The two countries are also planning to hold regular meetings at ministerial or state secretary level and to establish a regional technology fund to attract research funding for companies. Fuchs suggests exploiting further opportunities such as joint applications for FP7 projects and loans by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Lisbon Review 2010: Croatia Outperforms Lowest-Ranked EU Members

The final assessment of the progress made in reaching the Lisbon goals shows that Croatia has outranked four EU Member States, namely Bulgaria, Italy, Poland and Romania. With a score of 4.18, it is only second to Montenegro (score: 4.19) among the eleven candidate and neighbourhood countries assessed. Among this group, Croatia holds rank one in the fields of information society, sustainable development and network industries as well as the second place in the field of innovation and R&D.

ERAWATCH Country Report 2009

The ERAWATCH Country Report 2009 assesses the policy mixes to foster R&D investment in Croatia and the country’s contribution to the European Research Area as an Associate Country. The report concludes that ERA-related policies play an increasingly important role in Croatia. Most progress has been made in the field of researchers’ mobility, while there remain considerable challenges in the areas of governance of research infrastructure and the opening of national research to other countries.

A stronger participation of Croatian scientists in the European Framework Programme is among the strategic goals of Croatian S&T policy. It is supported by a number of capacity-building measures, such as the establishment of the Agency for Mobility and European Programmes, the European Integration Department with six national contact points and the National Committee for the monitoring of FP implementation.

Euroinvent: Croatian Inventors Win 18 Awards

Inventors from Croatia won the Grand Prix for best group performance and 17 other awards at Euroinvent, an exhibition of innovations and new technologies held in the Romanian city of Ia∫i from May 7 to 9, 2010.