Marija Miličić

Position:Research Associate in CBS

Academic Rank: Research associate

Dr Marija Miličić is a Senior Research Associate at the BioSense Institute, working within the Centre for Biosystems. She received her PhD in Ecology in 2017 from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Her research focuses on the ecology, functional diversity and conservation of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae), one of the most important groups of insect pollinators and biological control agents in terrestrial ecosystems. She studies species distributions, ecological traits and the responses of pollinators to environmental pressures such as agricultural intensification and climate change. She is actively involved in international initiatives aimed at compiling and harmonising large-scale trait and distributional datasets on European pollinators, supporting biodiversity assessments, ecological modelling and conservation planning. Marija is a member of the Advisory Committee of the IUCN Hoverfly Specialist Group.

Center:

CBS

Themes:

1. Bioindicators and changes in the environment

2. IUCN Red List of species

3. IUCN Task Force for the preservation of old trees

4. Government

Projects:

1. Evaluation of ecological network for the purpose of more efficient nature protection in AP Vojvodina

2. Conservation strategy for protected and strictly protected hoverfly (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae) species in Serbia – Case study

3. BOTTOMS-UP: Biodiversity Of Temperate forest Taxa Orienting Management Sustainability by Unifying Perspectives

4. SPAS-Serbian Pollinator Advice Strategy

5. SONATA

6. WildPosh – Pan European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of chemical stressors on the health of wild pollinators

Publications:

Sentil, A., Miličić, M., Benrezkallah, J. et al. (122 authors) (2026). Synthesised database of wild bee and hoverfly records in Europe. Scientific Data, 13, 227.
Milosavljević, M. J., Vujić, A., Popov, S., Radenković, S., & Miličić, M. (2026). Threatened or thriving?–The status of Serbian hoverflies on the IUCN European Red List of Hoverflies. Conservation Science and Practice, e70236.
Reverté, S., Miličić, M. et al. (107 authors) (2023). National records of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species: A contribution to pollinator conservation. Insect conservation and diversity, 16(6), 758-775.
Miličić, M., Popov, S., Branco, V. V., & Cardoso, P. (2021). Insect threats and conservation through the lens of global experts. Conservation Letters, 14(4), e12814.
Miličić, M., Popov, S., Vujić, A., Ivošević, B., & Cardoso, P. (2020). Come to the dark side! The role of functional traits in shaping dark diversity patterns of south‐eastern European hoverflies. Ecological Entomology, 45(2), 232-242.