Bulgaria is hosting for the first time the European Congress of Neurosurgery at the National Palace of Culture (NDK), reports the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). The official guest of the event will be Parliament Chair Raya Nazaryan, who will address the guests and delegates of the forum. More than 1,600 medical professionals from around the world will participate in the congress, which runs until October 17.

The President of the Congress of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) is Prof. Nikolay Gabrovski, who is also President of the BSN. The motto of the congress this year is "Innovation. Education. Leadership." The programme of the forum includes dozens of sessions devoted to technological advances, innovative methods of treatment, new, original research on the brain and nervous system.

One of the congress speakers will be Prof. Jocelyne Bloch from the Department of Neurosurgery of the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, who will present on the topic of implantable technologies to restore walking ability in patients with severed spinal cord. A lecture will also be given by Prof. Pieter Roelfsema from the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Amsterdam Medical Center, who is developing neurotechnology for visual prostheses for blind people to restore rudimentary vision.

The congress will also include a panel with the participation of the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova, Prof. Martin Vechev - Professor of Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who will speak about the latest achievements and emerging trends in artificial intelligence, as well as Raycho Raychev, founder and CEO of EnduroSat and founder of the Space Challenges programme - an educational platform for space science and engineering.