CARNet's main mission is contributing to the development of a digitally mature society.

Comprehensive informatisation of the education and science system in the Republic of Croatia by:

• developing advanced and highly available e-infrastructure,
• furthering progress through e-services and e-content,
• promoting Internet safety in the Republic of Croatia and the region,
• encouraging user innovation and excellence in the use of advanced information and communication technologies,
• building a reliable and responsible partnership with the users, through the application and sharing of our knowledge and experience and
• contributing to the creation of legal regulations for ICT use in the Croatian education and science system.

The idea of establishing CARNet in Croatia was initiated in 1991. That same year the Ministry of Science and Technology started the CARNet project at the initiative of Predrag Pale. That was the beginning of the work of the Croatian Academic and Research Network - CARNet, the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Croatia. For the next couple of years CARNet was the only ISP in Croatia providing service for free, not only to the academic community, but to all the citizens of Croatia.

In October 1994 CARNet began offering the first Internet courses for its users. In time the education of users became one of CARNet’s most important activities, so in January 2001 CARNet Educational Center Edupoint was established as an effort to organize and disseminate ICT knowledge.

On December 1st 2001, pan-European academic and research network GEANT was put into service, to which, among others, CARNet was now connected. This is a network connecting over 3000 research and educational institutions in over 30 European countries, and by its infrastructure and application the most developed computer communication network of its kind in the world.

In cooperation with the University Computing Center CARNet released the Giga CARNet project in 2003 in order to use gigabit technologies to develop a high quality infrastructure for the CARNet member institutions, facultuies and research institutes.

Source: CARNet