On April 12, 2022 the Director of the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER), Assoc. Prof. Anna Ganeva, together with the head of the Bulgarian consortium DiSSCo-BG, Prof. Boyko Georgiev and Assoc. Prof. Teodor Denchev officially opened the new specialized mycological laboratory at the Institute.

The specialized mycological laboratory was built in 2021-2022 for the mycological collections of IBER to research and long-term maintenance of the materials deposited in it. The laboratory will perform modern molecular genetic and morphological research aimed to study and host fungal diversity.

The mycological collection of the IBER is the largest Bulgarian collection of fungi and mushroom-like organisms from all groups. It was established in 1954 and 30,700 samples were deposited. The collection is registered in the International Herbarium Index, maintained by the New York Botanical Garden and includes the most important botanical and mycological collections in the world. This collection is one of the significant Bulgarian sites participating in the European scientific infrastructure "Distributed System of Scientific Collections", in which the Bulgarian side includes as partners IBER and the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia.

The project is implemented within the National Roadmap for Scientific Infrastructures of the Republic of Bulgaria, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science.