university–enterprise cooperation

and prosperity for entire population of the
WBC region. Considering the fact that 98,9%
of active enterprises in WBC region (Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia) have been categorized as SME,
with needs and operative procedures
completely different from ones at large
enterprises, the project will be focused on
the development of global system support
for those enterprises.
2.2 Structure of the publication
Besides the presentation of the new WBC
regional model of university-enterprise
cooperation, developed within the WBC-
VMnet project, the objective of this
publication is to point out the necessity
of modernization of the universities in
WBC region, through the integration of the
knowledge triangle, and the establishment
of cooperation between key actors in the
areas of education, science and business.
The baseline for the framework were the EU
legislation, the challenges, policy, on one
hand, and individuality and diversity in the
WBC region on the other hand. Therefore,
the structure of such publication starts from
the goals of Europe in this field, through
the identified needs, state of development
in the WBC region, and further through
the presentation of EU good practices
in order to give the readers and users of
the publication, as well as the implementers
of a new regional model the opportunity to
analyze them as case studies.
Chapter 3 contains representation of EU
legislation, policies and strategies, review
of past experience, success factors, the
EU incentives, recommendations and
encouragements. In addition to this, there is
a spreadsheet overview of main EU documents,
produced by the EU Commission, working
groups, or delivered within similar projects.
Chapter 4 describes the current state in the
areas that make up the knowledge triangle
in the WBC region, particularly in member
countries of the Consortium of WBC-VMnet
project, the constraints and challenges,
identified needs, as well as a brief description
of some initiatives within the current TEMPUS
projects. Besides a brief description of key
institutions in the areas of higher education,
research, innovation, social partners,
there are also web-site addresses of most
institutions that were presented, so that
the interested parties can find additional
information at the listed addresses.
Fifteen collected EU practices are briefly
described in Chapter 5, through the display
of main features of university-enterprise
cooperation. As in the previous chapter,
the web addresses of centers, offices, key
projects and programs that have been
established and realized at EU universities
are available to the readers of the publication.
The objective of this is the dissemination of
the best EU practice, raising awareness
about the importance of integration of the
knowledge triangle, i.e. the establishment
of sustainable and effective cooperation of
universities with enterprises.
Chapter 6 deals with the presentation of
the new WBC regional model of cooperation
between universities and enterprises,
at the beginning of which are given the
challenges and prospective views, as well as
the benefits for key stakeholders. Bearing
in mind the different level of development
of the region, economic and historical
background, the model is reduced to a series
of recommendations for the establishment
of aforementioned cooperation, primarily
through mechanisms and structures as
bearers of such cooperation. Future steps
are given at the end.
As this is the first publication in the WBC
region, which refers to the knowledge
triangle and cooperation of universities and
enterprises, we hope that it would contribute
to raising awareness among stakeholders and
key actors, as well as to start a series of
initiatives, projects, programs for establishing
effective and sustainable structures for
development of such cooperation.
15
Introduction 2