Italy-Serbia – Scientific and Cultural Cooperation boosted

Italy and Serbia are boosting their scientific and cultural cooperation. Italian Ambassador in Belgrade, Giuseppe Manzo, met the President of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, Vladimir Kostic, to discuss the excellent state of cooperation between Italy and Serbia in the areas of culture, science and technology. They looked in particular at the increasing cooperation in the field of applied technology, particularly with reference to the 17 bilateral projects financed under the new Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Bilateral Cooperation – 2016-2018, to the Italian-Serbian Collaboration Platform on the development in Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Technologies, and to the numerous activities carried out by AIS3- Association of Italian and Serbian Scientists and Scholars. Finally, President Kostic announced the Academy’s intention to come up with new joint initiatives, within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in November 2014 with the Lincean Academy. Manzo and Kostic also agreed on the need to identify joint initiatives to bolster cooperation in the area of the humanities and cultural promotion, especially through structured cooperation between the Academy of Sciences and the Italian Institute of Culture in Belgrade. Indeed, the two recently contributed to a historical-scientific conference on relations between Italy and Serbia during the First World War, organised to coincide with the centenary of Italy’s entry into the conflict. The meeting was also attended by the Vice-President of the Academy, Professor Ljubomir Maksimovic, the Director of the Italian of the Institute of Culture (IIC), Davide Scalmani, and the Embassy’s Scientific Attaché, Paolo Battinelli.