Our Team

Short info

Ivaylo Stamenkov is Head of “Spatial planning and regional development”. Professionally, he is a Senior Assistant Professor at the Department of “Regional and Political Geography”, Faculty of Geology and Geography, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

His main academic and research interests focus on regional geography; spatial and regional planning and development; tourism; sport and the promotion of active lifestyles, among others.

His academic career at Sofia University includes a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism, a Master’s degree in Regional Development and Management, and a PhD with a focus on spatial and regional planning systems in Austria and Bulgaria.

Ivaylo Stamenkov is a member of several professional communities, including the European Regional Science Association (ERSA); the Western Balkan Network on Territorial Governance (TG-WeB); the Association of Professional Geographers and Regionalists (APGR); the Bulgarian Geographical Society; and the River Cities Network (RCN).

Selected projects

- “COALition - Promoting Innovation Excellence in Transformation of Coal Regions to Climate-Neutral, Thriving Economies” (EU Horizon programme; 2023-2027)

- “Reviving the Least Developed Danube-adjacent Region: The Case of Vidin” (RCN project; 2022-2026)

- “OASIS - Open-source Technologies Acceleration for a New Generation of Student Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainable Development“ (EIT HEI Initiative – Innovation; 2022-2024)

- “AMELIA” (Erasmus+; 2022-2024)

- “RIGHTS” (Erasmus+; 2021-2022)

- “HEPNESS” (Erasmus+; 2017-2018)

- “ATHLISI” (Erasmus+; 2016-2017)

Selected publications

- Stamenkov, I. (2024) “Essence and institutionalization of the concept of polycentric development in the EU and Bulgaria”, Space – Society – Economy, vol. 6, pp. 101-118. (in Bulgarian)

- Stamenkov, I. and Dokov, H. (2023) „The role of placemaking and tactical urbanism for promoting active cities: analysing experts' perceptions“, Activities in Physical Education and Sport (APES), vol. 13(2), pp. 30-36.

- Stamenkov, I. (2022) “Geographical aspects of the regionalization of five sports federations in Bulgaria”, In: Yaneva, A. et al. (eds) Savremenni tendentsii na fizicheskoto vazpitanie i sporta, University Press “St. Kliment Ohridski”, pp. 293-314. (in Bulgarian)

- Simeonova, V. and Stamenkov, I. (2021) “The impact of the European discourse on national spatial planning in Bulgaria and Serbia”, In: Berisha, E., Cotella, G. and Solly, A. (eds) Governing territorial development in the Western Balkans (Advances in Spatial Science), Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72123-7

- Dokov, H., Milkova, K. and Stamenkov, I. (2020) “Socio-economic effects of COVID-19 in Bulgaria: A spatial analysis”, Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans, vol. 2, pp. 96-117.

- Dokov, H., Milkova, K. and Stamenkov, I. (2020) “Spatial discourses of the COVID-19 multidimensional impacts: The case of Bulgaria”, WP/SU/FGG/20-08, Available at: http://www.soccultgeo.eu/images/Articles/Working_Paper.pdf, pp. 1-20.

- Dokov, H. and Stamenkov, I. (2018) “A comprehensive literature review on health promotion within active cities’ environment”, In: The HEPNESS perspective for active cities development, Venice: Ca’ Foscari University, pp. 13-26.

- Dokov, H. and Stamenkov, I. (2017) “Measuring the complex socio-economic development of the Danube-adjacent NUTS2 regions”, Forum Geografic, vol. 17(1), pp. 150-158.

- Simeonova, V., Stamenkov, I. and Dokov, H. (2017) “A Comparative Study of Different Balkan Spatial Planning Systems: the Cases of Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Albania”, The Balkans – Languages, History, Culture, vol. 5, pp. 352-362.

- Stamenkov, I. (2017) “Austrian experience in Raumordnung for Bulgarian planning practice: First results of a research”, In: Jordan, P. (ed) 10 years of EU eastern enlargement: The geographical balance of a courageous step (ISR-Forschungsbericht, vol. 42, pp. 313-322). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. https://doi.org/10.1553/ISR_FB042

- Stamenkov, I. (2017) “Bulgaria–Macedonia cross-border cooperation: Problems and perspectives from the Bulgarian point of view”, International Journal Knowledge, vol. 16(3), pp. 1007-1012.

- Simeonova, V., Stamenkov, I. and Stoyanov, P. (2015) “A latent urban conflict: Co-existence of wealth and poverty in the southern metropolitan periphery of Sofia”, In: de Romero, L. (ed) Conflicts in the city: Reflections on urban unrest. Nova Science Publishers.