UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU, POLJOPRIVREDNI FAKULTET NOVI SAD

Their core work

The Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Novi Sad is a Serbian research institution with roots in agricultural science — crop modeling, agrometeorology, and food safety — that has expanded into biomedical research, particularly nanoparticle-based cancer therapies. They work on mycotoxin management in food and feed supply chains, vector-borne disease control infrastructure, and programmable drug delivery systems. Their profile is unusually diverse for an agricultural faculty, bridging food safety, computational biology, and nanomedicine across both coordination and partnership roles.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (2016-2017) was anchored in traditional agricultural science — agrometeorology, crop modeling, food safety, and entomological research on disease vectors. From 2018 onward, a striking pivot occurred toward computational biology and nanomedicine, with coordinated projects on evolutionary algorithms for cancer therapy design and personalized drug delivery platforms. This is not a gradual shift but a deliberate branching into biomedical applications, likely driven by interdisciplinary faculty members bridging agriculture-adjacent biology with medical nanotechnology.

Moving decisively toward computational nanomedicine and personalized drug delivery, suggesting future collaborations will center on biomedical applications rather than traditional agriculture.

How they like to work

They split evenly between coordination (3 projects) and participation (3 projects), showing comfort in both leadership and supporting roles. With 63 unique partners across 23 countries from just 6 projects, they operate in broad, diverse consortia rather than tight recurring networks. This suggests an institution actively building international visibility and open to new partnerships — a good fit for consortium builders looking for a Western Balkans partner with genuine research depth.

Remarkably wide network for a mid-sized Serbian faculty: 63 unique partners across 23 countries from only 6 projects. Strong ties to Austria and Italy (SERBIA FOR EXCELL), with broad European reach through large RIA consortia.

What sets them apart

What makes this faculty unusual is the combination of agricultural science foundations with a genuine pivot into nanomedicine — a rare profile that bridges food chain biology with biomedical drug delivery. For consortium builders, they offer a credible Western Balkans partner (Widening country) that can satisfy geographic diversity requirements while bringing real technical depth. Their willingness to coordinate projects (half their portfolio) shows institutional capacity beyond what many Widening-country partners offer.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SERBIA FOR EXCELL
  Their largest project (EUR 480K) and a coordination role — a capacity-building partnership with Austrian and Italian institutions that anchored their international network.
• EVO-NANO
  An ambitious interdisciplinary project combining evolutionary algorithms with nanoparticle cancer therapy — an unexpected research direction for an agricultural faculty, signaling genuine cross-domain capability.
• MyToolBox
  A major food safety RIA (total budget likely multi-million) addressing mycotoxin management across the entire supply chain, connecting them to the European food industry.