{"id":184376,"date":"2025-08-10T08:57:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T06:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=184376"},"modified":"2025-08-10T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T06:58:00","slug":"vladimir-crnojevic-dismissed-from-the-head-of-biosens-he-refused-to-send-scientists-to-a-rally-then-lost-his-directors-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/vladimir-crnojevic-dismissed-from-the-head-of-biosens-he-refused-to-send-scientists-to-a-rally-then-lost-his-directors-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"VLADIMIR CRNOJEVI\u0106 DISMISSED FROM THE HEAD OF BIOSENS: He refused to send scientists to a rally, then lost his director’s chair!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The dismissal of Vladimir Crnojevi\u0107 from the head of the BioSens Institute has caused a stir in the scientific community and once again raised the question of political pressure.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refusing to send 30 scientists to a rally for the Serbian Progressive Party<\/strong> (SNS) cost Vladimir Crnojevi\u0107 his position as director of the Novi Sad-based BioSens Institute. He was dismissed at an urgent electronic session of the Management Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management Board member Vesna Bengin stated that four representatives from the Province of Vojvodina had expressed their opinions on the director’s dismissal via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The law specifies how a director can be dismissed, that the Management Board must provide documentation for why the director was dismissed, and there was none,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crnojevi\u0107 had, in fact, supported the Serbian Progressive Party list in 2022. However, as he stated to N1 after his dismissal, he has not supported the ruling party since November 1st of last year, when the canopy of the Novi Sad Railway Station collapsed, killing BioSens scientist Vasko Sazdovski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the provincial government had asked him to provide 30 scientists for a ruling party rally, which he refused to do. This gesture was interpreted as “defection and disobedience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The forceful introduction of politics began, and of course, the removal of the leadership, after which anything can happen. For this reason, the Management Board was changed several times, specifically three times in a few months\u2014because the people who became members of the board, when they realized what their task was, did not want to participate in it and get their hands dirty,” said Vladimir Crnojevi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As published in the Official Gazette of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, the president of the BioSens Management Board, associate professor Nemanja Tasi\u0107 from the Faculty of Technical Sciences, and board member and founder’s representative, professor Dr. Dragana Zgonjanin Bosi\u0107, a scientific associate at the Medical Faculty, were relieved of their duties “at their own request.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Sanja Vasiljevi\u0107, a scientific advisor at the Institute for Field and Vegetable Crops, was then appointed head of the Management Board for the remainder of the board’s term. In place of Zgonjanin Bosi\u0107, associate professor Dr. Martina Vojni\u0107 Pur\u010dar from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Subotica was appointed as a member of the Management Board, also for the remainder of the board’s term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the dismissal of the board members, a protest was held in front of the Institute on Thursday by employees, students, and citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of the four members delegated by the province, none have adequate competencies, and because of this, we filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court in Novi Sad yesterday and expect this appointment decision to be suspended,” said senior research associate and assistant director Oskar Marko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institute also filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court due to what they described as the illegal constitution of the Management Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The reason for the gathering is that another institution is under attack by the Serbian Progressive Party. Our Management Board’s composition has been changed for the fourth time, and finally, incompetent people who have nothing to do with the work of the BioSens Institute have been appointed,” said assistant director Dr. Oskar Marko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the imposition of such a Management Board is not stopped, the employees claim, the integrity of the institute will be undermined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One thing we cannot ignore is that a member of this institute, our dear colleague and friend Vasko Sazdovski, lost his life under the canopy on November 1st, and we, his colleagues, are truly distraught, and this is all a consequence of incompetent people being placed in managerial positions and the law not being respected,” Marko added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support for students<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, more than 140 employees at the BioSens Institute supported the demands of the protesting students, stating that “their fulfillment is a necessary step towards a society based on the rule of law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Although we as individuals have supported the student struggle from the very beginning, we consider it our moral duty to publicly support the students as members of a collective that lost a colleague, Dr. Vasko Sazdovski, due to the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station,” the institute’s employees announced at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the signatories at the time was not the director of the Institute, who had supported, but no longer supports, the Serbian Progressive Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you had asked me on November 1st, I would have said ‘yes.’ And I really have no problem, I’m even proud that I supported it (SNS) because this fantastic building, which is truly a gem of architecture and science and the equipment here, was created during that time. We all worked on it and collaborated closely with the Government of Serbia to make it happen,” Crnojevi\u0107 told N1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is BioSens?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

BioSens, a research and development institute for biosystems information technologies, was founded in 2015 and is a pioneer in the digital transformation of agriculture in Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By exploring the scientific and technological frontiers of innovative IT applications in agriculture, the Institute aims to provide the Serbian and global agricultural sectors with top-tier digital solutions to achieve higher yields with less investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of 2023, the BioSens Institute also received a development institute, and on that occasion, then-Prime Minister Ana Brnabi\u0107 stated that it had opened “the headquarters of a European center that will bring new values and innovations not only to Serbia but also to the region and the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brnabi\u0107 pointed out that Serbia had shown it could be a center of excellence in one of the areas that are very important for our country’s future development, which is digital agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aware of the innovation and potential, some employees now fear that it could all be undermined, as the condition is to answer the call “from the top” to attend Vu\u010di\u0107’s rallies and thereby show loyalty and gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: <\/strong>N1 \/ O21.rs Photo: <\/strong>Printscreen Youtube \/ EmisijeRTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dismissal of Vladimir Crnojevi\u0107 from the head of the BioSens Institute has caused a stir in the scientific community and once again raised the question of political pressure. Refusing to send 30 scientists to a rally for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) cost Vladimir Crnojevi\u0107 his position as director of the Novi Sad-based BioSens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":100000191626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8041,8042,642,1633,8040],"class_list":["post-184376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serbia","tag-biosens","tag-dismissal","tag-protest","tag-students","tag-vladimir-crnojevic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184377,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184376\/revisions\/184377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}