Andrea Milacic, M.Sc - guest of the Morning Program on TV E

At the very beginning, colleague Milacic explained what centres of excellence are and how important they are for Montenegro: "The status of a center of excellence (CoE) is awarded to a group of scientists and researchers who demonstrate excellence in their work, i.e. who are the best in their field. The University of Donja, through a grant from the Ministry of Science, established the Centre of Excellence (FoodHub), to encourage innovative development of the food sector based on science and research, especially in the area of food quality and safety, and is the only CoE that deals with these areas in Montenegro.

Precisely because they bring together the best researchers and experts both from the country and the world, and focus on areas of priority importance for Montenegro, in this case, the areas of the Smart Specialization Strategy, and thus direct science and the country's economy towards more dynamic development. Through CoE, cooperation is strengthened on two levels - within the state between different institutions, and on the other hand, international cooperation. All this enables the process of knowledge and technology transfer in Montenegro, intensifies cooperation between science and business, and strengthens participation in international projects.

Colleague Milacic comments on cooperation with producers as follows: "Through our experience, we get the impression that producers in Montenegro are increasingly open to cooperation and show readiness for changes through the introduction of innovations at different levels. In the beginning, we were the initiators and initiators of this cooperation. Now, there are increasingly frequent situations in which they contact us and ask for advice or help and want cooperation. Thus, on almost every project, whether national or European, we have at least one partner from the industry, which additionally strengthens our cooperation and contributes to the growth and development of both parties, i.e. mutual gain".

Colleague Milačić also announced some of the future activities: "In addition to the activities that we carry out in continuity, the activities for the next period are mostly focused on digitization and the development of digital solutions, the development of biosensors and smart packaging, and of course the MontEat application, which we are working hard on with our project partner, the company Fleka, which aims to promote the Montenegrin food heritage, and which, I believe, will soon be the topic of some of our new meetings".