President Milanović Meets with Representatives of Croatian Science Foundation, the Leading Institution for Financing Research Projects in Croatia

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović held a meeting today at the Office of the President with representatives of the Croatian Science Foundation. The meeting was prompted by the annual report of the Croatian Science Foundation in which the work and support to research projects in 2021 is presented. The delegation of the Croatian Science Foundation included the President of the Board of the Foundation Dr. Nikola Ružinski, Board members academician Željko Kaštelan, Dr. Milan Mesić, Dr. Slavko Perica, Dr. Dražen Vikić-Topić and Executive Director Dr. Irena Martinović Klarić.

The Croatian Science Foundation was founded in 2001 by the Croatian Parliament to promote science, higher education and technological development as well as secure support for research, higher education and technological programmes and projects. Its officials said at the meeting with President Milanović that over the past 20 years the Foundation had developed an independent system of evaluation and selection of the best projects and researchers, having become the leading institution for the financing of Croatian science and researchers.

Guided by the principles of scientific excellence, impartiality and transparency and by applying the internationally accepted standards of research success, the Foundation has so far funded, from budgetary and extra-budgetary sources, the development of careers of young researchers and projects in the amount of more than 1.1 billion kunas. It was said at the meeting that in 2021 alone, the Foundation’s financial assistance to research projects totalled 227 million kunas. Total investments in science in Croatia are insufficient, it was concluded at the meeting, with the Foundation’s representatives stressing that their mission is to contribute to development, which is not possible without science.

Speaking of the results so far, the Foundation’s representatives highlighted more than 2,000 projects, of which many were successful on the global scale, as well as cooperation with more than 900 young researchers and around 6,000 scientists who work at Croatian institutes and universities. New generations of Ph. D. holders are being educated and trained in a dozen of national and international programmes, the Foundation has enabled the establishment of own research groups for promising young researchers and supported leading Croatian scientists in implementing research that is of national significance or is internationally competitive, the officials of the Croatian Science Foundation said.

Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education Jadranka Žarković was alongside President Milanović at the meeting.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta