On 22–23 January, SynGRID participated in a two-day hybrid meeting of the Pathways to Synergies – Downstream sister projects, hosted by Tecnalia Serbia at the Palace of Science in Belgrade, organized under the 6SAVA Project.

The event brought together four Horizon Europe projects — SynGRID, SYNHEALTH, PATTERN Project, and 6SAVA — to align efforts across the Widening/SEE region and co-create shared outputs that strengthen the uptake and impact of Horizon Europe results.

Working sessions focused on:

• Joint mapping of innovation stakeholders, laying the groundwork for a shared regional collaboration tool
• Connecting Horizon Europe results with national and regional Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) priorities and funding schemes
• Kickstarting a joint whitepaper with harmonised recommendations and country-level policy briefs

A highlight of the two days was the stakeholder evening session at the Palace of Science, which drew 80 in-person attendees from the Serbian innovation ecosystem. The session opened with welcoming remarks by Dr Milos Kostic (6SAVA Project) and a presentation of the CITADELS, Horizon WIDERA project by Prof. Kosta Jovanovic (University of Belgrade, School of Electrical Engineering).

Jan Jeriha (Institute for Innovation and Development, University of Ljubljana) presented SynGRID’s progress and key results to date, followed by a presentation of SYNHEALTH by Dr Ivana Gulisija Radic (Genos Ltd). The evening concluded with a Q&A session and cocktail networking, generating valuable new contacts and concrete follow-up conversations.

A big thank you to 6SAVA Project | Horizon Europe for the warm welcome and excellent organisation. Belgrade showed what “Pathways to Synergies” truly looks like in practice and across our shared region, we’ll go further together.