The agreement on Cooperation between the Institute of History Belgrade (Историјски институт Београд) and the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Etnologický ústav AV ČR) was signed on April 26, 2024.
The concluded Agreement on Cooperation represents a continuation of the already established institutional scientific collaboration between the Historical Institute Belgrade and the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, realized within the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technological Research, Action number 22155 (CA22155 – Network for forest by-products charcoal, resin, tar, potash: EU-PoTaRCh).
This Agreement regulates the foundations for joint organization and implementation of scientific, educational, publishing, and other activities, projects, and programs in the fields of science and education, as well as others, aiming to nurture and promote the activities of these two institutions, considering their common scientific and educational role in modern society.
The Agreement was signed by Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Rastović, Director of the Historical Institute Belgrade, and PhDr. Jiří Woitsch, Ph.D., Director of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Since this agreement represents the first bilateral agreement between two members of our COST Action, we will present these two institutes in more detail.
The Institute of History Belgrade was founded in 1947 as one of the earliest scientific research institution dedicated to studying the political, social, economic, and cultural history and heritage of the Serbian people, as well as their connections with South Slavic and other Balkan peoples, from the migration of the Serbs to the Balkans to the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, simultaneously following the development and advancing all branches of historical science. In line with its programmatic principles and goals, the mission of the Institute is to be the leading national, regional, and international scientific research organization for the specific field that is the subject of its activities and which, as mentioned above, is precisely defined thematically and chronologically. (https://www.iib.ac.rs/)
Institute of Ethnology goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. Since 1999, the Institute bears the name Institute of Ethnology (IE) of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The basic and applied research focuses on the ways of life, culture, collective and individual memory and cultural heritage of various national, social and ethnic groups in the Czech lands and abroad, in the context of past and contemporary socio-cultural, migrational, environmental and other changes and processes. Currently the IE host two ERC Grant teams and develops international cooperation across Europe and beyond. The IE also runs two scholarly journals with long-term traditions and manages two libraries available for researchers and the general public. An archive of photographic and documentation collections is kept and protected as cultural heritage and at the same time is open to public. (https://www.eu.avcr.cz/en)