When will the Strategy for Science, Innovation, and Technology be prepared, and what does it supply? Why does the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) not have, whereas Republika Srpska (RS) does have, a Law on Innovation Activity? How a lot can we spend money on science in any respect?
An interview for BiH media was given by the performing director of the Institute for Development Programming of the FBiH, Rijad Kovac, knowledgeable in innovation ecosystems and mental property safety Edin Skaljic, and the assistant to the minister for science and applied sciences on the Ministry of Education and Science of the FBiH, Marko-Antonio Brkic.
Skaljic: A legislation on innovation exercise is required. I don’t know why everybody avoids it
The lack of coordination between totally different ranges of presidency and the absence of a systemic method to innovation are among the many key explanation why younger individuals and innovators in BiH discover it troublesome to develop, believes Edin Skaljic, an knowledgeable in innovation ecosystems and mental property safety.
“I come from a microsystem that was built from the bottom up. We ourselves created most of the microsystem, which looks nice, but generally we need a law on innovation activity. It is a very simple law, I don’t know why everyone avoids it,” Skaljic stated.
As examples, he cites international locations within the area.
“In Montenegro, it is 12 pages long; in Serbia, it is 14 pages. It defines the subjects who use innovation. Innovation is open to everyone. Innovation is available to individuals, organizations, companies, and scientific institutions. This is not the exclusive right of scientific institutions,” he emphasised.
When it involves the long-term results of the legislation on financial development, Skaljic says that modifications can be seen in a short time.
“A change in society is happening immediately. After six months, when people realize that the law has created something new and that there is a fund that should have a permanent public call.”
Asked whether or not the legislation on innovation exercise is step one towards that change, Skaljic is evident.
“This law should have come out immediately, as soon as possible, and we should have started with this. And somehow the strategy can come later,” he stated, including that it’s essential to map the present infrastructure.
Kovac: Strategies are a roadmap for improvement, however the true problem is their implementation
The performing director of the Institute for Development Programming of the FBiH, Rijad Kovac, spoke concerning the significance of strategic planning, the challenges of their implementation in observe, and the position of training, science, and innovation within the long-term improvement of the FBiH. Kovac factors out that methods symbolize the fundamental framework of improvement and that with out a clear plan, it’s not potential to attain long-term targets of society.
“A strategy, any strategy, whether it is a company strategy or the strategy of an administrative unit, a canton, a municipality, or an entity, represents a kind of roadmap. Through a strategy, we try to define the goals that a society wants to achieve and the ways in which we can achieve those goals.”
Brkic: Our society mustn’t play on energy however on intelligence
The deputy minister of training and science of the FBiH for science and know-how, Marko-Antonio Brkic, says that the Law on Innovation Activity within the FBiH has not but even reached the Government and that it’s at the moment within the section of an unharmonized draft.
As he states, the method is led by the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry, and representatives of different line ministries, members of the working group, and events are additionally concerned. However, Brkic warns that the legislation by itself is not going to convey modifications if it’s not accompanied by a transparent technique.
According to him, BiH can not afford parallel insurance policies wherein one ministry leads innovation, one other science and analysis, and a 3rd entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Brkic factors out that fashionable STI (science, know-how, innovation) methods due to this fact join science, know-how, and innovation into one coherent complete with the purpose of making concrete outcomes for society.
As an illustration of BiH’s lagging behind, he cites information on funding in science and innovation: Slovenia invests about 1.3 billion euros yearly, Croatia about 1.1 billion, Serbia between 750 and 760 million euros, whereas BiH allocates solely about 52 million euros in whole for each entities.
“In no area does BiH lag behind its surroundings and the European Union (EU) as much as in science, innovation, and technology,” Brkic emphasizes, including that systemic shortcomings stifle each good initiatives and particular person successes.
He recalled that prime researchers from BiH obtain notable outcomes overseas, however that the home system doesn’t know easy methods to retain and develop that potential. The key downside, he says, just isn’t an absence of personnel, however an absence of a system.
Speaking about concrete examples, Brkic states that via a pilot program, with the help of UNDP, a million BAM had been allotted to attach the educational neighborhood and the economic system, via which greater than 20 initiatives had been financed. The aim was to check a mannequin that doesn’t help solely start-ups, but in addition the event of current corporations with the participation of the educational sector.
However, he warns that funds for scientific analysis initiatives in BiH are extraordinarily low, between 15.000 and 30.000 BAM per venture, which is a number of instances lower than in international locations of the area and the EU.