The Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Banja Luka and the Mathematical Institute SANU have been cooperating since the establishment of the faculty in 1996. The cooperation between the two institutions is reflected in the variety of activities, such as participation in joint scientific projects, scientific seminars, or activities related to the popularisation of mathematics. Their shared research is carried out mainly in the fields of combinatorial geometry and combinatorial optimisation. This long-term cooperation has brought about a number of joint scientific papers, which have been published in prestigious international scientific journals.

In addition to this fruitful collaboration in various scientific fields, researchers from the Mathematical Institute frequently visit and participate in the events hosted by the Faculty of Science and the Mathematics and Informatics Study Program in order to promote and popularise mathematics as a science. For example, our colleagues Dr Rade Živaljević, and Dr Djordje Baralić, took part, several times, in a very popular event named Days of Mathematics, organised by the Mathematics and Informatics Study Program of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in cooperation with the relevant Ministry of the Government of Republika Srpska. This event is traditionally held in May, and the activities comprise scientific and professional lectures on popular topics in mathematics, as well as a series of promotional activities aimed at the younger population, especially, primary and secondary school students. Underlying the famous mathematical motto "Mathematics is not a ghost", fans of mathematics (and those who are about to become one) have the opportunity to view mathematics from a completely different perspective, not the one from which mathematics appears to be a "difficult and incomprehensible" science, but as a useful science without which we can hardly describe natural and social phenomena.

In the years to come, the Mathematics and Informatics Study Program will sustain its activities intended to popularise mathematics as a science. Both the enthusiasm of the employees of the Mathematics and Informatics Study Program and the desire of the students of this study program to work together on the promotion of mathematics, ensure that similar events will be organised in the following period.