The next meeting of the Scientific Council was held at the Institute of Folklore of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. The meeting, organized in a hybrid format, was attended by members of the Scientific Council and relevant individuals related to the issues on the agenda.

Opening the meeting with an introductory speech, the Director of the Institute of Folklore, Doctor of Sciences in Philology Hikmat Guliyev, first provided detailed information about the Institute’s research plan covering the years 2026–2030. He noted that in the context of global transformations occurring in the fields of humanities and social sciences, the priorities of state policy implemented in the country, as well as recent reforms carried out within ANAS, new tasks are emerging for folklore studies. In this regard, the scientific directions and research plans of the Institute of Folklore have been updated and approved by the Presidium of ANAS.

Hikmat Guliyev mentioned that for a long time, research conducted at the Institute was mainly text-centered, in line with the philological paradigm. However, in the new five-year research plan, priority has been given to socio-anthropological approaches to folklore studies, based on the challenges of contemporary global folklore scholarship. Within this framework, priority research areas have been identified, including the study of collective cultural memory and stereotypical worldviews, the socio-psychological essence of folklore, analysis of its ritual-performative and communicative nature, the study of historical-cultural heritage and multicultural folklore environments, as well as the relationship between socio-technological platforms, artificial intelligence and folklore, and the systematic analysis of folklore samples across professional and social groups.

Subsequently, Hikmat Guliyev provided information on the preparation process for the 8^th International Scientific Symposium titled “From Common Turkic Past to Common Turkic Future”, dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the First Turkological Congress, under the theme “Turkological Folklore Studies: Theoretical Context, Practical Directions and Analytical Perspectives”.

Later in the meeting the book by People’s Writer and academician Kamal Abdulla titled “Hidden Dede Gorgud: In Search of New Meanings” was discussed.

During the discussion the speeches were made by Sarkhan Khavari, Head of the Department of Science and Education of the Presidium Office of ANAS and leading researcher of the Institute of Folklore, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Associate Professor Safa Garayev, Professor Ramazan Gafarli, Professor Seyfaddin Rzasoy, Associate Professor Agaverdi Khalil, Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs, Associate Professor Afaq Ramazanova and Scientific Secretary, Associate Professor Elchin Abbasov.

At the end of the meeting relevant decisions were adopted on the issues included in the agenda.