Since 2000, having emerged from the difficult period of the nineties, Serbian budget allocations for science have marked a significant growth in the gross amount, from the modest sum of EUR 28 million in 2001, to about EUR 100 million in 2008. During that seven-year period, the salaries of researchers grew multifold, and almost 30 million euros were invested in capital equipment for scientific research work. Still, the share of science in GDP in 2003 amounted to 0.3% continuing to stagnate at that level right until now.
In addition to the budget funds of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development (MSTD), there are also other sources of investment in science in Serbia, such as other ministries and public administration authorities, including the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Institutes generate income through cooperation with the industrial sector and take part in international programmes, the estimates being that the income of the institutes in 2008, apart from the MSTD budget, amounted to about 12.5 billion dinars. At the same time, higher education received 23 billion dinars from budget financing in 2008, having also generated approx. 12 billion dinars of own income, making a total of 1.3% of the GDP.
