Government of Serbia sets aside another RSD 90 million for development of innovations – Contest open until October 9

The Government of the Republic of Serbia has set aside RSD 90 million from the budget as part of the new contest for innovative projects for natural and legal persons, Nenad Popovic, minister without a portfolio in charge of innovation and technological development, stated on Friday, September 22, 2017, while visiting the company Agrounik in Simanovci.

As stated on the official website of the Government of Serbia, the contest opened on September 20 and will last through October 9. Legal persons may apply for funds in the amount of up to two million dinars per project, whereas natural persons may apply for a maximum of 400,000 dinars per project.

Minister Popovic emphasized during his visit to Agrounik that the government was looking to enhance the cooperation between the sectors of business and science and to motivate companies and natural persons to cooperate as much as possible with faculties, institutions and science and research organizations.

– This way, innovations and new technologies in industry would be used to a far great extent, which will result in increased competitiveness of the local industry, a growth of export and, most importantly, the creation of new jobs in the sector of high technology – Popovic said.

Snezana Djordjevic, owner of Agrounik, said that the company had developed laboratories for microbiology, agrichemistry and molecular genetics thanks to the funds received by the state for innovations, research and development and added that the company had grown from a business with two employees to a firm which had over 40 workers at the moment, whereas half of what it produced was exported.

Agrounik has utilized more the RSD 20 million in the past few years through contests organized by the Ministry of Science and the Innovation Fund. Minister Popovic announced that the company would receive another RSD 11 million in the next period.

All the information about the contests and application forms can be found at the website of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.