The programme – titled The Collaborative Grant Scheme for R&D Organizations and Private Sector Enterprises, is implemented by the Innovation Fund and financed by the European Union with EUR 2.4 million and the Republic of Serbia with EUR 1 million. It has been designed with the EU funded technical assistance from the World Bank.

The goal of this Program is to enhance cooperation between the private sector and public sector scientific research and development organizations, and to support their joint initiatives to develop new commercially applicable intellectual property such as innovative products, services, technologies and/or processes. The Program will provide grants of up to EUR 300,000 per project.

Beneficiaries eligible for this instrument are consortia of up to five members consisting of at least one private sector small and medium sized entreprise (SME) founded and operating in Serbia with annual revenue of at least EUR 200,000, and one public sector scientific research and development organization registered in Serbia.

Steffen Hudolin of the EU Delegation in Serbia said goal was to increase competitiveness of Serbian economy and recalled the EU has been supporting innovative sector in Serbia since 2011.

“I am really happy to see this project lift off the ground. Our goal is to support the scientific community in establishing better ties with companies and enhance capacity for commercialisation of its research. This, being a partnership-based cooperation, results in a win-win situation, leading to technology transfer necessary for research, innovation application and increased competitiveness of Serbian economy,” Hudolin said.

Serbian Minister of Education Srdjan Verbic said the programme was designed to prove that researchers and businessmen could implement joint project which might even be “an inexhaustible source of the necessary added value.”

The Collaborative Grant Scheme is one of the pillars of a comprehensive and sustained effort of the Innovation Fund, the EU as its donor and all partners, to promote innovation as the core building block of a knowledge-based economy in Serbia. In addition, the Innovation Fund is implementing the Technology Transfer Facility (TTF) program, another EU-funded pilot activity launched in March 2016. Its main objective is the commercialization of research and development (R&D) by bringing together researchers from academia and the private sector and by strengthening the local technology transfer organizations (TTOs) at universities in Serbia

About the Innovation Fund:

The Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia promotes the connection between science, technology and economy and contributes to the development of innovative entrepreneurship. Between 2011 and 2016 the Fund awarded financial support to more than 50 innovative companies from Serbia through the EUR 8.4 million Innovation Serbia Project, financed by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds, and the expert support from the World Bank.

About EU support

The EU Delegation has been supporting the Innovation Fund since its founding. The EU-funded Innovation Serbia Project has provided EUR 6.5 million which were distributed to SMEs for innovative projects. EU support continues with a further €5.5 million support package to implement The Collaborative Grant Scheme, establish the Technology Transfer Fund as well as adopt and implement the Strategy of R&D and Innovation.

The Program is now open for proposals from June 21st until September 23rd, and project applications are welcome at: https://www.innovationfund.rs/CGS

All details about eligibility, financing, and deadlines are found at: www.innovationfund.rs/program-cgs

Source: europa.rs