MINNO-GEOLOZHKI UNIVERSITET ST IVANRILSKI

Their core work

The University of Mining and Geology St. Ivan Rilski is a Bulgarian higher education institution whose entire H2020 footprint consists of public science engagement and outreach activity. Both EU-funded projects involve the European Researchers' Night initiative — a pan-European effort to bring scientists and the public together through hands-on demonstrations, competitions, and participatory events. The university contributes by organizing science communication activities for Bulgarian audiences, covering themes that span heritage, culture, entrepreneurship, and research awareness. This H2020 record reflects an outreach and dissemination role, not technical research leadership — the institution's core expertise in mining and geology is not represented in the available EU project data.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both projects fall within a narrow window (2018–2021) and are thematically continuous — REFRESH directly seeded FRESHER, suggesting institutional deepening rather than a pivot. Early-period keywords centered on broad interdisciplinary public events covering culture, heritage, and entrepreneurship, while the later project sharpened focus on researcher inclusion, MSCA visibility, and science communication as a structured discipline. The trajectory, though short, moves from general public entertainment toward more deliberate science dissemination capacity.

If this pattern continues, the organization is building formal science communication capacity — making them a credible candidate for public engagement or MSCA dissemination workpackages in future EU projects.

How they like to work

The university has acted exclusively as a consortium participant across both projects, never as coordinator. Despite only two projects, they engaged 21 unique partners — a wide network typical of pan-European Researchers' Night campaigns that aggregate many local organizers under a shared framework. This suggests the university functions as a contributing local node within larger outreach networks, reliable for executing predefined activities but unlikely to drive consortium design.

21 unique consortium partners across 2 countries, all within the context of MSCA Researchers' Night projects. The network almost certainly includes other Bulgarian universities and pan-European science communication organizers operating under the same MSCA umbrella.

What sets them apart

Within Bulgaria's H2020 landscape, this institution's distinctive profile is as a public science engagement facilitator — a role that many technically-focused universities overlook. For consortium builders needing a Bulgarian partner with demonstrated capacity to organize public-facing science events and engage non-specialist audiences, the university has a documented track record, however small. Their core technical strengths in mining and geology are not visible in the H2020 data and would require independent assessment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• REFRESH
  The larger of the two projects (EUR 6,125), REFRESH established the university's Researchers' Night presence and covered an unusually wide thematic range including heritage, culture, business, and entrepreneurship in a single event format.
• FRESHER
  Direct successor to REFRESH that added an explicit MSCA inclusion and science communication mandate, demonstrating institutional continuity and growing ambition in public engagement work.