DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SERBIA

Their core work

The Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) is a national public body responsible for fostering SME competitiveness and innovation capacity across Serbia. Within H2020, they operate as part of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), delivering innovation support services — including innovation management assessments, capacity building, and connecting Serbian SMEs with European partners and funding instruments like the SME Instrument. Their core function is bridging the gap between Serbian businesses and EU innovation ecosystems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2016–2018), RAS focused broadly on SME competitiveness fundamentals — entrepreneurship, business-science cooperation, and general EEN support services. From 2019 onward, the focus sharpened significantly toward structured innovation management: assessing innovation potential, measuring innovation capacities of SME beneficiaries, and building innovation management capacity. This shift reflects a maturation from general SME support toward systematic, metrics-driven innovation diagnostics.

RAS is moving toward structured innovation assessment methodologies, making them a useful partner for projects needing SME engagement and innovation readiness evaluation in the Western Balkans.

How they like to work

RAS participates exclusively as a partner — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. Their consortia are small and focused, with only 5 unique partners across all projects, all from a single country. This suggests they operate within a stable, recurring EEN consortium rather than building diverse international networks independently.

RAS has worked with just 5 unique consortium partners, all from one country — indicating a tight, nationally anchored EEN partnership rather than a broad European network. Their collaboration circle is small but consistent across successive project generations.

What sets them apart

RAS is Serbia's national development agency, giving it institutional reach across the entire Serbian SME landscape — a gateway that individual organizations cannot replicate. For EU consortia needing a credible, government-backed entry point to engage Serbian SMEs at scale (especially for innovation assessments or technology transfer pilots), RAS is the natural partner. Their progression through four consecutive EEN projects demonstrates institutional continuity and operational reliability.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EENClientInnoJourney
  The most recent and evolved iteration of Serbia's EEN innovation support, reflecting the full maturation of their innovation management methodology (2020–2021).
• EEN INNOS
  Introduced the structured IMP³rove and EIMC innovation assessment tools to the Serbian EEN service, marking a methodological upgrade from general SME support.