Zorana Kurbalija Novicic enjoyed life in Belgrade, surrounded by friends and good colleagues. But she still had a dream of going abroad to further her education and establish networks and then returning to Serbia.

“In the 1990s, the majority of our prominent researchers left Serbia and very few of them returned – Serbian science simply lost its competitive power in the EU. I wanted to go out into the world, got a scholarship, and went to Aarhus University in Denmark for a month. This changed my research perspective. I wanted to continue my career in Denmark or Sweden.”

After defending her thesis in 2009, she remained in Belgrade until 2015. It was then she became the first Serbian researcher to receive the European Commission’s prestigious Marie Curie fellowship. The fellowship made it possible for her to come here and continue her research career at the Department of Ecology and Genetics.

“My husband and I moved to Uppsala with our two children, ages five and two. It wasn’t very hard for me to leave Belgrade. It was actually a relief for me to finally get the chance to, with my own money, devote myself to high-quality research.”

The original plan was to stay for two years and conduct research, expand her professional network, and apply for additional grants to be able to establish a research group in Belgrade. But the family thinks it is better to stay in Sweden, even though they sometimes miss family and friends at home.

“In Sweden, we immediately started to live ‘the Swedish way’. We reduced our stress level by working no more than eight hours a day, giving us more time with our family. Sweden is a well-organised country where you sort your recyclables, cycle almost everywhere, and buy second-hand even though you have a good standard of living. It’s a country that cares about climate change and is doing something about it.”

Another passion of Zorana is teaching natural science to children and young people. There is an incredible amount of information just a click away, but is it accurate? How do children know how to interpret information and what they can believe and trust?  

“We parents are often busy and time just slips through our fingers. We need to find a balance between a stressful working life and day-to-day logistics at home. We sometimes are low on energy and simply send our children to the computer instead of answering all of their many questions. Our most important role as parents is to encourage our children to ask questions, seek out answers, and be ready for lifelong learning.”

Zorana has participated in a number of science festivals, and for the past few years has been devoting part of her time to getting both children and their parents involved in scientific experiments. They use items already found in the home to do things like make ice cream at room temperature, make their own watercolours or build molecular models out of sweets.

“We need to have the courage to change our daily routines, and realise that the most valuable thing we have is time and it is up to us how we want to use it. I want to bridge the gap between science and the public, especially children. They need to understand that every single aspect of life can be explained by science!”