The objectives of this Twinning project are as follows:

1. Strengthen the cooperation between EIZ and leading international partner institutions in EU in the fields of EMIT. Create synergies and fostering capacity to develop international research projects in order to integrate EIZ into international research networks and establish and support EIZ as a research hub (centre of excellence) in Croatia and South–East Europe.

2. Improve EIZ’s overall research on EMIT through training activities.

3. Enhance EIZ’s capacity to design and implement public policies. To favour internationalisation of the Croatian production system in globalising economy and to promote comparative analysis and increasing involvement of policy makers through learning networks.

4. Improve the capacity of EIZ to study University/Industry models of collaboration, including Science Parks and technological clusters, their performances and their relation and impact on the territory.

5. Empower EIZ to contribute to RIS3 implementation by stimulating inclusive innovation and sustainable development in selected technological domains. To identify public policies for maximizing impact of specific Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) on the existing Local and Sectoral Systems of Production (L/SSP).

Achievement of specific objectives will contribute scientific and technical excellence, in the field of EMIT in order to improve its ability to analyse, design and evaluate public policies. This will help enhancing EIZ staff’s research profiles, integrating the project activities into the National Smart Specialization Strategy and strengthening the cooperation with research institutions in other Member States.

Sustainability of the project will be secured via support to EIZ to establish a research hub, with the aim of fostering spillover effects for a larger number of organizations from public, civil and private sector in Croatia and South-East Europe.

SmartEIZ will contribute to implementation of NS3 via inclusion of relevant stakeholders responsible for RIS3 policy implementation, such as MINGO (Ministry of Economy), HAMAG BICRO (Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments) - responsible for evaluation of NS3 in active participation in the project. Being part of SmartEIZ in dissemination of project results is a way of increasing efficiency of NS3 in Croatia.

Project consortium and EIZ scientists who participate in the project.

Project Consortium:

1. Bocconi University (UB, CRIOS), Milan, Italy- Dr. Roberto Mavilia

2. University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom- Dr. Slavo Radošević

3. Universiteit Maastricht (UNU-MERIT), The Netherlands- Dr. Bart Verspagen

EIZ scientists participating in the project are: Dr. Zoran Aralica (project leader), Dr. Ivan Damir Anić, Dr.Ljiljana Božić, Dr. Katarina Bačić, Dr. Valerija Botrić, Dr.Ivana Rašić Bakarić, Dr. Irena Đokić, Dr. Marina Tkalec, Dr. Dubravka Jurlina Alibegović, Dr. Maruška Vizek, Dr. Andrea Mervar, Bruno Škrinjarić (PhD student).