Agreement signed on Regional Research and Innovation Centre

(Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić opened a ministerial conference in Split on Friday on the occasion of the establishment of the Regional Research and Innovation Centre

(Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić opened a ministerial conference in Split on Friday on the occasion of the establishment of the Regional Research and Innovation Centre.

Accompanying Minister Pusić were Croatian Science, Education and Sports Minister Vedran Mornar, the Secretary-General of the Sarajevo-based Regional Cooperation Council, Goran Svilanović, Split Mayor Ivo Baldasar, the science ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, and senior officials of the European Commission and the World Bank.

The ministers of the countries founding the Centre signed an agreement that will enable Croatia and the city of Split to become a research and innovation centre in this part of Europe and enable the financing of research projects in Croatia, the rest of the region and partner institutions in other European countries and the rest of the world, as well as research excellence networks and companies researching and developing new technologies.

Science, Education and Sports Minister Mornar said that the Regional Research and Development Centre would create a platform for cooperation and the exchange of ideas and development of science facilitating industrial development in the region and joint project applications for EU funding. He was hopeful that as soon and as efficiently as possible the participating countries would start using the 200 million euros from EU funds available to them.

"The Centre will start operating with three employees and we will appoint a temporary director right away. After that, a vacancy will be announced internationally for the position of a permanent director, who, after his appointment, will start, with his two assistants, to gather researchers from the region and establish an information system that will make it possible within a matter of seconds to find an associate for a specific type of specialisation. There is a lot of work and the Centre's job will be to coordinate researchers in the region," Mornar said.

Deputy Minister Roko Andričević said the purpose of the Centre was to launch cooperation between research institutions and researchers in the region and facilitate their application for available projects and funding.

He said that the Centre enjoyed great support from the European Commission and other institutions that were expected to accumulate over the next few years a certain sum of money to be kept in the World Bank, for which the participating countries would apply with different projects through research institutions and researchers.

"Emphasis is placed on science and the kind of innovative science that can be applied in the business sector and commercialised. Emphasis is also on cooperation and finally on enabling the launching of new small businesses in the region that will obtain the necessary competitiveness which this region lacks. The Centre focuses on seven countries and is complementary with the strategies for the Danube and Adriatic-Ionian regions," said Andričević.

Split Mayor Ivo Baldasar said the Centre would be located on the city premises at Bačvice and that it would be opened by the end of the year at the latest.

The establishment of the Centre is in line with a declaration on cooperation in research and innovation signed in Sarajevo in 2009 and a declaration on a regional strategy for research and development for innovation, signed in Zagreb in 2013 and formulated in coordination with the World Bank, the European Commission, the Regional Cooperation Council and the seven signatory countries. Those documents paved the way for the establishment of the Centre for Research and Development to be based in Croatia, and the Croatian government in 2014 decided that it should be located in Split.

The Centre will have the status of an international organisation for activities by leaders and representatives from the participating countries and other countries from Europe and the rest of the world, EC and World Bank officials, researchers and entrepreneurs specialising in advanced technologies and investors investing in such technologies. With its activities, the Centre will complement the activities and goals of the Danube and Adriatic-Ionian strategies that cover most European countries, including Croatia.

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