Serbia – Italy Innovation Forum  

Jelena Bojović, Director of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution of Serbia, spoke at the Serbia – Italy Innovation Forum, held at the National Bank of Serbia. The Forum is organized by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and the Italian Embassy in Belgrade in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia and the Lombardy Region.

During the panel on ‘National Innovation Ecosystems: Policies, Opportunities, Partnerships,’ Andrea Sianesi, President of PoliHub at the Politecnico University of Milan, joined Jelena Bojović. The panel also featured Vladimir Crnojević, Director of the BioSense Institute from Novi Sad, Nenad Paunović from BIO4 Campus, and others.

The goal of the Forum is to establish a platform for business cooperation and the academic community in Serbia and Italy, and to strengthen cooperation between these two countries in the field of innovation, by connecting companies, incubators, accelerators, and startups. The Forum covered topics such as agrotechnology, green and energy transition, artificial intelligence, and sustainable mobility. Various panels highlighted bilateral cooperation possibilities in technological innovation between Italy and Serbia, opportunities within the innovation ecosystems of both countries, venture capital investments, and incubation opportunities for startups.

Esteemed speakers at the Forum included Dr. Jelena Begović, Minister of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation; H.E. Luca Gori, Ambassador of Italy to Serbia; and Attilio Fontana, Prime Minister of the Italian region of Lombardy. Notably, three memorandums of understanding were signed: one between AREA Science Park in Trieste and NTPs from Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, and Čačak; another between Arexpo Milan and NTP Novi Sad; and a third between the University in Belgrade, the University of Niš, the University of Novi Sad, and the Italian University of Insurbia.