Minister Damjanović on increase of the Ministry’s budget for 2018

The budget of the Ministry of Science for 2018 is the highest so far and has increased by 60 percent, enabling us to begin the planned activities defined in the new Strategy, which is currently in the public debate, Minister Sanja Damjanović said, responding to journalists’ questions at today’s conference on the presentation of the Draft Law on Budget for 2018, adopted by the Government at yesterday’s session.

The Ministry of Science has recognized the challenges and clearly defined three goals: improving human resources and research capacities through employment of young people – doctoral students – at universities and in the economy, and enabling work on research and innovative projects that will have an active component of internationalization, i.e. mobility, since partnership has been established with the leading European scientific institutions.

- “This will lead to the reduction of braindrain, as well as to the opening of research positions in the private sector”, the Minister said.

The second goal of the Ministry of Science for the next year is to fund scientific research and innovative projects that will be directed at larger, development projects, aiming at the technological recovery of Montenegro.
- With regard to the EU Horizon 2020 programme, this year we have significantly better results and involvement in several large scientific projects, so this year we achieved a net positive return on invested funds. This is a sign that we are on the right path, Minister Damjanović said.

- We will use national funds that should be a tool for the use of international funds, especially from the EU Horizon 2020 programme. To this end, joining the leading European scientific infrastructures that enable networking will be important, as well as the transfer of knowledge and modern technologies. Due to the consequences of transition, the technological level of our economy is below the level of developed countries. For this reason, we have initiated the establishment of a large scientific infrastructure – the International Scientific Institute, which will be the driver of a new cycle of development of our economy, scientific-technological recovery of the region, a knowledge-based economy – which will benefit the society as a whole. All this would not only prevent the outflow of talents, but would turn the region into a place that would attract top experts, Minister Damjanović explained.

According to the Minister, Montenegro must be focused on innovation in order to use its chances in the global market.

- This field is attractive for young people who see an increasing number of opportunities for employment in their country. The goal is to create better conditions for self-employment through the establishment of an innovative start-up ecosystem, for which it is necessary to remove the barriers through legal changes, in which we have provided the support of the European Commission, which will help us to implement such a policy. By providing new financial instruments, as well as the environment for work and further implementation of the Science and Technology Park, we will improve synergies between economy and science, the Minister concluded.