Bulgarian Online Encyclopedia Project Launched
At the end of 2024, the Bulgarian Online Encyclopedia project was officially given the go-ahead. The Bulgarian Encyclopaedia Scientific Information Centre won Project No. BG-RRP-2.017-0023 “Bulgarian Online Encyclopedia. Connected and accessible encyclopedic knowledge” through the Recovery and Resilience Plan funded by the NextGeneration EU package. The Bulgarian Encyclopedia‘s efforts to provide reliable, scientifically-verified, carefully-assembled and user friendly information resources to the Bulgarian people were appreciated and received financial support under C2I2 “Increasing Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ (BAS) innovation capacity in the field of green and digital technologies” from the Recovery and Resilience Plan in partnership with the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies – BAS.
The project anticipates new cloud-based software and information content development with options to quickly and easily find freely accessible and fact-checked data. The online encyclopedia will be built using rich scientific encyclopedic article resources, illustrations and archive materials, and Bulgarian Encyclopedia Scientific Information Centre’s nearly 70-years' experience in creating general and specialised encyclopedias. It will serve young and adult learners’ educational needs and meet the demand for credible information on various topics. At the final stages of the sustainable development project, the Bulgarian Online Encyclopedia is expected to provide a sufficiently large number of updated encyclopedic articles for public use. Content will be constantly added, revised, and updated after the funding end date in May 2026.
With the advancement of technology and the opportunities to compile and store large data sets, online encyclopedic resources are becoming an increasingly attractive means of providing free access to understandable, trustworthy and scientifically-proven information countering fake news and conspiracy theories. They are an important contribution to meeting society’s cognitive needs, complementing educational materials and assisting businesses in finding a dependable source of high-quality information.