Bulgarian Astronomers Severely Hit by Budget Cuts

Society » EDUCATION | October 23, 2012, Tuesday // 19:14

Already meager salaries at Bulgaria's largest space observatory, located in Rozhen, will have to be reduced to 60% of their regular value due to lack of funds.

This has been announced Tuesday by the head of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences's Astronomy Institute Tanyu Bonev.

The BAS Institute of Astronomy manages Rozhen Observatory, located in Bulgaria's Rhodope Mountains, and the largest in south-eastern Europe.

According to Prof. Bonev, the institute needs as a minimum a budget of BGN 0.96 M per annum, but the budget for 2012 was only BGN 0.69 M.

Since coming to power in 2009, Bulgaria's center right GERB cabinet has made significant cuts in budgets for research and education, with BAS being hit with as much as 40% of its annual funds.

Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov has been particularly relentless in that policy.

Tuesday Bonev said that the Astronomy Institute has contacted all relevant state institutions in an effort to rescue the observatory and its work.

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Tags: Rozhen observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, cuts, research, education, GERB, Simeon Djankov, astronomy

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