EU, WB: Serbia has good innovations, needs to utilise them

BELGRADE - Serbia has great potential in the field of innovative technologies, and by aiding this sector it can achieve the fastest progress towards the EU, European Union and World Bank officials agreed in Belgrade on Friday at a ceremony staged to announce 12 projects to be funded with EUR 8.4 million as part of efforts to help innovation in Serbia.

This sector is very important for boosting the competitiveness of the Serbian economy, noted Michael Davenport, the head of the EU delegation to Serbia, and Tony Verheijen, the World Bank Country Manager for Serbia.

In the presence of Serbian Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development Tomislav Jovanovic, the Innovation Fund announced the results of public invitations for participation in programmes for early development and co-funding of innovation as part of a EUR 8.4 million project aimed at supporting innovation in Serbia, which is financed by EU pre-accession funds and implemented in cooperation with the World Bank.

The projects to be funded have been selected by an independent international commission of experts, Jovanovic said.

Over the next year, projects in the early development programme will be awarded grants worth EUR 80,000, with conditional grants amounting to EUR 300,000 to be awarded as part of the programme for co-funding innovations.

Screenshot video Tanjug