The first national meeting of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL) consortium, held at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia) in December 2024, brought close to 120 delegates from 17 Bulgarian institutions, including representatives of academia, NGOs and industry. This collection of abstracts presents the oral contributions and scientific posters pesented at the annual meeting. The talks covered a diverse range of topics, methods and model organisms, including DNA barcoding, environmental DNA, integrative taxonomy, Oxford Nanopore sequencing, human and biodiversity genomics, and exploration of the fascinating, yet largely unknown, microorganisms of Antarctica.