National STEM Centre Goes under Construction in Sofia

Ivan Dolev

A first-sod ceremony marked the start of construction of a national STEM centre in the campus of the Sofia Tech Park, May 20, 2025 (BTA Photo/Vladimir Shokov)

Sofia,

20.05.2025 15:37

(BTA)

The construction of a national STEM centre started in Sofia's tech park on Tuesday. The project is worth BGN 37 million and is funded under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Construction is due for completion within a year.

Education and Science Minister Krassimir Valchev was at the first-sod ceremony,

In his remarks at the event, the Minister said that the national STEM centre and all STEM centres in general aim to help address a key challenge in the Bulgarian education system: improve students' performance in math and the natural sciences, and motivate more young people to study sciences.

He stressed that the project started thanks to funding from the European Commission and the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Bulgaria has already been able to build state-of-the-art STEM labs in some 2,200 schools, Valchev said.

Attending the ground-breaking ceremony were also the director of the national STEM centre, Prof. Nayden Shivarov, Neno Nenov, economic advisor at the EC representation in Bulgaria, Ivan Ivanov, head of the Programme for Education Agency, and Sofia Tech Park CEO Todor Mladenov. Former Prime Minister and Education and Science Minister Nikolay Denkov was also there.

/MR/