Forum Democrit (FD) is a non-governmental organisation aiming to enhance the public understanding of science, to improve the image of Bulgarian scientists and to promote interest in science among young people.  The creative hub of Forum Democrit is its interdisciplinary workgroup (SciComms Group) particularly focused on improving science and society dialogue and on re-converging science and culture through all relevant means of science communication practices. The Group includes researchers from universities and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, journalists, artists, and experts from science related SMEs who believe that bridging the gap between their professional fields will alter the questionable image of scientists and will challenge the public preconceptions about the scientific progress, products and career.

Forum Democrit is not just an NGO, but it is a NETWORK of unique individuals. Our members are excellent professionals in the field of philosophy, physics, chemistry, biology, maths, information technology, engineering, medicine, social sciences etc. They are representatives of the academia and the industry. Many of them are young researchers and science communicators. Other are experienced scientists with long research experience in their fields.  This uniqueness of our profile allows us to offer very broad and at the same time specific expertise in the implementation of different kinds of projects. We are interested and experienced in collaborations in science communication, STEM education, organisation of science events and contests (non-formal education). But we are also open to new challenges and areas of collaboration, especially when the target groups include young people. We are passionate in making difference and creating new opportunities for youngsters, teachers and researchers. We believe that the future of science and science education is directly related to the development and the use of new technologies. We are keen on exploring new interactions between science, culture and art.

Since FD’s establishment in 2001, the science communication project has become increasingly influential online through the development of websites under the domain Democrit.com. Four years later Green.Democrit.com was created and especially designed as a web place for attracting younger and broader audiences. The websites were successfully developed until 2010 when both scicomm stars were unintentionally killed by social media…

Since 2005 the SciComms Group actively assists British Council – Bulgaria in running Café Scientifique events, National FameLab yearly competition for young science communicators, and the Sofia Science Festival.

As а member of EUSEA, Forum Democrit was involved in the implementation of three FP6 and FP7 projects (WONDERS 2007, 2WAYS, and PLACES). In 2009 FD coordinated one-year national project (Science Workshop) for scientific career promotion in Bulgarian secondary schools.

FD was a main partner in the FP7-SiS project YOSCIWEB (2008 – 2010) aimed at analysing how scicomm websites build and renew young people’s image of science and scientists, as well as in the LLP-COMENIUS project MARCH (2013 – 2016) that aims to share innovative content and best practices in science education for secondary schools.

FD has experience in organising four local student parliaments on science (in 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018) as partner in the European Student Parliaments (EUSP) project.

Currently FD is responsible for the impact assessment of the activities during the European Researchers’ Night in Bulgaria – as part of the project FRESH (2016-2017) and the ongoing project REFRESH (2018-2019).

During the years we’ve established very good and valuable collaborations with media partners, academia, schools, museums, industry, governmental representatives, other NGOs. Our Network and expertise grows with every new member and each new project proposal.

Download a multimedia presentation of Forum Democrit (NGO) here (in Bulgarian)