EU supports the innovation ecosystem of Montenegro

The Head of Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Her Excellency Oana Cristina Popa, and the Minister of Science of Montenegro, Dr. Sanja Damjanović, visited the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre “Tehnopolis” with their associates today. The reason for the visit was the presentation of the support provided by the European Union to improving the capacity of IEC Tehnopolis, which will be used to support the innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Montenegro.

At the beginning of the event those present were addressed by the Executive Director of IEC Tehnopolis, Ratko Bataković, who expressed his satisfaction with the results achieved, as well as with the planned activities of Tehnopolis: “All the activities and events organised at Tehnopolis and other locations are primarily aimed at providing support for business development and achieving competitiveness of our economy through the promotion of new technologies and the application of innovations from all areas of the economy. This year, we are witnessing major and rapid changes in the economic environment, so it is our additional obligation to provide high-quality, substantive and timely support in the set of support measures we provide to business idea holders”. Furthermore, according to Bataković, Tehnopolis is operating at full capacity at present, thanks to the fact that it implements a large number of projects financed from EU funds through which activities are carried out in order to additionally support the development of innovative ideas and start-up ecosystem of Montenegro.

The next speaker to address those present was Ambassador Oana Cristina Popa, who indicated that she was very pleased to be able to testify that the support provided by the EU helped Montenegrin entrepreneurs to create new economic value and new jobs relying on innovative ideas and new technologies. “EU investment worth over 800,000 euros in equipment that is vital for the three laboratories in Tehnopolis will provide Montenegrin SMEs with the tools they need to develop products and services that can be competitive in domestic and international markets”, Popa added.

As she said, the support provided by the EU to initiatives such as Tehnopolis and the Smart Specialisation Strategy aimed to strengthen innovation policy planning, as well as to respond to shortcomings and challenges and support long-term recovery, digital transition and competitiveness of the Montenegrin economy.

The Minister of Science of Montenegro, Dr. Sanja Damjanović, said that the Government of Montenegro and the Ministry of Science had a clear vision of innovative Montenegro as an attractive destination for technological entrepreneurship and testing of new technologies; that vision constantly produced thorough and great results. On the occasion, the minister expressed her satisfaction with the recently received highest grade by the European Commission in this domain. “What we strive to and encourage is the development of an innovative economy, and the key prerequisite for that is infrastructure. Tehnopolis is the first segment of the Science and Technology Park that we are implementing in Montenegro. The Government of Montenegro has earmarked about 20 million euros for the implementation of Tehnopolis and the central unit of the Science and Technology Park, which is currently being built in Podgorica. Our progress would not be possible without the most important partner – the European Commission, and what makes me especially happy today is that Tehnopolis received a new essence – the equipment for three laboratories donated by the European Union through a very important support instrument – IPA”, Damjanović said. Finally, she concluded her address by stating that Montenegro was part of Europe, but that we all needed to work on the country’s European aspirations in order for it to become part of the EU family.

After the introductory remarks, the manager for project management and entrepreneurship development, Aleksandar Janičić, presented all the work segments, as well as the projects implemented by IEC Tehnopolis, which are funded by the European Union.

Finally, the participants had the opportunity to visit the infrastructure capacities of IEC Technopolis: Biolab, TECH lab and DATA centre, whose equipment was funded by the EU and co-financed by the Government of Montenegro through the project titled “Improvement of infrastructure related to research and innovation that can be used to support small and medium-sized enterprises”.