S3 Beyond EU S3 Beyond EU

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Dr. Nikola RADOVANOVIC

Dr. Ales GNAMUS

Publications Publications

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Supporting an Innovation Agenda for the Western Balkans - Tools and Methodologies

MATUSIAK Monika; KLEIBRINK Alexander; ANDONOVA Elena; BODEN John Mark; CETL Vlado; DIUKANOVA Olga; DOSSO Mafini; DUSART Jean; GKOTSIS Petros; GNAMUS Ales; KLEIBRINK Alexander; KOTSEV Alexander; LAVALLE Carlo; MANDRAS Giovanni; MATUSIAK Monika; RADOVANOVIC Nikola; RAINOLDI Alessandro; SLAVCHEVA Milena; VESKOVIC Miroslav; HOLLANDERS Hugo; NDUBUISI Gideon; OWUSU Solomon; RADOSEVIC Slavo

Related Documents Related Documents

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Report on the qualitative analysis of preliminary priority areas in the smart specialization process in the Republic of Serbia

Domen Bole, Lazar Zivkovic, Viktor Nedovic
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Mapping of economic, innovative and scientific potential in Serbia

Kroll, Henning; Schnabl, Esther; Horvat, Djerdj.

Serbia 2016 Progress Report

SWD(2016) 361 final European Commission
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Serbia Serbia

Facts & Figures                                                                             

  • Population (2017): 7.02 million (WB)
  • GDP per capita in PPS (2018): 40 (EU28=100) (Eurostat)
  • 82nd largest economy in the world in 2018 (WB)
  • Global Innovation Index (2019): 57/129 (WIPO)     
  • Global Competitiveness Index (2019): 72/141 (WEF)
  • Gross domestic expenditure on R&D in % of GDP (2017): 0.87 (EUROSTAT)
  • Government effectiveness score (-2.5 to 2.5; 2017): 0.19 (WB)
  • Scientific/technical journal articles per million inhabitants (2016): 712.1 (World Bank)
  • Ease of Doing Business score (2019): 48/190 (WB)
Serbia registered on the Smart Specialisation (S3) platform on November 4, 2015. The Smart Specialisation process in Serbia started in 2017, with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development taking charge of the coordination of the process by establishing an Inter-ministerial working group for the development of the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). Under the guidance and support by the JRC, the country has so far performed efficiently and the results of the process have been used as an example of the good practice in the region. Serbia intends to adopt its RIS3 in 2019 by thoroughly following the JRC methodological framework for smart specialisation in the EU enlargement and neighbourhood countries.
Serbian S3 team has undergone one-week training on S3 in Seville, Spain, in January 2017. This enabled the country's S3 team to take on the first steps of the S3 process and divide the tasks between its own operational and analytical teams. Substantial work of both teams supervised by the Inter-ministerial working group induced efficient mapping phase. In April 2018, a comprehensive training on S3 with a focus on the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP) was organised in Ljubljana. Apart from participating at the training, the Serbian S3 team agreed on the next steps of the S3 roadmap, including the EDP phase.
Mapping of economic, innovative and scientific potential in Serbia was finalised in November 2017 by Fraunhofer ISI. The analysis sought to identify potential S3 priority domains in Serbia, based on the regional perspective. The data has been collected with the support from the country's S3 analytical team led by the Institute Mihajlo Pupin. The analysis revealed several potential priority areas for the EDP phase, based on the division to following regions:
1) Belgrade: computer programming and ICT, R&D and technical consultancy, creative economy, and monetary intermediation;
2) Vojvodina: automotive industry, agricultural economy (including processing industries), petrochemical industry, plastics industry;
3) Šumadija and Western Serbia: agri-/horti-/silvicultural economy (including processing industries), automotive industry, textile industry, plastics industry, metal industry;
4) Southern and Eastern Serbia: agri-/horticultural economy (including processing industries), textile industry, rubber industry, electrical engineering.
Additional qualitative analysis has been carried out by the country's analytical team in order to validate the results of the mapping report.
The results of the mapping analysis were validated by the qualitative analysis through interviews and case studies, such as the Innovation Camp which was organised in December 2017 to discuss the main challenges and recommendations for the ICT industry in Serbia, as one of the strongest performers of the Serbian economy. Conclusions from these analyses led to the development of the framework for the EDP, which encompasses series of dialogues between various stakeholders with diverse background (private sector, public sector, academia, civil society, etc.) who will discuss selected priority domains in order to analyse them thoroughly and identify the conclusive list of priority domains. The EDP team as well as the EDP coordination team have been established for this process. The EDP has commenced in March 2019 and has been carried out with the support of other stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Economy, Chamber of Commerce, Public Policy Secretariat and other. It included several series of workshops in the country and was finalised in June 2019.

The S3 process in Serbia is led by the Inter-ministerial working group whose work is coordinated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. The same institution will have an important role in the implementation of the RIS3. For the highest effectiveness of implementation, an action plan to the strategy should be prepared by the Inter-ministerial working group. The action plan should include various instruments and action lines for the support of targeted priority areas.

The expert consultation on the monitoring and implementation tools for Serbian RIS3 has been finalised in October 2019. The draft of the strategy is planned to be finalised in 2019.

Expert assessment of Serbian R&I system and policies undertaken in October 2019 is given below:

Note: Scores for each of the 16 sub-dimensions are on a scale from 0-5; 0 = no information available

Source: Country expert evaluation workshop, 2019

Serbia is a frontrunner in the smart specialisation in the Western Balkans. The phases of the process which have been completed so far have been effective and can serve as an example of the good practice. It is necessary to:

- maintain high involvement of stakeholders in the continuous EDP;

- build an appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanism for RIS3 implementation;

- maintain evidence-based approach throughout the S3 process.

Latest News Latest News

Innovation, technology transfer and digital transformation in South-East Europe, including Western Balkans

03 May 2018
On 3-4 May 2018 in Sofia, Bulgaria, JRC, under the auspices of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, organises a high...

Latest registration

04 Nov 2015
Serbia has registered to the S3 Platform.

Latest registrations

16 Jan 2013
The latest regions to register to the S3 Platform are Dél-Alföld (HU), Limousin (F) and Vojvodina (Serbia).

Events Events

Regional Conference on Smart Specialisation and Technology Transfer in Belgrade

15 Oct 2019 - 16 Oct 2019
On October 15-16, Science Park Belgrade will host European, regional and national experts on research and innovation who will discuss Serbian Smart...

Governance and implementation of Smart Specialisation in South East Europe

08 Oct 2019
On the second day of this year's European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels, a session on S3 implementation in the South East Europe was organised by...

EDP Kick-off event held in Belgrade

29 Mar 2019
Serbia has successfully launched the comprehensive stakeholder dialogue within its smart specialisation efforts at the EDP Kick-off event organised on...
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