On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, the Embassy of France and the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia celebrated 20 years of the “Pavle Savić” French-Serbian scientific cooperation program at the residence of France.
As stated on the website of the Embassy of France, the goal of the Program is to enhance scientific and technological exchanges between the institutions and laboratories of the two countries, encouraging new collaborations and the training of young researchers. In the previous 20 years, 173 projects received financing under this program.
The jubilee celebration was attended by Dr. Aleksandar Bogojević, director of the Institute of Physics Belgrade, and Dr. Tijana Milićević from the Environmental Physics Laboratory of the Institute of Physics Belgrade, which participates in the “Pavle Savić” program from 2023.
Twenty projects received financing within this competition, and one of them is Dr. Tijana Milićević’s project “Bioavailability of toxic organochlorine pesticides and trace elements in agricultural environments in France and Serbia: contribution to the most modern in vitro methods and risk assessment for human health”.
Dr. Tijana Milićević stayed at the Faculty of Agronomy and Food Industry, University of Lorraine on an invitation by Prof. Dr. Cyril Feidt and, according to her, the “Pavle Savić” program enabled her to start joint research with her colleagues from Lorraine.
“We started joint analyses of agricultural land in France and Serbia during the first project year. Our goal is to establish stronger cooperation through the writing of joint projects that would connect researchers from this field to the international level,” says Dr. Milićević and adds that he advises young researchers to follow the invitations of the French Institute in Serbia. “The Pavle Savić program is a great chance to connect with colleagues from France for joint research and larger international scientific projects,” concludes Dr. Milićević.