The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the highest scientific and art institution in the Republic of Serbia. It develops and encourages science, organizes and promotes basic and applied scientific research, encourages and promotes artistic activity. The Academy is an institution of national significance.

The title of the Academy was officially established by Law on November 1, 1886, though the roots of academic work in Serbia can be traced back to The Serbian Learned Society (1864-1892) an organization that bequeathed its property and merged its members with those of the Academy and which had in turn been the inheritor of the formerly suspended Society of Serbian Letters (1841-1864). Thus, the development of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts should be considered as an outcome of the evolution of the learned societies that preceded it and from which it originated.