As part of the Erasmus+ project RE-FEM (Upskilling pathways for REsiliency in the post-COVID era for FEMale Entrepreneurs), the Institute Mihajlo Pupin organised a World Café event on May 8, 2025. The goal of the event is to define recommendations through open discussions between women entrepreneurs and stakeholders in five key areas to improve women entrepreneurs’ position.

The thematic areas discussed were:

  1. Support for women-led StartUp and ScaleUp companies through access to finance, non-formal education, and business networking (moderator: Ana Žegarac, Development Agency of Serbia)
  2. Rural entrepreneurship (moderator: Dragana Panajotović, Association of Business Women of Serbia)
  3. Digital transformation (moderator: Tijana Sekulić, AT Consulting)
  4. Women’s entrepreneurship and education with a focus on male-dominated sectors (moderator: Zorica Dodevska, Mihajlo Pupin Institute)
  5. Investment and development (moderator: Iva Vuksanović, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia)

 

The working part of the event was structured around five tables, each facilitated by a female moderator representing a relevant stakeholder institution. A total of 27 participants, including representatives of companies and organisations that support women’s entrepreneurship, actively contributed their knowledge and experience to defining key steps for progress in these areas.

At the end of the event, the moderators presented the conclusions from their respective tables, while dr Sanja Popović Pantić, Head of the Science and Technology Policy Research Centre of the Institute Mihajlo Pupin and RE-FEM project coordinator, summarised all the recommendations. The outcomes of this event will be compiled into the Report on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Serbia, which will later form part of a comprehensive study based on the contributions from all RE-FEM partner countries and will be published soon.