Alliance and data practitioners, funding organizations, research agencies and other relevant stakeholders in Bulgaria.
At a meeting of the General Assembly held on 20 November, 2019 Professor Dr habil Anastas Gerdzhikov was reelected Rector of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, the oldest high academic institution in this country, with 254 votes out of 318.
The Rector of Sofia University Professor Dr habil Anastas Gerdzhikov and HE Ambassador Luís Faro Ramos, President of Camöes – an Institute for Cooperation and Language at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal signed an agreement for the establishment of José Saramago Department at the Faculty of Classical and Contemporary Philology.
In the Pisces Hall at the National Museum of Nature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences a new exhibition of the XXVIIth Bulgarian Antarctic exhibition was opened by Professor Christo Pimpirev, Director of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute and the National Center for Polar Research at Sofia University, and Professor Nikolay Spasov, Director of the National Museum of Nature.
At a solemn ceremony taking place in Aula magna of the Rectorate, the Croatian writer Dubravka Ugrešić was conferred the honorary degree of a Doctor honoris causa of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The proposal for awarding the honorary title of the oldest high school in Bulgaria came from the Faculty of Slavonic Philology.
The European Commission awarded Sofia Univeristy St Kliment Ohridski the HR Excellence in Research Logo in October 2019. This is a recognition of our efforts to be an excellent employer implementing the principles in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, adopted by the European Commission.
At a solemn ceremony held in Aula magna of the Rectorate professor Manfred Peters was conferred a Doctor honoris causa degree of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The proposal for the honorary distinction came from the Faculty of Classical and Contemporary Philology.
The 4th Workshop “Advanced Materials“, organized within the H2020 project Materials Networking, took place from the 21st to 25th of July, 2019 at Astor Garden hotel, Sts. Konstantin and Helena resort, Bulgaria.
In the period 2 – 5th July, 2019, at the Rectorate of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, the “Europe – Asia” International Seminar was held with the participation of scholars from the University for International Studies in Guangzhou, China, and the University for International Studies in Beijing, China.
From the 12th to the 15th of May, 2019, the members of the Management Committee of the H2020 Materials Networking project Prof. Georgi Vayssilov (Coordinator pf the project), Prof. Roumen Tsekov Prof. Tony Spassov, Assoc. Prof. Rosica Nikolova and Assoc. Prof. Elena Vassileva, visited the University of Cambridge, UK.
On 4th June, 2019, the European Commission published the list of University Programmes which offer high quality tuition leading to an MA degree in Translation in line with the standards of the European Master's in Translation – ЕМТ. After a highly restrictive selection by the international expert commission of appraisers the courses become members of the ЕМТ network and are given the Reserved EMT Quality Sign of the European Commission for a five-year period.
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" hosted the first partnering conference entitled “The European Research Infrastructure for Translation Medicine EATRIS-ERIC in Bulgaria ". The event was co-organized by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Bulgarian representation of EATRIS-ERIC at Sofia University and dedicated to the affiliation of Bulgaria to the European infrastructure in 2018.
At a ceremony, organized by the 24 Hours Daily the prizes of the top high academic institutions, based on the Rating System in this country, were awarded for the third time.