Bernini and Begovic strengthen scientific collaboration

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, NOV 28 - Scientific collaboration between Italy and Serbia is strenghtening. Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research, and Jelena Begović, Serbian Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, inaugurated the second Scientific Forum between the two countries in Area Science Park.
    Over 100 Italian and Serbian researchers participated. After a bilateral meeting, Bernini and Begovic signed a joint declaration confirming "the importance of cooperation in the fields of research and innovation, on the basis of the MoU signed in Belgrade in 2023, and the promotion of researcher mobility, support for joint research programmes, and bilateral scientific events." Those established today at the Italy-Serbia forum "are strengthened terms: we already started last year in Belgrade with a collaboration agreement that brought 83 projects with 2 million euros - one million from the Serbian side and one million from the Italian side - to be evaluated on our table, and we will evaluate them as soon as possible to ensure that there will be results when we meet in Belgrade on January 31st," said Bernini.
    "The second Italy-Serbia Forum held today in Area Science Park was an important moment of exchange and confrontation between experts and policy makers in the scientific sector of the two countries, an opportunity to share innovative research, explore new collaborations in scientific and technological fields of greatest interest, such as biomedicine and artificial intelligence." This was said by Area Science Park President Caterina Petrillo, who hosted the second Science Forum between the two countries. "Today's appointment continues the path started in March 2023 in Belgrade when Area Science Park participated in the first edition of the Science Forum. Then in December 2023," he recalled, "on the occasion of the Innovation Forum, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed, again in the capital, between Area Science Park and the science and technology parks of Belgrade, Niš, Čačak and Novi Sad, as a further development of a well-established cooperation with Serbia that began in 2015 for technical assistance activities in the fields of technology transfer and economic development. The goal is "to pool scientific and technological capacities, such as those generated by research infrastructures and technology platforms, for example on topics such as life sciences, energy transition and innovative materials," he concluded. (ANSA).