The growth of the performance of the Republic of Serbia in the field of innovation is 15.6 percent in the period from 2015 to 2022, and is higher than the average growth in the European Union, which is 9.9 percent for the same period, according to the report of the European Commission on the evaluation of innovations for 2022 (European Innovation Scoreboard – EIS).
This information, the Ministry of Education notes, speaks of Serbia’s accelerated approach to European Union standards in this domain as well.
“The EIS report is a unique instrument of the European Commission that deals with the comparative assessment of innovation in EU member states and several other countries, including Serbia. 32 indicators classified into 12 categories were analyzed, of which the Republic of Serbia’s results in the categories of innovators and investments in innovation, research and development, as well as in the category of impact on employment, are significant,” the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development said in a statement.
These successes are, as it is added, the result of reforms of the legislative and strategic framework carried out by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, as well as increased investment in scientific research and innovation infrastructure.
The Ministry reminds that since 2018, a number of strategic documents and key laws have been adopted, including the new Law on Innovation Activities and the Startup Ecosystem Development Strategy, which were adopted last year.
“New institutes were founded, the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Biosens, the Institute for Information Technologies in Kragujevac and special funds from which scientific research is financed, the Fund for Innovation Activities and the Fund for Science, which financed more than 1,720 projects with 98 million euros. The network of science and technology parks is expanding and, in addition to the already existing park in Belgrade, science and technology parks were formed in Nis, Novi Sad and Čačak. More than 53 million euros were invested in the development of science and technology parks,” the Ministry concludes.