Start of negotiation for CERN membership
Two days ago Rolf Heuer, Director General of CERN announced the official start of negotiations for Serbia's membership in this renowned international institution. The start of this process is an important milestone in the process to substantially strengthen Serbia's science. For this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Technological Development Bozidar Djelic held a conference with the researcher's that have spearheaded the country's involvement in CERN, particularly in the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, as well as the CERN-led GRID computing program. Minister Djelic thanked the researchers from the Institute of Physics Belgrade, Vinca Institut, Physics Faculty of the University of Belgrade, and the Natural Sciences Faculty of the University of Novi Sad for their effort and discussed with them practical steps that need to be taken so as to best use the new status at CERN as an important catalyst for higher quality and more competitive research, as well as for the successful involvement of Serbia's high tech firms.
After the meeting Minister Djelic held a high-profile press conference in which he presented to the National media the opportunities that are being opened up by the process of Serbia's becoming a full member of CERN. He highlighted the excellent work done by the physicists and engineers that have been involved with CERN in the past years, promising to further help their work at the National level. "CERN membership is an opportunity not only for our physics, but for our research in general as well as our industry", said Djelic.
Links to materials from the press conference: