Faculty of Medicine: Great Interest in the Horizon Europe Programme

There was great interest in the two-day event dedicated to Horizon Europe with a special focus on opportunities in the field of health and medicine, intended for all employees of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Banja Luka who are interested in developing a project application for Horizon Europe.

The event was held on 14 and 15 June 2022 at the Faculty of Medicine, organized by the University of Banja Luka, the Faculty of Medicine and the Academy of Science and Arts of the Republic of Srpska, with the professional and organizational support of the Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer Centre of the University of Banja Luka.

The attendees were greeted on the first day by Rector of the University Prof. Radoslav Gajanin, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Prof. Ranko Škrbić, PhD, and academician Prof. Duško Vulić, PhD.

Rector Gajanin emphasized that the University and the Rector's team strongly support all activities of the University employees focused on increasing project applications and projects within the Horizon Europe programme, not only through events like this but also through other types of support, such as stimulating project applications and projects. Dean Škrbić pointed out that the goal of organizing this event was to encourage employees at the Faculty of Medicine to become more actively involved in scientific research and other projects. Academician Vulić stressed that the Academy of Science and Arts of the Republic of Srpska is available for all types of cooperation and support for the work on Horizon Europe projects.

During the first day of the event, Head of the Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer Centre of the University of Banja Luka Anđela Pepić, MA, informed the participants about the basic characteristics of the Horizon Europe programme, and about available opportunities and calls specifically focused on medicine and health (such as the "Health" cluster, innovative healthcare etc). Thereafter, participants had the opportunity to hear examples of successful projects under the previous Horizon 2020 programme, from researchers and research administrators from Serbia.

Rector of the University of Kragujevac Prof. Nenad Filipović, PhD, presented projects within the Horizon 2020 programme, in which the University of Kragujevac and the Centre for Bioengineering are active participants. These are projects such as DECODE and TAXINOMISIS, focused on solutions in the field of bioengineering, and for the purpose of improving the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Further to this, Research Associate of the Information Technology Institute of Kragujevac Marija Gačić, PhD, presented the challenges and different approaches and aspects of management and administration of Horizont projects from the perspective of existing support to researchers at the University and the Institute. After that, Prof. Miroslav Savić, PhD, from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Belgrade presented the steps in the preparation of the application for the project NeuroDeRisk, which is implemented within the Initiative for Innovative Medicines funded in part through the Horizon 2020 programme. Prof. Savić focused in his presentation on giving practical advices – what potential applicants should pay attention to when preparing and implementing Horizon Europe projects, in order to be successful.

During the second day of the event, Anđela Pepić held a workshop during which participants had the opportunity to learn more about all the steps that need to be taken in the process of preparing and submitting project applications for specific calls within the Horizon Europe programme. She showed with concrete examples how the request of the call for projects is read, and how the concept is compiled, how the partner is selected and a consortium is established. She also talked about the requirements of individual parts of application forms, the development of the project budget, and the process of submitting project applications through the relevant European Commission portal.