Participants in the European Regional Meeting of the Global Research Council, hosted by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, visited the Institute of Physics Belgrade on Thursday, 23 October 2025. The meeting of the Institute’s representatives, representatives of the Science Fund and foreign guests took place at the reading room of ‘Dr Dragan Popović’ Library. The guests had an opportunity to explore this scientific institution.
The meeting was attended by Elita Zondak, Director of the Department of International Cooperation Programme and Project Department at the Latvian Council of Science; Nia Glover, Senior Manager for International Policy and Engagement at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI); Stefan Đorđević, Programme and Project Manager at the Science Fund; and Maksim Vojvodić, Programme and Project Associate at the Science Fund.
The guests were welcomed by the Institute’s director, Dr Aleksandar Bogojević, who gave a brief presentation on the Institute. He talked about the centres of excellence, the Institute’s researchers, as well as the history of this scientific institution, which has had successful cooperation within the European Research Area (ERA) for the last 20 years.
Dr Bogojević particularly highlighted the success of researchers in international and national projects. Speaking on international cooperation, he noted that the Institute of Physics encouraged researchers’ mobility. He also underlined the importance of the Marko Jarić Prize, funded by the Institute, which helps maintain and strengthen ties with researchers in the diaspora. In addition, Dr Bogojević pointed to the Institute’s strong performance in Science Fund calls, where it is currently coordinating 17 active projects and has successfully completed 10.
Representatives of four centres of excellence discussed their teams’ work and achievements. Dr Nenad Lazarević, Head of the Centre for Solid State and New Materials, placed special emphasis on his team recently winning the ERA Chairs Project, which follows up on a project from 2020 won by Dr Lazarević within the Science Fund PROMIS call. Additionally, Dr Lazarević elaborated on the Centre’s organisation and the Advances in Solid State Physics and New Materials Conference, which the Centre organised in May 2025 in Belgrade.
Dr Dušan Arsenović gave a presentation on the Photonics Centre, which he heads. He underscored that in addition to fundamental research, the Centre engage in applied science, mainly through ties between physics and biology and medicine. He gave an overview of the core research topics which this Centre’s researchers explore, and an overview of the laboratories in which their work is conducted.
The Centre for the Study of Complex Systems was introduced by Dr Marija Mitrović Dankulov, who explained that this Centre’s researchers study a wide range of systems, including those found in classical physics as well as in biology, society and economics. She elaborated on the importance of the PARADOX supercomputer, which represents a key resource for this type of research. She also drew attention to researchers’ success in funding calls for both international and national projects, reminding that a researcher from this Centre won an ERC Grant in 2022.
Dr Nikola Škoro presented the Centre for Non-Equilibrium Processes, which features research on non-equilibrium plasmas and their applications. He underscored that within the Centre operate a group for experimental research and a group for computing simulations and modelling. He mentioned that various types of research which are conducted within the Centre have a multidisciplinary nature and intertwine primarily with biological and medical sciences.
Photos by Bojan Džodan