CPSBB Organized Scientific Seminar “Academic Perspectives: Contemporary Challenges to Motivation for Career Development”

The event was held within the framework of the project “Study of Staff Motivation in a Regional Crop Production Cluster” (Motivation)

Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) organized a working seminar entitled “Academic Perspectives: Contemporary Challenges to Motivation for Career Development” in the town of Hisarya. The two-day event was organised within the frame of the project “Study of Staff Motivation for Career Development in a Regional Crop Production Cluster”, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund under contract No. KP-06-PN65/15 from 2022. 

More than 40 researchers and staff members from CPSBB, the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute, the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts “Prof. Asen Diamandiev” – Plovdiv took part in the seminar.

Prof. Vesela Kazashka, Head of the Motivation project, officially welcomed the participants and presented results of a survey on attitudes, engagement, and professional motivation conducted among 201 representatives within a regional crop production cluster. Prof. Kazashka also summarized the main activities and achievements of the overall three-year project and presented the Talentify Talent Circulation Hub, which has been operating at CPSBB since 2024.

The results of the motivation study demonstrate strong affective commitment among participants, based primarily on intrinsic motivation and satisfaction with their professional activities. Affective commitment is the strongest predictor of voluntary retention and high work performance, and the profession of a scientist is a vocation.

Prof. Tsanko Gechev, Director of CPSBB, introduced the participants to the Center’s research activities over the past ten years, with a focus on scientific output, research developments, and the significant growth in the number of young and established scientists from more than 10 countries who are currently working at CPSBB.

Within the lecture panels, key research projects of the scientific teams from CPSBB and the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute were presented. Assoc. Prof. Ivanka Tringovska, Deputy Director of the Maritsa Institute, presented newly developed vegetable varieties with improved drought tolerance, as well as scientific approaches to biofortification and enhancement of the nutritional value of vegetable crops.

Assoc. Prof. Liliya Mihaylova and Dr. Martina Savova presented studies on molecular mechanisms of obesity and metabolic disorders conducted by the Department of Plant Cell Biotechnology at CPSBB and the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Reif Lyall summarized partial results from a large-scale research project investigating metabolic diversity in more than 2,000 species of medicinal, edible, and wild plants from botanical gardens in Bulgaria and Germany.

The scientific approaches and studies conducted by CPSBB researchers within the BIOCROPS project were also highlighted. Dr. Vatov showcased the team’s research approaches in the project for investigating the molecular and genetic mechanisms of action of a biostimulant derived from brown algae which enhances stress protection and increases yields of various crops.

Another large-scale research project, NatGenCrop, was presented by Dr. Avanish Rai. The project includes the study of hundreds of tomato and pepper lines aimed at investigating molecular mechanisms and identifying genes and chromosomal regions to improve crop tolerance to drought, soil salinity, and biotic stress.

Dr. Nikola Staykov presented results from the CAFTA project, which includes fundamental studies on the mechanisms of crop tolerance to abiotic stress. A major focus of the research is abscisic acid (ABA), a hormone that regulates plant growth and development and confers tolerance to various types of stress.

The Head of “Funding” department at CPSBB, Dr. Veselin Petrov, presented the CropPrime project which aims at the development of a molecular priming technology to improve yields and abiotic stress tolerance in crops. A key research focus is the study of organic biostimulants and fungicides based on bioactive molecules isolated from marine algae, rosemary, and oomycetes of the genus Phytophthora.

“Conducting such working seminars is of key importance for building a sustainable scientific community based on shared goals, trust, and active collaboration. The exchange of ideas, presentation of scientific achievements, and open dialogue among researchers from different institutions are crucial for strengthening teamwork, encouraging interdisciplinary interaction, and increasing motivation for professional and career development. Such initiatives reaffirm the importance of human potential as a leading factor in scientific progress and the long-term sustainability of research organizations,” emphasized Prof. Vesela Kazashka at the end of the working sessions.