National Technology Transfer Office in Macedonia which is to open soon will provide all interested individuals with necessary information on application of new technology and innovations, Deputy Education Minister Spiro Ristovski announced at Tuesday’s press conference.

Education Ministry is working intensively on this project, which is part of our program commitments for support and linkage between higher education institutions, scientific research institutions and the economy through the prism of technology transfer and application of innovations aimed at encouraging and stimulating overall socio-economic development of the country, Ristovski said.

He underlined that many countries have positive experience from introduction of such institution, adding that the idea of founding National Technology Transfer Office was accepted from the very beginning by Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, five state universities, SEE University, three chambers of commerce, business community, Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion, Institute for Accreditation and Fund for Innovation and Technology Development.

The goal of its founding is centralizing the offer of services as counseling Macedonian companies in the sphere of intellectual property, protection and rights, import, or application of technologies and innovations that are new in the world as well as participation in EU programmes in learning the way and procedure for projects application, Ristovski said.

National Office will have its own register of experts for various industrial areas in the country as well as register of available laboratories and their services.

Education Ministry has provided budget amounting to closely €1 million for office’s equipping and its becoming operational, which will significantly improve technological capacities of domestic industry through reducing the gap between knowledge and achievements available globally and in the country, Ristovski said.