INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

INTERNATIONAL

COOPERATION

One of the Foundation’s goals is to enable scientists to enhance their inter-institutional, cross-sectoral and international mobility, coordinate research funding and enhance the connections between the scientific, economic and social sectors not bounded by national borders. This includes activities aimed at supporting competitive scientific projects implemented by research teams that managed to set up influential international collaborations in Europe and rest of the world, as well as actively encouraging Croatian scientists and institutions to participate in European scientific associations and organizations.

Multilateral Academic Projects - MAPS

The Framework Agreement on the implementation of the second Swiss Contribution for the period 2019-2029 between the Republic of Croatia and the Swiss Confederation was signed on 18 October 2022, whereby CHF 45.7 million of grants was made availabe to Croatia for the period until 2029.

One of the four programmes that will be financed（https://swiss-cro.hr/en/the-second-swiss-contribution/） within the Second Swiss Contribution will be Research Programme Croatia, with two programme components – Multilateral Academic Projects and EUROSTARS.

MAPS will be implemented through Joint Research Projects (JRPs) that are aimed at promoting collaborative projects with clearly defined goals, involving one applicant based in Switzerland and two to five additional applicants in two to five different participating EU-13 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland or Romania).

The Call（https://hrzz.hr/wp-content/uploads/Tekst-natjecaja-MAPS.pdf） was launched in April 2024 with 1 July 2024 as the submission deadline. Projects are expected to start in spring 2025.

Bilateral and multilateral cooperation - WEAVE

The Croatian Science Foundation signed the Multilateral Lead Agency Agreement, which enables Croatian scientists to apply to calls of other funding agencies who signed the MLA Agreement. The Agreement is implemented in the form of a Lead Agency Procedure, which means that one agency conducts the application and evaluation procedure from start to end, i.e. proposals need not be submitted to two different places.

In December 2020, twelve national research funding organizations from eleven countries , with the support of Science Europe, launched Weave（https://weave-research.net/） , a cross-European initiative to fund and support excellent international research projects. It is the first time a large network of this scale has developed an initiative of this kind to enable bilateral and trilateral scientific cooperation in Europe.

Weave aims to simplify the submission and selection procedures of collaborative research proposals involving researchers from up to three European countries or regions with a single evaluation. It makes use of existing national or regional funding programmes, through which research projects will be financed. It seeks to make it easier for researchers to collaborate across borders. It also ambitions to increase the capacity of researchers to freely determine the composition, focus, and content of their projects.

Within the Weave initiative, the Foundation is currently implementing calls in collaboration with the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) – Slovenian-Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPS), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – Swiss-Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPCH), the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) – Czech-Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPCZ) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) – German-Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPDE) .

ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies (QuantERA)

The QuantERA ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies（https://www.quantera.eu/about） consortium is a network of 32 national/regional organisation for funding research from 26 countries funding international research projects in the field of quantum technology. The Consortium is co-funded from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The goal of QuantERA is spreading scientific excellence in the European Research Area with special emphasis on the participation of research groups from new EU member states.

The Croatian Science Foundation joined the QuantERA consortium in 2018 and participated in the second QuantERA Call, which was open from November 2018 to February 2019 (Quantera-2019).

The QuantERA consortium has secured additional funding through the new Horizon Europe Framework Programme. In 2021, another transnational call was launched, with 39 projects selected for financing. One of these projects includes a Croatian research team , funded by HRZZ.

Another 24 consortia were funded through the QuantERA-2023 Call , including one research team from Croatia, which is also the Consortium Coordinator.

ERA-NET Cofund on Blue Bioeconomy (BlueBio)

In late 2019, the Croatian Science Foundation became a partner in the consortium within the ERA-NET Cofund in Blue Bioeconomy – Unlocking the Potential of Aquatic Bioresources（https://bluebioeconomy.eu/） (BlueBio Project), replacing the Ministry of Science and Education in this role. The Consortium is co-funded from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The BlueBio Project comprises of 28 partners from 17 European countries (Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden). The aim of the BlueBio project is to ensure sustainable and competitive blue economy throughout Europe. In addition, the aim is to develop knowledge on value chains in blue bioeconomy, encouraging the application of research results, innovations and demonstrations of bioproducts in production through a multi-shareholder approach. The BlueBio Project shall contribute to the production of safe, nutritious and quality bioproducts and services. The BlueBio Project publishes calls whose aim is to attract projects that explore the use and added value of aquatic biomass in integrated value chains, from primary production via processing to the ultimate production of innovative products and services in the area of bioeconomy. At the first joint Call (2018), the member states secured EUR 19 million for projects, while the European Commission secured an additional EUR 6 million. HRZZ funds two research teams from Croatia that are part of transnational consortia awarded funding through BlueBio’s calls.

Collaboration of Humanities And Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE)

The Croatian Science Foundation is part of the consortium HERA-NORFACE ERA-NET CO-FUND (Humanities in the European Research Area and New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) , which is composed of 27 research funding organizations from 24 European countries, funding research in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities and coordinated by the Polish National Science Centre (NCN). When applying for additional funds within the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, this ERA-NET programme was renamed to CHANSE（https://www.era-learn.eu/network-information/networks/chanse） . Transnational Call for Proposals “Transformation: Social and Cultural Dynamic in the Digital Age” was launched in March 2021 . Two Croatian research teams participate in consortia that have been awarded funding through this Call.

In 2023, two separate calls were launched – one for researchers in Social Sciences (Enhancing well-being for the future – NORFACE-2023) and one for researchers in the Humanities (Crisis – Perspectives from the Humanities – HERA-2023).

Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (T-AP)

More information available at: https://transatlanticplatform.com/ .（https://transatlanticplatform.com/）

Cooperation Programme with Croatian Scientists in Diaspora "Research Cooperability"

The Cooperation Programme with Croatian Scientists in Diaspora “Research Cooperability” is a programme financed from the European Social Fund in the framework of the Operational programme “Efficient Human Resources 2014-2020”.

The aim of the “Research Cooperability” Programme is transfer of knowledge and attracting investments into the Croatian science and technology system, and indirectly into the economy as well, by means of collaboration between Croatian-based scientists and scientists of Croatian nationality or origin who live and work abroad.