Belic: ANTARES is success of Serbian science

NOVI SAD - Project ANTARES (Centre of Excellence for Advanced Technologies in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security), which won backing by the European Commission (EC), was presented at the University of Novi Sad on Thursday.

This is the first project from Serbia within the European Teaming Programme which was granted a EUR 433,000 budget in the first stage and around EUR 30 million in the second stage, and it constitutes a major success for the Serbian, Vojvodina and Novi Sad science, said Aleksandar Belic, state secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.

Congratulating the BioSense Centre research team of the Novi Sad University headed by professors Vesna Bengin Crnojevic and Vladimir Crnojevic, Belic underscored that it is exceptionally important for the country that the project applied by scientists from Novi Sad for the EC call managed to win the approval in the fierce competition of around 200 projects from EU and other countries.

Noting that this is only the first stage in the realisation of the science project, Belic noted that the team will have to do a lot of hard work in the drafting of the feasibility study and other activities necessary for ANTARES to win a place on the shortlist and thus potentially get significantly higher funds from the EU.

Belic stated that the Ministry would back the project, primarily through the loan line of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Professor Vesna Bengin Crnojevic and her husband Vladimir Crnojevic founded the BioSense Centre at the Faculty of Technical Sciences at Novi Sad University eight years ago. On Thursday, she presented the project ANTARES and noted that it would provide considerable assistance to the...