Natasa BabacevBusiness Technology Incubator of Technical Faculties Belgrade

Founders Four Technical Faculties of the University of Belgrade

• Civil Engineering, • Mechanical, • Electrical and • Technological/Metallurgical

Palilula Municipality and Democratic Transition Initiative

Establishment supported byOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE

Based onInternational experiences and best practice examples

The Campus of Technical Faculties BelgradeOur vision

Knowledge-based Economy Centre

The main goal Create an instrument that will encourage young

and educated people to start their own business and stay in the country

Development of critical mass of trained entrepreneurs creation of conditions for direct commercialization of the results obtained through research activities

Creation of new small and medium enterprises in Hi-tech sector

Our potentialEvery year about 900 students graduate at the technical faculties in Belgrade

www.bitf.rs

Establishment of the Incubator 2005 December – partnership established between four technical

faculties and the Municipality Palilula 2006 OSCE support and Israeli government support 2006 Registration of the incubator as LLC. and entering the Register of

the Ministry

2007 USAID support 2007 adaptation of business space in the campus of technical faculties

(phase I) 2007 Support of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development 2007 Support of the City of Belgrade 2007 December – public call announcement – 6 small enterprises-

tenants of the incubator 2008 NIP support for adaptation of the remaining business space 2009 public call announcement - 6 more enterprises established and

positioned within incubator premises 2010 first 6 enterprises finished the 3 year incubation period and left the

B&T Incubator

24 small firms

Results in Numbers 600m2 of renovated business space 500 students have passed the training

on How to start own business 230 young people engaged in the

incubator and enterprises-tenants 38 small enterprises tenants of the

incubator 25 new technologies/services

developed in innovation projects 3 clusters/networks established 1 service center was developed

(set of legal, accounting and financial services; market research services and IPR)

1 project center developed

Immeasurable EffectsSava Marinkovic, was born in America, he graduated from Harvard, came to Serbia, established a firm and invested in the completion of the research development – development of software and hardware for early diagnosis of melanoma. His company Teleskin was selected by the European Commission to represent Serbia at the SME Opening Event and the European Enterprise Award Ceremony (EEVA) hosted in Brussels during the European SME week 2010.

Dejan Dramicanin, returned from America, established a firm which is engaged in development of software and hardware exclusively for abroad (96% export) .His company Bigear is placed among top 10 on the list of fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe in the category "Rising Star“, conducted by by the consulting-auditing company Deloitte.

Vukasin Pejovic also returned from Spain.Vukasin established an Embedded cluster .

Aleksandar Cabrilo, returned from Holland, established a firm and already employed eight engineers. Aleksandar established Serbian Business Angels Network in 2010.

Sava Zivanovic and Drago Indjic, after nine years of work in London, last summer they established a firm within incubator and employ 8 young engineers.

Milos Milisavljevic was just 17 years old when the inspiration hit him. Today he is 22, finishing studies at Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, established start up Strawberry Energy, with a team of 8 students of University of Belgrade developed and produced Public Solar Charger Strawberry Tree that is placed in square in Obrenovac in 2010, and two more in Belgrade and Novi Sad, and among other rewards, won the the first place in the competition for the European award in the category of renewable energy consumption in 2011 and had placed Strawberry Tree in Brussels for a week.

BITF - Lessons Learned Great results achieved:

Great potential of faculties and change of awareness - constant struggle for change

High tech, Innovation Leadership, quality training and consulting services offer by BITF

management Support of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development

and also City of Belgrade Using examples of good practice of developed countries and

experience of countries in transition and adaptation to local conditions Incomparably greater interest for the establishment of the companies

since the beginning of work of the Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia

Problem Lack of state systematic approach in a long term sense

The most important now Entrepreneurship as one of the elective courses at technical

faculties

Synergy between different institutions (TTC , Innovation Fond, Technology Incubators)

Science-technology parks in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Nis) as a new, much more effective instrument to support innovations and technological entrepreneurship

Innovation Export Promotion

Project Export Promotion for Innovative Products