Serbia and Italy to improve cooperation in science and technology

November 16th saw the signing of the Second Executive Science and Technology Bilateral Cooperation Program between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Italy in Belgrade, which calls for the improvement of cooperation in these areas in the period 2016-2018.

The Program was signed in the rectorate of the Belgrade University by Dr. Srdjan Verbic, the Serbian minister of education, science and technology development, and Giuseppe Manzo, the Italian ambassador in Belgrade.

Reminding that both countries use the funds from EU programs, Minister Verbic said that Serbia and Italy needed dynamic and flexible programs for better joint appearance before the European Commission so they could get bigger funds for doing a research under a program like Horizon 2020.

Minister Verbic added that out of 17 joint projects, 10 are co-financed by Serbia and Italy, while the funds for remaining seven projects are solely provided by Italy. A total required funds for these projects are at EUR 160,000. As he noted, projects focus on natural sciences, health, agricultural and food technology, environmental protection and development, information and communication technologies, nanotechnology, biotechnology...

Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Manzo stressed that Serbia and Italy were putting effort into increasing the number of students using the Erazmus Plus project as well as the number of those who would get to spend a semester at the University of Rome.

Signing of the Executive Program was preceded by the inking of two cooperation agreements - one between the Belgrade university and the Italian university of Roma Tre, and the other between the University of Novi Sad and aforementioned Italian university.