From 8 to 10 October 2014, in Belgrade, a regional workshop was held on “Improving Cooperation between National Standards Bodies and Academia”. The organizers were the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Institute for Standardization of Serbia (ISS), which was also the host. The workshop was held with the assistance of the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) and Korean Standards Association (KSA).

The aim of the workshop was to help developing countries and countries in transition in the area of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia to develop educational programs related to standards and standardization, as well as to continue with further improvement of existing programs at universities and other institutions of higher education.

The workshop was moderated by Dr Daniele Gerundino, Director of Research at the ISO Central Secretariat, and the presenters were: Violeta Nešković-Popović, Head of the Sector for Publishing and Information Activities in the ISS, Dr. Ivan Mijatović, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences in Belgrade and Aleksandra Kuzmanović, a master student at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Geneva.

32 representatives of National Standards Bodies and Academia institutions from Albania, Belarus, Armenia, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan participated in the workshop. Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by Mr. Aleksandar Cincar, Director of the Institute for Standardization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dr. Daniel Mijić from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of East Sarajevo. In addition, five expert lecturers also participated at the workshop, namely two ISO representatives from Switzerland and three representatives of KATS and KSA from Korea.