I have 15 years of experience in working on various urban issues, both in Bulgaria, as well as abroad. In terms of sector expertise I feel strongest in the fields of urban and strategic planning, though I have gone in depth on many environmental, social, infrastructural, mobility and many other urban issues. I also have a substantial experience with pursuing resilience, sustainability and the involvement of interest groups. In the last 10 years I have often had a leading role in the projects and initiatives I have worked on - be it a project or a team leader, or a director. This has allowed me to develop strong organisational and communication skills. Moreover I have more than a decade-long experience of forming, motivating and leading teams of experts of different ages, ethnicities, types of expertise and/or position.

 

1️⃣ My current role as a leader of the Team Sofia initiative has given me opportunities to engage with more than 70 experts from various fields, looking for adequate solutions to Sofia’s challenges. Starting in spring 2022, we keep involving various interest groups, have an active contact with the media, as well as with politicians from different political parties. The solutions that we have proposed cover variety of topics - from energy communities and the heat-island effect, through public space management and mobility, to the management of water resources and housing policy. 

 

2️⃣ Between 2017 and 2021, aided by a 30+ strong team of different experts I founded and developed Sofiaplan - Sofia’s municipal spatial and strategic body. I gathered and led this multidisciplinary team, creating a number of municipal strategies, conducting a great number of analysis on a variety of subjects and producing Sofia’s Integrated Development Strategy for the 2021-2027 EU planning period. We consciously dedicated time, effort and resources to making difficult subjects more easily comprehendible by non-specialists and we kept an active public appearance. At that same time Sofiaplan took part in a transfer network, supported by URBACT - Com.Unity.Lab. My role was to coordinate the work that was produced in Sofia and represent the city within the network.

 

3️⃣ Almost parallel to this I led the Vision Sofia 2050 initiative - a proposal made by a group of activists, led by me, and adopted by Sofia’s Municipality. By focusing on the process of an informed dialogue we came to define the long-term goals for Sofia, as well as the steps needed to be taken to reach them. We managed to gather and publish large amounts of data, but also to involve in different ways more than 10 000 people in this process.

 

My previous experience includes leading the ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK festival, working for architecture offices in different parts of the world and being involved in a variety of activities in the public domain.

 

In the course of the years I developed skills for creating systems - teams, processes, projects, plans. I believe in flexible, ever-evolving systems that take into account as many factors as necessary to work properly. And I believe that the future can be bright as long as we invest in it.

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Yuriy Vulkovsky has more than 25 years in culture and social innovation, both in Bulgaria and the EU, including vast experience in project management, capacity building, training and education, advocacy, applied research and need assessment, as well as building cooperation platforms with business and public authorities.

Most recently, Yuriy Vulkovsky was a Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria (Dec 2021 - August 2022) responsible for regional cultural development and the National Fund "Culture", among others.

As a member of the Strategy Group of the European Initiative “A Soul for Europe” (since 2006), he provided training on cultural impact management and advocacy work for cultural organisations from various countries in Central and Southeast Europe, as well as in Eastern Partnership countries. On a local level, he worked in close cooperation with national and local public authorities in the development of grant-making programs for cultural NGOs and micro-enterprises in the cultural field, including as a member of the Advisory Board of the Sofia Innovation Fund (2015-2017) and Deputy Chair of the Board of Sofia Municipality Fund of Culture and Creative Industries (2017-2019).

Since 2014 Vulkovsky also gains vast experience and expertise in the field of social entrepreneurship and social innovation as a founder of the first Bulgarian Incubator for early-stage social entrepreneurs as part of the international network of Reach for Change Foundation. Following his achievements in the fields of social innovation he was a selected member of the GECES (the EU Commission Expert Group on social economy and social enterprises) and he was a member of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) Policy Committee.

Since 2014 Vulkovsky is evaluating proposals submitted under the “Creative Europe” Program and "Europe for Citizens" Program (later CERV). Since 2022 he is evaluating proposals under the “Erasmus Plus” Program too.

He is Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow (2007) and Marshall Memorial Fellow (2011). As an acknowledgement of his work, he was selected as one of the 40 under 40 European Young Leaders in 2014.

Yuriy Vulkovsky is a validated senior expert (to support the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds) by the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (EU Commission) in the fields of:

13. Labour Market
   - 1.7 - Business incubators and micro-enterprises

28. Tourism and Culture
   - 1.7 - Culture

8. Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
   - 1.7 - Corporate Social Responsibility
   - 2.7 - Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Innovative, Circular, Social Responsible, Green and Sustainable Public Procurement.

A professional committed to sustainable development, educated and experienced in the field of social sciences, economy-management & business and communication, with two decades of experience in validated thematic expertise – communication, social innovation, knowledge economy, local economy.

Results-oriented, with effective communication skills and down to earth approach, throughout her professional career Ivana was holding the responsibility for the promotion of innovative solutions, the principles of sustainable development, SDGs, corporate social responsibility.

Ivana was engaged as a Communication Officer at the joint secretariat of the Interreg-IPA CBC BGRS programme 2014-2020, where she was responsible for the development and implementation of the communication strategy of this territorial cooperation programme. While working in her other positions, such as an HR instructor at GrECo Group or Quality & Training Manager at Serbian Automotive Cluster, she was also responsible for internal and external communication with stakeholders, clients, etc.

Experienced in projects and positions in the field of local economy development, from consulting and implementation of management systems and tools, cluster development, design and implementation of strategies, SMEs capacity building, LMS (Learning Management System), organisation and delivery of trainings, to the promotion of sustainability at international-regional-local level, as well as through regular business activities. She was engaged in developing and implementing tailor-made HR solutions in international context, in different cultural environments and aligned with the EU Cohesion Policy.

As an expert, Ivana was engaged by the project partners-beneficiaries in the EU and UN funded projects aimed at economic growth for businesses and well-being for citizens. Projects she participated in were aimed at improving the economic competitiveness, social resilience, and quality of life, with innovative solutions in the segment of business operations, social responsibility, with focus on underrepresented groups, as well as solutions aimed at the development of the entire community through the implementation of triple bottom line principle – economy, society, environment, as the flywheel for social and economic development of the local community.

She has been a member of the Committee for sustainability and social responsibility at ISS for almost two decades, and participated in standards development, such as ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility, and a series of standards related to sustainable cities and communities: Sustainable development in communities - Management system for sustainable development; Sustainable cities and communities - Indicators for city services and quality of life; Sustainable cities and communities - Vocabulary; Smart community infrastructures - Smart transportation for compact cities; Sustainable procurement; Public procurement - Integrity and accountability; Women's entrepreneurship.

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