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The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 664387.
New Building for the Future
The new building of the BioSense Institute in Novi Sad was officially opened on April 19th, 2023 by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel, together with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia Ana Brnabić, as well as the Director of BioSense Institute Vladimir Crnojević and the ANTARES Project Coordinator Vesna Bengin.
Owing to the EU co-financing, new capacities, and highly sophisticated equipment will enable the Institute’s scientific potential to be strengthened and transformed into a European Centre of Excellence, capable of implementing the most advanced globally applicable projects.
“BioSense shows that the fields of agriculture and biotechnology are essential for our everyday life. With the new way of innovation, we can better connect science with innovation and education, all through the Centre for Excellence, Leadership and Talent”, Commissioner Gabriel said at the opening ceremony.
With a specific anti-vibration module, this is the first building of its kind ever built in Serbia, which enables the application of highly sensitive equipment for the development of sensors, and micro and nano technologies. BioSense is the only European Centre of Excellence outside the EU, Prime Minister Brnabić pointed out.
“Digital agriculture is a synergy between technology and agriculture, necessary in the time of climate challenges in order to ensure that agriculture is sustainable, that it provides better results, and that we as a country, with the help of science and scientific institutes, give adequate support to our farmers and enable their competitiveness in the future”, said Brnabić.
The EU is financing the BioSense Institute through the ANTARES Project with a grant of EUR 14 million from the Horizon 2020 EU program “Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation”. The contribution of the Government of Serbia included an additional EUR 20 million. This amount is dedicated to the development of research infrastructure such as the Institute’s new building and state-of-the-art scientific equipment.
ANTARES has enabled the BioSense Institute to grow from only 50 employees at the beginning of the project to over 140 employees at the moment, more than 50 of whom have a Ph.D. degree. So far, the project has directly funded 37 new jobs, with 15 more positions expected by the end of the project. It significantly strengthened the scientific capacity of the Institute, which resulted in a total income of about EUR 20.5 million from various national and international projects.
“Today, Serbia is recognized as a scientific destination, and top researchers from all over the world apply for the competitions we announce. Students in Serbia now choose majors in order to get a job at BioSense Institute and to build their scientific careers in their country. These are huge results”, said Vesna Bengin, from the ANTARES project.
The Institute attracts top talent from around the world due to these advanced facilities, including, among others, a state-of-the-art clean room. They will have a unique opportunity to design sustainable and digitized solutions for agriculture, essential for solving climate challenges, and resource and food shortages.
