Vojvodina ICT Cluster hosts DIGITRANS Regional Stakeholder Group Workshop in Novi Sad

Novi Sad, 15 July 2026 — Vojvodina ICT Cluster (VOICT) hosted the Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) Workshop of the DIGITRANS project at the Science and Technology Park Novi Sad, bringing together representatives of public authorities, business support organisations, research institutions and the private sector to decide how Serbia can better support the digital transformation of its small and medium-sized enterprises.

The workshop marks a decisive step in the DIGITRANS project, implemented under the Interreg IPA ADRION Programme by ten partners from nine countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region. The project’s aim is to improve the regional and national policies that foster digitalisation of SMEs — not through new strategies written from scratch, but by transferring proven solutions between regions and testing them in practice.

Three decisions that shape the next phase

Participants worked through three questions that will define VOICT’s work over the coming year.

First, the policy instrument. The RSG confirmed the Smart Specialisation Strategy of the Republic of Serbia (2020–2027), Priority Area ICT — Action Plan 2026–2027 as the instrument DIGITRANS will seek to improve. The choice was deliberate: the Action Plan is currently under preparation and will be subject to public consultation, and VOICT participates in that process in its capacity as Coordinator of Priority Area ICT. This gives the project a direct, formal channel through which evidence gathered on the ground can reach the people who write policy.

Second, the good practice. Members unanimously endorsed the transfer of “Digitalisation Vouchers for SMEs”, a scheme implemented by the Zagreb Innovation Centre (ZICER), Croatia — a DIGITRANS partner and the holder of this good practice. The model provides small-scale co-financing that allows SMEs to procure specific digital services from accredited providers, with simple eligibility rules, minimal paperwork and short evaluation cycles.

The discussion confirmed why this particular model fits Vojvodina. The Regional State of the Art Report prepared within the project identified a persistent gap: existing support instruments are largely designed for experienced innovators capable of navigating competitive grant procedures, which leaves out the majority of micro and small enterprises — particularly those outside Novi Sad and in traditional sectors such as manufacturing, food processing and logistics. Participants noted that a low-threshold voucher instrument addresses both barriers that SMEs report most often: the cost of the first step, and not knowing whom to turn to.

Serbia is not starting from zero here, and the workshop was careful to establish that. The Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia — the national body operating the country’s existing Innovation Vouchers scheme — was invited as a guest institution to present how that instrument works in practice. This allowed the group to ask the question that matters: what would a regionally delivered instrument add to what is already available? The conclusion was that the two are complementary. The national scheme operates centrally through competitive calls and is used mainly by firms with prior experience of applying for public support, while the model proposed for transfer is delivered regionally, pairs the voucher with a pool of accredited providers, and is designed to reach the micro, rural and traditional-sector enterprises that national calls do not.

Third, the timeframe. The RSG agreed that the pilot testing of the transferred model — the Vojvodina Digitalisation Voucher Pilot — will run from 1 October 2026 to 1 June 2027, preceded by a study visit to ZICER in Zagreb in August 2026.

What happens next

VOICT will now formalise the Partnership Trio that carries the transfer: VOICT as the implementing regional partner, an Associated Strategic Partner from the regional ecosystem, and ZICER as the good practice holder. A Memorandum of Cooperation between the three will be signed in the second half of July, alongside the first draft of the Regional Action Plan, which the RSG and ZICER will validate before its finalisation at the end of August.

The pilot itself will select between five and ten SMEs from Vojvodina, with priority given to enterprises outside the Novi Sad metropolitan area and from the region’s most employment-intensive sectors. Their progress will be measured through digital maturity assessments taken before and after the intervention — evidence that will underpin the policy recommendations VOICT submits to the Priority Area ICT public consultation in 2027.

“TThe value of DIGITRANS is that it does not stop at analysis. We take a solution that already works in another region, adapt it to our conditions, test it with real companies, and then bring the results to the table where policy is decided. That is a much shorter path from idea to impact.” — Milan Šolaja, CEO of the Vojvodina ICT Cluster and Coordinator of the Regional Stakeholder Group

About the Regional Stakeholder Group

The RSG is the consultation and validation body of the DIGITRANS project in Serbia. Its members are the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, the Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism, Positive Ltd, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Science & Technology Park Novi Sad, the BioSense Institute, the Enterprise Europe Network and Modern ICT World, coordinated by Vojvodina ICT Cluster.

DIGITRANS — ADRION Regional Policies for Fostering of Digital Transformation of SMEs (IPA-ADRION00039) is co-funded by the European Union under the Interreg IPA ADRION Programme. The project brings together ten partners from nine countries and runs for 36 months.