Innovation Fund Continues to Support its Awardees through Enterprise Training


15.10.2013

Eighteen Mini and Matching Grants Awardees participated at the training organized by the Innovation Fund Oct. 7-10, 2013, in Belgrade.

The training, designed to introduce companies to the subjects of business development, intellectual property protection and management, and venture capital, is an integral part of the Innovation Fund’s Mini and Matching Grants Programs. The Innovation Fund’s Mini and Matching Grants Programs are implemented under the Serbia Innovation Project, financed by a EUR 8.4 million donation from the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds and administered by the World Bank.

This training cycle included 13 awardees of Mini Grants, and another 5 awardees of the Matching Grants.

Innovation Fund continues its assistance to entrepreneurs to improve their capabilities in building knowledge-based businesses and attracting future investment. Companies’ management and Innovation Fund international experts together discussed issues facing Serbian companies in development and commercialization of innovative products and services.

Mr. Donal O’Connell, Adjunct Professor at the Imperial College London and former Vice President for Research and Development at Nokia, and Mr. Gábor Baranyai, Executive Director of the QualyPlan Kft. investment fund and an expert in international entrepreneurial finance and venture capital financing, discussed the challenges of identifying business opportunities and presenting them to international investors. Mr. Yehuda Binder, renowned expert from the field of intellectual property monetization and author of over 100 patents, and Mr. Ulrich Bass, an expert in the evaluation of innovation and patenting with extensive experience in German technology companies, provided the companies with valuable perspective regarding intellectual property protection, the process behind an intellectual property’s value assessment, as well as the international process of patent application.