Serbia Accelerating Innovation and Growth Entrepreneurship

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The objective of the Accelerating Innovation and Growth Entrepreneurship Project for Serbia is to improve (i) the relevance and excellence of scientific research; and (ii) innovative entrepreneurship and access to finance for enterprise growth, as a way of contributing to Serbia’s growth and competitiveness. The project has three components. (1) Research sector reforms component has three subcomponents. Serbia Science Fund subcomponent will: (a) Finance selected competitive programs of the Science Fund, such as basic science grants, applied research grants with incentives for promoting linkages between the private sector and R&D community, incentives for enhancing collaboration with EU; (b) Provide technical assistance (TA) for the operationalization of the Science Fund, including governance, organizational structure, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and other key institutional elements. In addition, the TA will support designing the Science Fund programs based on international best practices; and (c) Support the design of a SF program focused on skills of researchers to access international financing and collaboration opportunities. RDI Reforms subcomponent will support the design and implementation of institutional transformation plans for selected RDIs. It will include reforms of at least fourpublic R&D Institutes (RDIs) by providing incentives for undertaking institutional reforms on a voluntary (optin) basis. Serbian Diaspora Facility subcomponent will support establishment of a Serbian Diaspora Facility (SDF) within the Science Fund to finance technical assistance and provision of grants to scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs and Serbian diaspora to transfer knowledge and skills from the diaspora community back to the country. (2) Enterprise acceleration component will build on existing programs of the Innovation Fund IF. (3) Project implementation, monitoring, capacity building component will finance activities related to project implementation and monitoring, including the operations of a Project Implementation Unit (PIU), established at the MoESTD and part of the operating costs of the Central Fiduciary Unit (CFU), already established at the MOF. This will include operational and fiduciary (procurement, environmental and social safeguards), M&E, project audits, studies, policy/program design and capacity building support to the MoESTD, Science Fund, Innovation Fund and selected RDIs. The CFU will be in-charge of fiduciary responsibilities for the project, while the PIU will be responsible for all other project implementation related aspects.