School of Economics and Business, University of Sarajevo, as the only internationally accredited school in the field of business studies with the longest tradition in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the initiator and the creator of the first regional event on innovations based on the Triple - Helix model, a regional innovation summit under the name Sarajevo Innovation Summit 2018 which was held in May 2018. Continuing the discussion on the significance of innovations and the need for the development of an eco-system for innovations, School of Economics and Business organized Sarajevo Innovation Summit in 2019 as well.   

Innovations today represent one of the most important sources of a long-term economic growth. Leading economic experts point out that 50% of GDP growth in the developed economies is exclusively the result of the growth of the field of innovations. On the other hand, the role of innovations is equally important in less developed economies that are faced with additional challenges to innovate, with very limited resources and in very unfavourable environments, without the adequate systematic and institutional support. Apart from that, a special role belongs to universities as the key actors in the development of economics that is based on new knowledge, that is, on innovative economics. Although universities represent the most significant generators of knowledge, knowledge transfer and the commercialization of research pose the biggest challenges to a more intensive innovation development. This is why it is very important that universities approach the problem of innovations and innovation policies in a more serious manner and to allocate their resources accordingly.   

This is why the construction of an innovation ecosystem based on the Triple-Helix principles has become an imperative of the economic development of a country. Triple-Helix concept implies an intensive collaboration between the educational, public and business sectors, and points out that the potential for innovations and economic development lies in a more prominent role of universities through the so-called hybridization of universities, economics and public sector in the context of the creation of a new institutional and social framework for generating, transferring and practical use of knowledge.  

The basic idea of the Summit is to gather the leading experts from the business and public sectors, and the academic community in the field of innovations, and to provide them with the possibility to present good practices and exchange their knowledge and experience with the aim to stimulate innovations and create an adequate environment. The Summit will, most definitely, contribute to a more open dialogue regarding the shrinking of the existing gap between the labour market and higher education institutions in the context of creating the new, market-relevant knowledge and skills, and to the defining the concrete recommendations for the enhancement of the environment that will be stimulating for innovations and entrepreneurship activities.     

With this in mind, our target participants in the Innovation Summit are:

• Experts from the business sector: Representatives of the business sector will have the chance to present successful business practices with a special emphasis on the development and managerial practices regarding innovations, innovative products and services, and concrete challenges which they are faced with. 
• Researchers in the field of innovation: Representatives of the academic community will present the newest research results and achievements in the context of scientific development and innovation management. 
• Public sector representatives: Representatives of the relevant public institutions will, as key policy makers, have the opportunity to present a legal framework which regulates the field of business, including innovation management in the business sector, as well as the practices and results that have so far had a direct or indirect influence on the innovation development.     
• Considering that the collaboration between the universities, that is, between the educational and business sector, has been mostly based on individual initiatives without a consistent and institutionalized approach, the realization of this event will contribute to the institutionalized cooperation with the business sector and it will enable the transfer of the best practices via „Open science“ model. This form of collaboration will promote a regional economic growth, and the opening of new working places, as well as the more and more important role of higher education, and it will shrink the gap between research institutions and the business sector and increase the innovative capacity of the academic community.  

Organizational team 
Sarajevo Innovation Summit 2021