CERN experiments in Zemun from 2020 – Tender for construction of Verrocchio innovation center at Physics Institute campus soon

The new innovation center of the Physics Institute of Belgrade, Verrocchio, should open in the next two years, eKapija learns.

As an associate member of CERN, Serbia will get a center in its territory which combines sophisticated, innovation economy, top-level scientific research and education, at the campus of the Institute in Zemun.

The project, which entails cooperation with the leading scientific research centers – CERN, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics of Italy (INFN) and the biggest research center in Germany, DESY, is among the state's priorities in the field of science, and the Physics Institute is already preparing projects to be realized here.

Aleksandar Blagojevic, the director of this institution, says in his interview with our portal that the project documentation is being completed and that the tender for the construction works is expected in the next 3 to 4 months.

– We will need around two years to have the center finalized and equipped with basic facilities, and I expect Verrocchio to be fully functional by 2020 and to start carrying pilot projects a year before that. To us, this is the key period, and some smaller projects have already been initiated – Blagojevic points out and adds that Verrocchio will allow for the development of complex models, the construction of assemblies and prototypes, as well as various tests and experiments.

The Physics Institute is located in an attractive area in Zemun, in Pregrevica Street, stretching along the Danube. The new center will be raised on an undeveloped section of a large parcel, where the construction of two individual facilities connected by a footbridge is planned.

The future look of the Verrocchio center, symbolically named after Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, at whose workshop some of the biggest Renaissance artists were trained, including Leonardo da Vinci, was designed by architect Marko Stojcic. The institute is satisfied with the proposed design, and Blagojevic says that the most important thing is that it suits the purpose.

The total gross area of new facilities will amount to 4,140 m2.

Two buildings, top quality equipment

The two buildings on the coast of the Danube will match the two functions of Verrocchio – one will be predominantly educational, whereas the other will be predominantly developmental, meant for the realization of research projects and featuring highly sophisticated equipment.

The first facility, Blagojevic explains, will gather junior and senior undergraduates and postgraduates, whose main activities will be thematically focused, and the realization should take around a year. The expertise required will be defined by the projects themselves, as the science is always at its most interesting at the meeting point between disciplines, the head of the Institute says. Around 50 undergraduates will be involved per project.

– These are mostly high-tech products – electronic products, software, but there will be other things as well, which means that, in addition to programmers, physicists and mechanical engineers, there will be room here for students of all profiles, and the great majority of the projects will be carried out on an international level, with the involvement of local and foreign experts.

Education, Blegojevic further explains, is always lagging behind the economy, sometimes by 100 years, and we are now deep into the postindustrial revolution, while not having schools which educate professionals for that kind of environment.

– We need people who will be changing the world – Blagojevic points out and clarifies that Verrocchio will in no way be an educational institution in the narrow sense of the word, nor an alternative to the university.

– Students are not given a lot of opportunities to work on big, concrete projects, which is exactly what a large number of them are motivated by and which requires certain conditions, which we aim to create.

The first building will be equipped with 5 workshops for the processing of various materials, whereas the second one will be a factory hall equipped with highly sophisticated equipment made for CERN and to be delivered from the world's leading research center.

– Our foreign partners are active in the elementary particle physics, so, being an associate of CERN, Serbia must take part in the institution's operations, technologically – Blagojevic says.

Verrocchio will thereby help combine the existing knowledge in various fields, such as the development of new-generation accelerators and detectors, the modeling of complex systems, supercomputing, big data analysis and the solving of key challenges in fields such as biomedicine, archaeology and sociology.

The institution will also be open to the public – it will feature a gallery area where children and their parents will be able to see what the operations there look like.

Even more importantly, Verrocchio will be open for companies in Serbia, which is one of the reasons why the state advocates this project.

Ties with the economy

Companies from Serbia, Blagojevic says, can already take part in CERN tenders, and the intention is for there to be even more of them, with Verrocchio facilitating these activities. Furthermore, silicon valleys in the world develop in scientific environments, and Verrocchio is accordingly expected to further stimulate the environment for the commercialization of ideas with logistics help, legal help, help in equipment etc.

– The equipment at Verrocchio will be unique in the world, very specialized, which means that 99% of our economy will not be able to use it, but only a small part, which we are gradually identifying, defining the adequate equipment through that process as well. This innovation center will become a breeding ground for new companies, for the commercialization of ideas and the creation of spin-off companies. When you have the conditions to bring together experts and talented young people, you don't make a thousand copies of something, but a prototype, which is later produced in million copies somewhere in China or Singapore – Blagojevic illustrates and points out that two spin-off companies already exist within the institute.

The estimated value of the state's contribution to this project is EUR 5 million, and the equipment provided by CERN will be worth roughly the same amount. The state's investment, our interviewee notes, is very important for them, and the projects primarily financed from the EU are the most interesting ones.

– In certain areas that we consider to be incubators of new development, we can provide the conditions for development and that is exactly what we'll do – our interviewee adds.

The agreement with the Government of Serbia on the construction of Verrocchio, let us remind, was signed in November 2017.

Furthermore, the Physics Institute reminds that this institution already features the Innovation Center, which is already participating in several international projects through its cooperation with hi-tech companies from Serbia. Some of these are Vlatacom Institut d.o.o, MOONSTRUCK d.o.o, Quadra Graphic, Inmol Plast, PP Korum.

Ivana Bezarevic

Institut za fiziku Beograd

Vlada Republike Srbije

CERN Geneve

Verrocchio innovation center

investments in science

innovation economy

INFN

DESY

Aleksandar Blagojevic

Vlatacom Institut

MOONSTRUCK

Quadra Graphic

Inmol plast

PP korum

elementary particle physics

Innovation Center of the Physics Institute

scientific research

innovation

innovations

commercialization of innovations

spin off companies