Cooperation Between Sciece and Business for a Sustainable Future

Eight years have passed since the signing of the Paris Agreement, which set the goal of holding the global average temperature increase below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial levels, with the indication that the whole must make an effort of humanity to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C. Not even a quarter of a century has passed, and humanity faces a serious risk of losing this fight.

It is the struggle of all of us together and each of us individually. The only real compass that can guide us through the challenges of climate change is scientifically based solutions, and the only weapon we have in this fight is the application of scientific solutions in the economy. Coopera tion between science and business on protecting the environment is crucial for the necessary ecological transition of all industries, thereby enabling carbon neutrality and a sustainable future for humanity.

Recognizing the importance of innovations and technological solutions required to solve environmental challenges, in 2022, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia launched the Green Programme of Cooperation between Science and Businesses with a total budget of 3.5 million euros. Under the auspices of this programme, 20 scientific projects involving 215 researchers from 37 scientific research organizations have been approved for financing. The maximum budget per project is up to 200,000 euros.

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The Green Programme supports projects to develop patents, technical solutions and socially useful technologies to reduce air, water and soil pollution. Also under the auspices of this programme, researchers from Serbia are developing an intelligent robotic system for waste sorting and management, creating technologies for the remediation of soil and water polluted by harmful chemicals, working on innovative technology for the production of a new type of plastic using exclusively bio-renewable resources, developing techniques for using waste from the rapeseed industry to create new food products, collaborate on the creation of devices for the development of biosensors for fast, easy and cheap detection of genetically modified food and researching more effective solutions for removing arsenic from drinking water.

The Science Fund expects that the Green Programme of Cooperation between Science and Businesses will result in practical solutions that will used in various segments of society in the future – from industry to everyday life. The development of green industry and society based on sustainable development relies, to the greatest extent, on solutions that only science can offer in cooperation with the economy. Also, developing these strategies transcends the borders of one country and becomes a mission on which we must all work together to save our planet.

Thanks to the Science Fund’s sharp focus on the development of programmes that are important for the resolution of current global challenges, such as the Green Programme of Cooperation between Science and Businesses, as well as work on international networking to develop science, the Fund was elected to the leadership of the international organization Science Europe.

Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia