Twenty-three projects have been funded through this programme package from all areas of research and each of the projects has a co-head from the ranks of researchers in the diaspora communities. The projects are all already underway and are expected to produce excellent results over the three-year project period. The event saw the project heads stage brief presentations.
The Croatian Heritage Foundation was host on 9 December to the presentation of a Croatian Science Foundation (www.hrzz.hr) programme that fosters collaborative efforts that bring together homeland academics and their colleagues in the diaspora communities. The programme is funded through Croatia’s
national budget and the European Union’s European Social Fund under the 2014 to 2020 Efficient Human Resources operational programme and in the
frame of its specific objective 10.ii.3, which aims to improve the research environment in Croatia.
It was an occasion for the Croatian Science Foundation to showcase its activities related to collaboration with researchers in the Croatian diaspora communities and the work and activity of the Croatian Heritage Foundation and of the Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP, croampro.com) with which the Croatian Science Foundation works in this programme and in planning new collaborative efforts in the diaspora communities.
Twenty-three projects have been funded through this programme package from all areas of research and each of the projects has a co-head from the ranks of researchers in the diaspora communities. The projects are all already underway and are expected to produce excellent results over the three-year project period. The event saw the project heads stage brief presentations.
The objective of these collaborative efforts with researchers among the Croatian diaspora communities is to transfer knowledge and attract investment into the Croatian research system and, indirectly, into our economic system, with the cooperation of researchers from Croatia and those in the diaspora communities. The collaboration works on the principle that the head of project is a resident of Croatia, with an optional diaspora co-head required to possess Croatian citizenship or have proof of Croatian ethnicity, and be employed by a research organisation abroad. The program application procedure envisaged the implementation of scientific research projects in all research domains with a completion date of 31 May 2023 at the latest, and the employment of at least two junior researchers per project: one a postdoctoral researcher, and others being postdoctoral researchers or persons that have completed their postdoctoral research and are in the early stages of their career development. The junior (young) researchers that are employed may be Croatian residents or from abroad and are to be employed by the parent institution implementing the project in Croatia, with options for short-term mobility sojourns (up to six months) to the out-of-country institutions and laboratories of the project co-head.
The programme funds scientific research, the procurement of equipment, the wages of junior researchers, mobility and indirect costs. The total amount of available funding ranges from one to two million kuna (about 135 to 269 thousand euro) per project. The competition procedure, which wrapped up in February of this year, saw twenty-three projects selected, showcased at this CHF-hosted event. Queries can be addressed to the electronic mail address of the Croatian Science Foundation (znanstvena.suradnja@hrzz.hr).
Opening remarks were given by Croatian Heritage Foundation director Mijo Marić, State Office for Croats Abroad state secretary Zvonko Milas, vice president of the board of the Croatian Science Foundation Dean Ajduković, a professor with the University of Zagreb’s faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mario Škarica of the Association of Croatian American Professionals (by video link), foundation board member Stipan Jonjić, a professor with the University of Rijeka’s Faculty of Medicine, and the foundation’s executive director Irena Martinović Klarić.
Welcoming the gathered researchers and guests on behalf of host institution the Croatian Heritage Foundation, Mijo Marić said he was delighted to greet them as the director of an institution that has worked successfully with the Croatian diaspora for just shy of seven decades, adding that he thanked the leadership of the Croatian Science Foundation for choosing the CHF as host of this presentation of the innovative scientific research projects from the research collaboration programme. “The objective of the programme,” he noted, “which has here gathered the heads of the twenty-three selected projects, is to transfer knowledge. Your final objective, which the CHF supports through the body of its work, is to encourage the employment of researchers in the early phase of their career development in their native country, and to network with researchers in the diaspora communities. I am confident, ” Marić continued, “that your planned research work over the coming three-year period will mitigate the brain drain and enrich the human capital of our homeland academic community in all areas of scientific endeavour. The CHF has to date participated in all national programmes aimed at popularising scientific collaboration with the academic community among our diaspora communities. Our most significant results in this regard have been achieved through our support of the Distinguished Croatian Scientists in the World series with professor Janko Herak. This multi-volume series, pooling the efforts of Herak and the CHF, showcases top Croatians researchers in the diaspora and features nine books covering just under two thousand pages.”
The projects were presented at the CHF by heads and co-heads Vesna Vašiček, Ružica Brečić, Miljenko Jurković, Ivana Vinković Vrček, Željka Krsnik, Mirta Boban, Ilija Brizić, Jasminka Krištić (in place of project head Gordan Lauc), Ana Previšić, Mihael Makek, Nikša Krstulović, Sonja Lesjak (in place of project head Iva Tolić), Vilko Mandić, Berislav Marković (in place of project head Igor Đerđ), Jasminka Popović, Krunoslav Užarević, Sandi Orlić, Mirela Kopjar, Tomislav Šmuc, Hrvoje Pandžić, Vesna Županović, Dalibor Carević and Zdenko Tonković.
Twenty-three projects have been funded through this programme package from all areas of research and each of the projects has a co-head from the ranks of researchers in the diaspora communities. The projects are all already underway and are expected to produce excellent results over the three-year project period. The event saw the project heads stage brief presentations.
Text; Diana Šimurina-Šoufek
Photography: Snježana Radoš