Regional conference “Institutions and innovation support measures” was held today in Banja Luka. The conference was organised by the EU funded project “Institutional capacity development of the three innovation centres and research sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (INOVO)”, Ministry of Science and Technology of Republika Srpska and Innovation Centre Banja Luka (ICBL).
The goal of the INOVO project is to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the scientific community as well as economic impact of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be able to participate more actively in the European research area and be more involved in international scientific cooperation. The project will work on strengthening the innovation network of BiH through support to development of innovation centres in Banja Luka and Mostar.
Biljana Barovic, representative of the EU Delegation to BiH/EUSR underlined the importance of favourable environment for the innovation and impact that innovations could have on social and economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina and this provide jobs and better life for its citizens.
The EU implements numerous programmes, initiatives and measures to support innovations from which BiH can also benefit.
The Conference was attended by the representatives of the Ministries, Universities, development agencies, and other relevant actors in the area of innovation. It is expected that these encounters will lead to cooperation on a mutual research, development and testing of new technologies, products and services.
Maja Bučar presented the work of the INOVO project, which combines three different areas of intervention. The first area/component is strengthening capacities of the innovation centres through organisation of various workshops, trainings and special events. The second area of activities is focused on the capacity building of staff working on innovation strategy, measures and policies at the state and entity levels. The third area is focused on assisting state and entity level statistical institutions in gathering relevant indicators on research, development and innovation in accordance with Eurostat requirements.
Mojca Cvirn from Technology Park Ljubljana spoke about creating environment for development of the innovation and stressed the main steps which contributed to the success story and could be important in the context of ICBL.
Biljana Vojvodić from the RS Ministry of Science and Technology elaborated the possibilities considered by the Ministry for providing further support to the innovation and the future development of the Innovation Center Banja Luka.
The Institute of Statistics of Republika Srpska presented the results of Research and Development and Innovation Surveys, conducted in 2013.
The EU is funding this project in the amount of 534,460,00 Euros from IPA 2012. The project is implemented by the Consortium led by European Consulting Group.
For more information vist www.inovo.ba
