The camp was organised with a view to better understanding the needs of software companies and defining the future priorities of the innovation policy in Serbia. The camp is the first in a series of similar events that will be organised in the following period as part of the process of entrepreneurial exposure, i.e. participation of all interested parties in the development of the Strategy for Research and Innovation for Smart Specialisation of the Republic of Serbia.
The camp gathered representatives of software companies, creators of public policies, experts from the software industry, and representatives of the academia from Serbia and the Western Balkans. They discussed key challenges faced by our software industry and ways of ensuring a favourable environment for its future development.
The meeting was modelled on innovation camps already held in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bratislava, and Thessaloniki. It was organised by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development, the Public Policy Secretariat, and the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, with the assistance of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and the ST Park Belgrade.
The Innovation Camp Belgrade was opened by Viktor Nedovic on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, and Jasna Atanasijevic on behalf of the Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia. They both stressed the importance of the consultation process in the creation of public policy documents. The development of public policy documents on the basis of quality analyses and data was also underlined as highly important. Such an approach that is in line with the European methodology as well as a horizontal coordination of public policies are to produce priority areas of development that will be defined through the above-mentioned Strategy.