EIT Food Country Representative Serbia
About EIT Food
EIT Food is growing Europe’s food innovation ecosystem to build a healthy, sustainable and resilient food system. We empower innovators and entrepreneurs, invest in ideas and talent, and we create space for science, research, industry, and policy makers to accelerate systemic change across the food sector. Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, EIT Food has been at the forefront of food system innovation in Europe since 2016.
About EIT
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an EU body and an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Institute supports dynamic pan-European partnerships, EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, among leading companies, research lab sand universities. Currently ten EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities are supported: Climate KIC (formerly EIT Climate-KIC), 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital), InnoEnergy (formerly EIT InnoEnergy), EIT Health, EIT Raw Materials, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Culture & Creativity and EIT Water.
Together with its leading partners, the EIT Community offers a wide range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities acrossEurope: entrepreneurial education courses, business creation and acceleration services and innovation driven research projects.
About EIT Food Country Representatives
EIT Food Country Representatives are members of the EIT Community Hubs in their respective countries. They are independent organisations appointed to connect national agrifood ecosystems in Southern and Eastern Europe with EIT Food’s ecosystem, activities, and opportunities. A central part of their role is to build strong pipelines of agrifood startups for EIT Food’s entrepreneurship programmes by scouting promising ventures, engaging incubators and accelerators, and providing handson support during application processes.
They also attract learners to EIT Food’s education initiatives, including the EIT Food Master in Food System sand the EU Skills Academies in Biotechnology and Resilient Agriculture. In addition, EIT FoodCountry Representatives help strengthen national innovation networks by facilitating collaboration, sharing information about relevant opportunities, and delivering activities that build innovation and entrepreneurship capacity within the agrifood sector.
This appointment is partof the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (EIT RIS), one of EIT’s key measures to broaden participation in the EIT Community and address regional disparities in innovation capacity.
Objectives and expected results
1. Strengthening the national agri-food innovation ecosystem
One of the key objectives of the project is to strengthen the national innovation ecosystem in the agriculture and food sector by connecting key stakeholders from industry, academia, public institutions, and the startup community. The EIT Food Country Representative acts as a local contact point, enabling better integration of national stakeholders into the European EIT Food network.
2. Promotion of EIT Food programmes and increased participation
Promotion of EIT Food programmes (innovation, education, and entrepreneurship), as well as increasing the number of organizations, startups, and individuals participating in these programmes.
3. Support for startups, innovators, and talent
The EIT Food Country Representative plays a key role in identifying and supporting innovative startups, researchers, and talents in the agri-food sector, and connecting them with relevant EIT Food programmes.
4. Capacity and knowledge building in the sector
The project includes organizing capacity-building activities such as workshops, trainings, events, and educational programmes for various stakeholders in the sector.
5. Identification of new collaboration and funding opportunities
The EIT Food Country Representative identifies new partnership opportunities and additional funding sources that can support the development of innovations in the agri-food sector.
For all additional information regarding the open calls, support in selecting the appropriate programme and assistance throughout the application process, interested applicants can contact the EIT Food Country Representative in Serbia, Todo Terzić, Head of the Food and Agriculture Unit at NALED, via email at t.terzic@naled.rs
