As planned in the Student’s practice programme (developed in October 2013^th by academic staff members of the IPROD Project from University of Belgrade), two appropriate study visits were successfully realized. First one was organized in cooperation with Intellectual Property Office of Republic of Serbia (http://www.zis.gov.rs/home.59.html) and second one in cooperation with Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (http://www.dmdm.rs/en/index.php).

Those two institutions are chosen for visits, because they are the most relevant on territory of the Republic of Serbia for specific area of Product Development – Intellectual Property and Metrology, dealing with corresponding real life problems on every day bases. Precisely, the Intellectual Property Office is an institution responsible for the tasks related to industrial property rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, indications of geographical origin, and topographies of integrated circuits), copyright and related rights while Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals takes care of legal units of measurement system - develops, realizes, keeps up, maintains and continuously improves measurement standards of the Republic of Serbia and provides their traceability to international level, provides metrological traceability and carries out metrological supervision and conformity assessments of measuring instruments.

Mentioned study visits were held on December 5^th and December 19^th 2013, with more than 40 students attending (among them, at least 10 female ones) and it’s important to mention that host institutions have realized the importance of  interconnecting with the students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (University of Belgrade) additionally supporting study visits with appropriate informations on their Web sites: http://www.zis.gov.rs/pocetna.281.html?newsId=710 and http://www.dmdm.rs/en/Vesti2013.php.   

As a result of well realized Student’s Practice programme, in April 2014^th the official Agreement on Cooperation is signed between representatives of University Of Belgrade – Faculty Of Mechanical Engineering (FME) and representatives of Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM), securing future cooperation and providing FME students with chance to find out about latest trends in DMDM’s area of expertise.

The experiences in countries where the links between relevant research and educational institutions are more advanced have shown that this is a very important enabler. Establishing over time, a core group of academicians (in particular those who show a high level of interest, enthusiasm and commitment) willing to dedicate some time and effort to Intellectual Property and Metrology will help staff members of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at University of Belgrade to set up a specific interest group focused on the relevant issues. The gallery from this event can be found here.