Connecting Science and Conservation: Pensoft at the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference
As a longstanding supporter of vegetation science publishing, and publisher of Vegetation Classification and Survey, Pensoft was proud to sponsor EGC 2026 and attend throughout the week.
As a longstanding supporter of vegetation science publishing, and publisher of Vegetation Classification and Survey, Pensoft was proud to sponsor EGC 2026 and attend throughout the week. From 19 to 23 July 2026, Sofia hosted the21st Eurasian Grassland Conference(EGC 2026), organised by theEurasian Dry Grassland Group(EDGG), a working group of theInternational Association for Vegetation Science(IAVS). EDGG is dedicated to research on, and the conservation of, natural and semi-natural grasslands across the Palaearctic biogeographic realm, spanning any taxonomic group, whether plants and vegetation, animals or fungi. This year’s conference was held under the theme “Connecting science and conservation for grassland sustainability”, with the aim of highlighting how research into grassland ecosystems connects with management practices and conservation goals on the ground. Grasslands, particularly species-rich semi-natural grasslands and Eurasian steppes, are among the most threatened habitat types in one of the most heavily urbanised and intensively managed regions in the world, despite providing a wide range of ecosystem services. Bringing scientific knowledge together with conservation practice was therefore a central thread running through the week. TrendingThe conference was hosted by theInstitute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research(IBER) at theBulgarian Academy of Sciences. IBER conducts research across fundamental and applied ecology, biodiversity, nature conservation and the sustainable use of biological resources. The institute also provides scientific and methodological support to state institutions and NGOs, making it a fitting host for a conference concerned with the practical application of grassland science. As a longstanding supporter of vegetation science publishing, and publisher ofVegetation Classification and Survey(VCS), one of IAVS’s official journals, Pensoft was proud to sponsor EGC 2026 and attend with an information stand throughout the week. A gathering of the grassland communityEGC 2026 brought together around 60 participants, from early-career researchers to established names in vegetation science. Among the attendees were several members of the editorial board of VCS, including Editors-in-Chief Idoia Biurrun and Jürgen Dengler, as well as members of the IAVS council:We were also delighted to catch up with authors who have published with us across several of our journals, includingBiodiversity Data Journal(Naim Berisha),PhytoKeys(Marcin Nobel) andVCS(Arkadiusz Nowak). As the conference’s only exhibitors, our stand attracted a steady flow of visitors over the course of the week:Conference participants visiting Pensoft’s stand at the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference. Pensoft’s journal portfolio in vegetation science. Throughout the event, we shared our vegetation science portfolio, includingVCSandVegetation, Ecology and Diversity(VED), with strong additional interest in our following open-access journals:Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ)– a community peer-reviewed journal, designed to accelerate publishing, dissemination and sharing of biodiversity-related data of any kind. MycoKeys– dedicated to the taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, evolution and ecology of the fungal kingdom, including lichens, and publishing everything from new species descriptions to checklists, monographs and methodology papers. Nature Conservation– a rapid, peer-reviewed journal spanning all aspects of nature conservation, from populations to whole ecosystems, and from microorganisms and fungi to higher plants and animals. A new special feature on the wayWe were pleased to learn, just ahead of the conference, of a forthcomingVCSspecial feature tied to the event: “Vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula”, edited by Jürgen Dengler, Erwin Bergmeier and Urban Šilc. The special feature welcomes contributions on any vegetation type from the Balkan Peninsula, including syntaxon revisions at national or supranational level, regional vegetation monographs, synthetic overviews of a country’s or region’s syntaxa, nomenclatural proposals, habitat typologies and applications, and long and short database reports. VCSoffers Gold Open Access publishing, holds a Journal Impact Factor of2. 7, and provides reduced article processing charges for IAVS members, with the option of complete waivers. Further details on the special feature will be announced soon on theVegSciBlog. Scientific highlightsThe five-day scientific programme was organised around five sessions: patterns, classification and biogeography of Palaearctic grasslands; grasslands of the Balkan Peninsula; animals in Palaearctic grasslands; innovative methods, experimental approaches and open science in grassland research; and global change, conservation, restoration and management of Palaearctic grasslands. One of the highlights of the week was our own Head of Journal Development and PR, Iva Boyadzhieva, presenting on how Pensoft supports FAIR publishing for biodiversity and conservation research. Her talk set out how, as biodiversity and sustainability research gains momentum through greater international and interdisciplinary collaboration and the pressures of an unfolding environmental crisis, bridging scientific knowledge and conservation practice has become ever more critical. We also enjoyed Editor-in-Chief of VCS Jürgen Dengler’s talk on global change in European grasslands, which drew on regional resurveys of historic vegetation plots, combined analyses of multiple resurvey datasets, and decades of plot data from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). Anna Kuzemko’s talk on the impact of military actions on the steppe ecosystems of Ukraine was another highlight of the week. Her research offered a valuable basis for prioritising and planning the restoration of Ukraine’s damaged steppe habitats going forward. Anna Kuzemko – Impact ofmilitary actions on the steppe ecosystems of Ukraine. AwardsPensoft also sponsored a best presentation and poster competition at the conference. Best Presentation was awarded to Sara Nigro for her talk “Climate and management changes drive semi-natural grassland community assembly over twenty years”, based on the resurvey of 49 vegetation plots in central Italy over two decades, revealing how climatic warming and shifting management practices are reshaping mountain semi-natural grasslands. Best Poster went to Nadiia Skobel for “Drivers of vascular plant diversity in cultural heritage sites: a case study of old cemeteries (southern Ukraine)”, which showcased how old cemeteries in the grass steppe zone of southern Ukraine act as important refuges for native and steppe specific flora amid widespread habitat loss elsewhere in the region. Looking aheadEGC 2026offered a valuable opportunity to connect with the authors, editors and researchers who make up the vegetation science community, and to see first hand how grassland research is being put to work for conservation across the Palaearctic. The next Eurasian Grassland Conference will take place in 2027 in Dilijan, Armenia – stay tuned for further updates!Closing ceremony of the 21st EurasianGrassland Conference. Follow us onBluesky,Facebook,X, andLinkedInfor more future updates.