site.btaScience Ministry Provides 300,000 Lv for New Lab at Bulgarian Antarctic Base

November 9 (BTA) - The first group from the 27th
Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition leaves for the South Pole on
Friday. To ensure the proper functioning of the St Kliment
Ohridski Bulgarian Antarctic Base, which is part of the National
 Roadmap for Research Infrastructure, the Education and Science
Ministry provides 300,000 leva of funding for a new, modern
laboratory on Antarctica, the Ministry said in a press release.

As a national coordinator of the National Programme for Polar
Research 2017-2021, the Education and Science Ministry also
provides 500,000 leva for activities related to the operation
and logistics of the Bulgarian Antarctic Base during the
2018-2019 season.

The first to leave for the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on
Livingston Island is a logistics team of eight together with two
 biologists, who head two of the eight projects funded within
the first competition for polar research.
 
The project of Dr. Ralitsa Zidarova will study the colonization
processes of diatoms from Livingston Island's South Bay in
climate change conditions. The project of Assoc. Prof. Lyuben
Kenderov is related to the hydrobiological monitoring of coastal
 seawater in front of the Bulgarian Antarctic Base.

The other three groups participating in the 27th Bulgarian
Antarctic Expedition, including the scientists who will work on
the other funded projects, will leave for Livingston Island in
December and January.
 
Preparations are underway for the Council of Managers of
National Antarctic Program (COMNAP) Annual General Meeting,
which Bulgaria will host in 2019, the Education Ministry also
said. The COMNAP coordinates the logistics activities of the
countries doing research on Antarctica. The Bulgarian Antarctic
Institute has been its member since 1994.