D 2.2.1 - Contribution of the IF4TM project to the development of legal framework for establishing the third mission of Serbian universities

The Law on Higher Education

In the period from October 2015 until February 2016 four working groups made of seventeen members gave the recommendations for the amendments of the Law in specific areas such as organizational and management topics, accreditation, funding of study programs realization and engagement of teaching staff.

At the end of October 2016, the central working group made of fifteen members was formed with the task to prepare the Draft of the new Law by the end of 2016. Besides the representatives of National Council for Higher Education, Accreditation Committee, universities, faculties, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, several members of IF4TM partner institutions were also included in this working group (Prof. Dr. Vesna Mandic UKG, Prof. Dr. Dragan Antic UNI, Prof. Dr. Miladin Kostic SUNP) in order to give their contributions and suggest the necessary changes essential for the improvement of the existing Law on Higher Education.

The Draft of the Law on Higher Education was built on the existing Law, the Strategy of education Development in Serbia until 2020, recommendations of previous working groups and opinions gathered from both individuals and HEIs (private and public) during the public debates at Serbian Universities.

The new Law on Higher Education provides the higher quality of higher education in Serbia with the aim to build creative population of young people who will constantly adopt and create new knowledge. It also encompasses many elements related to the third mission of universities such as:

          -Intellectual property management in processes of knowledge transfer

          -Establishment of business entities for the purpose of commercialization of scientific and research results

          -Establishment of organizations within Universities such as innovation centers and centers of excellence, 
           technology transfer centers, business and technology incubators, science and technology parks, etc.

          -Lifelong learning.

The Law was adopted in September 2017.

Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia for the period from 2016 to 2020 – Research for Innovations

In highly competitive society, the development of science and research, as well as the transfer of scientific and research results into new products, processes and services are main prerequisites for sustainable development of economy and society in general. With the aim to define and establish the measures for improvement of excellence in science and for channeling it towards the research for economy and society, the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia for the period from 2016 to 2020 – Research for Innovations was adopted. The mission of the Strategy is to create national research and innovation system integrated in the European Research Area that relies on the partnerships in the country and abroad and contributes to the economic, societal and cultural progress of the country and raising the standard and quality of life of its citizens.

The development of the Strategy included the members of the WG1 of the IF4Tm project (Prof. Dr. Vesna Mandic UKG, Prof. Dr. Vera Dondur MEST, Marina Vukobratovic Karan MEST), who initiated different aspect related to the development and implementation of the third mission at the HEIs in Serbia. Due to their contributions, the Strategy includes the development and implementation of the Proof of Concept Program (PoC) with the aim of promotion the relevance of the research and raising of the technology readiness level (TRL) so that HEIs can make a step forward towards the market and that research results become ready for commercialization and application in industry. HEIs on the IF4TM project will develop the PoC program and pilot it on selected research groups that will during the program have the opportunity to evaluate their intellectual property and develop the commercialization strategy with the assistance of relevant experts.

Additional contribution of IF4TM project to the development of the Strategy is in the measures that refer to the application of the research and scientific results with the aim to raise technology readiness level. The Strategy foresees also financial support to the development of those projects with commercial and technological potential but require additional research activities to raise TRL level for commercialization.

Based on the experience of IF4TM partner institutions in realization of the Competition for best student idea and its impact on the development of entrepreneurship and creativity of students, the Strategy also includes the student competitions (Student Innovator) and pupils competition (Pupil Innovator) as one of recommended measures. The competitions will be realized as activities accompanying the Competition for best technological innovations.

The Strategy is followed by the Action Plan for its implementation defining the sets out measures for the promotion of excellence and relevance in science and innovation ecosystem in this period, further defined by specific outcomes (indicators), source of financing and implementing institutions. The draft plan was recommended by the World Bank while the members of WG1 (Prof. Dr. Vesna Mandic UKG) and representatives of IF4TM team members (Prof. Dr. Goran Stojanovic, Dr. Jelena Filipovic, Prof. Dr. Dragan Domazet,,Daniela Zlatic Sutic) and representatives of MEST were involved in its development.

The contributions of IF4TM project were given in the IPR field (Daniela Zlatic Sutic IPOS) and crowd-funding issues (Prof. Dr. Dragan Domazet BMU).

Guidelines for the development of TTI dimensions of the third mission of universities 

As the Technology Transfer and Innovations is one of the three third mission dimension, a strategic document "Guidelines for the development of TTI dimensions of the third mission of universities" was developed within IF4TM project.

The document was the result of work of ten authors from Serbian higher education institutions, Serbian incubators and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.

The Guidelines provide the set of instructions and recommendations for the development of the technology transfer and innovation at the Serbian higher education institutions, taking into account the different aspects from intellectual property, across the legal provisions and strategies, to the financial elements.

Based on the presented guidelines and 10 recommended measures provided, conclusions on the next steps in the implementation of these measures at Serbian higher education institutions are given within this document in order to facilitate the advancement of the Serbian HEIs in these areas.