27 Feb 2023
PSF presents recommendations on research and innovation in Croatia
The European Commission's Policy Support Facility (PSF) has recently completed a Country Review of Croatia. The review was carried out by several independent experts and peer reviewers from national funding agencies.
The Croatian Ministry of Science and Education had asked the PSF for support with:
- ensuring maximum impact of the programmes foreseen in Croatia’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan;
- optimising the policy mix for research, development and innovation linked to the country’s new Smart Specialisation Strategy;
- enhancing the programme framework and the administrative capacity of the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ).
Over a period of nine months, the expert panel conducted interviews with stakeholders in the system, including in-depth meetings with the HRZZ, drawing on a background report.
As a result, the PSF experts put forward a list of recommendations grouped in four thematic areas. The recommendations focus on implementing the new Smart Specialisation Strategy and the policy mix, incentivising engagement in applied research and technology transfer, and building the capacity of the HRZZ. The panel stresses that, among other things, implementing the recommendations would further boost early stages of innovation in the country – an important area that the previous Smart Specialisation Strategy neglected.
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