The largest Innovation Summit in this part of Europe held in Sarajevo

This year, the most important innovation summit in this part of Europe was held - Sarajevo Innovation Summit 2021, which gathered over 400 participants from around the world. In addition to the countries of the region, a large number of participants were from Great Britain, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Brazil, Egypt.

Given the pandemic circumstances, the Summit was held in a hybrid format, and for the first time, the Special Edition 2021 was held.

Sarajevo Innovation Summit 2021 was opened by H.E. Matthew Field, British Ambassador to BiH, Edin Forto, Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Benjamina Karić, Mayor of Sarajevo, prof. dr. Jasmina Selimović, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, University of Sarajevo and Prof. Dr. Amila Pilav Velić, idea creator of the Summit.

In partnership with the British Embassy in our country, the Summit opened some of the most important questions of today - How is the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating innovation and completely changing the culture of research ?! Is and how much the global crisis we are going through is only "health"? How innovative are we in responding to the crisis? How innovative and should the countries of the Western Balkans be in their response to the crisis?

This year, the most important names in the field of innovation were with us, and the special guest of the Summit was Martin Vickers, the envoy of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for trade to the Western Balkans.

Speakers at the Summit were Dr. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Associate Professor at Columbia University, Dr. Adnan Mehoni’, UCL Lecturer in Nanoelectronics at University College London and Associate of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Edin Hamzic, Director General of Science at BioCertica.

Within the panel on the impact of the health crisis on innovation, the following spoke: Prof. Dr. Tom Clutton-Brock, University of Birmingham, UK, Rohit Shelatkar, CEO of Vitabiotics Ltd., Aleksandar Tripković, Commercial Manager, Leading Vaccine Manufacturer for Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic, Global Innovative Pharmaceutical Company AstraZeneca, Dr. Neville Young, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), and Rijad Hasić, a member of the team for the development of the first respirator in Bosnia and Herzegovina within the TMD Gradačac group.

It was pointed out at the Summit that continuous cooperation and connection of education, public and business sectors in order to improve the business environment, but also society as a whole are imperative for sustainable development of today's economy. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began as a health crisis, quickly became a global socio-economic crisis that simultaneously accelerated the digitalization process and became an accelerator of innovation, completely changing the paradigm in business and business culture.

It was concluded that innovation and innovation are the only adequate response to the crisis and one way of survival and the COVID-19 pandemic reminded us how important it is to be innovative because innovation is nothing but the ability to see and use change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

The summit was closed on behalf of the organizers by Doz. Dr. Hatidža Jahić, who in her address announced the next 5th Summit in 2022.

The organization of the Summit 2021 was supported by partners and friends: the British Embassy in BiH, the Federal Ministry of Education and Science of BiH, BH Telecom and the Ministry of Programming.