The Best Technology Innovation Competition (BTI) (http://www.inovacija.org/) is one of the ways by which the Faculty of Engineering (or Faculty of Technical Sciences), the University in Novi Sad, has started educational process of high-tech would-be and existing entrepreneurs in Serbia in order to change current entrepreneurial knowledge and innovative culture. Since 2005 it has gained a continual support from Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia and Serbian Chamber of Commerce. Thus BTI has become national open competition for inventors, small high-tech entrepreneurs, researchers, etc.
The mission of BTI Competition is promotion of innovativeness, education of its participants how to enter into the market and strives to ensure media promotion and financial support.
In order to fulfil its mission, Organizational Board of BTI each year delivers significant number of promotional and educational trainings in high-tech area.
Taking into account a few-years experience in creating and realization of business and marketing trainings of researchers in high-tech area, we noticed a large number of obstacles/problems which enables them to successfully enter into the market with theirs high/level research and scientific work. Thus, whishing to release themselves from fear of unknown, as good as to make some even incremental improvements of whole economic situation, Organizational Board of BTI make an adjustment of educational trainings to general goals. After educational trainings, researchers and innovators were successfully:
- reliable/educated to realize their research and scientific works on their inventions into the market, with fully responsibility and without waiting to someone from outside to help them (i.e. governance, state, financial funds, etc.), totally self-reliant
- capable to make a map of their innovative business
- stimulated enough to start their own company and find a place to their innovations on the market
- capable of checking their scientific and research results into the market, instead to be satisfied with prizes, plackets or acceptance of patents from different institution.
In order to meet all these overall objectives, BTI educational program has the following specific objective: educating would-be and existing high tech entrepreneurs in the market and business area.
For the last three years, the following results of this educational program that has been achieved:
• over 1900 innovators, researchers and company representatives attended educational program for innovative
business, created and held by young, innovative professionals from the University of Novi Sad in 42 cities in Republic
of Serbia and Republic of Srpska
- 164 promotional and educational trainings (43 promotional, 121 educational trainings)
- over 35 new registered innovative high-tech companies
- 282 teams (more than 846 people) finished their Business Plan.
This Competition is an excellent example of how University should have an active, responsible role in the processes of gaining support from state institutions on one side, and developing innovative entrepreneurial ways of thinking and acting in society on the other.
It has proved to be a very good way for reinforcing the entrepreneurial way of commercializing innovations, providing financial and educational support.
Additional direct and indirect results are:
- Changed climate at the University of Novi Sad, which can be seen through startup a lot of spin-out companies. These companies are not direct result of the competition but shows changed climate and readiness of university researchers to become entrepreneurs and test their knowledge in real life.
- Starting-up consultancy for high-tech companies Konekta consulting founded by Organizational team from Faculty of Engineering, as a direct result of the Competition.