Report:0e24f567-642a-492f-8314-7eed0339a0bc

Facts & Figures

Croatia

Where

• Croatia

Research infrastructure

The number of researchers in Croatia varies by source. The Ministry of Research and Education provided number of 23,449 registered researchers, whereas 11,481 researchers correspond to the definition of researchers introduced by the Law on Research and Higher Education (1). According to Croatian Bureau for Statistics in 2016, 11,801 researchers (those with MS/MA or/and PhD degrees) were fully employed and 817 had contract positions (2).

Croatia has 129 higher education institutions, 105 public and 24 private; 9 public and 3 private universities, 82 institutions that are constituent units of public universities (faculties, academies and university departments), 11 public and 6 private polytechnic, 3 public and 5 private colleges (3). There are 70 legal entities outside the system of higher education and public research institutes that have a registered research activity – 3 institutions of special importance (National and University Library, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Lexicographic Institute “Miroslav Krleža”), hospitals and healthcare institutions with research units, 4 national institutes, archives and museums (4).

Organisation	City
Public universities
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek	Osijek
Juraj Dobrila Univeristy of Pula	Pula
University North	Koprivnica
University of Dubrovnik	Dubrovnik
University of Rijeka	Rijeka
University of Slavonski Brod	Slavonski Brod
University of Split	Split
University of Zadar	Zadar
University of Zagreb	Zagreb
Private universities
Croatian Catholic University	Zagreb
Libertas International University	Dubrovnik
VERN University	Zagreb

Research funding

In 2018, the gross expenditures on research and development were 574,368,048 Croatian Kunas or €76,231,740 (5). Most funding was spent in the business sector (51%) (1). In 2020, Croatia had 521 signed grants receiving €121.9 million in the EU’s H2020 program (6) and 8 H2020 ERC grantee receiving €8.87 million (6).

Research strategy

The Strategy for Education, Science and Technology of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia from 2014 is based on a series of Croatian documents and publications on education and science and aims to propose measures aligned with the European Union’s strategies and objectives by 2025. It emphasizes that education and science can provide social stability and economic development, protect the Croatian cultural identity and place Croatia at the level of highly developed countries. One of the aims is also to develop innovative society and economy, adaptable to future challenges, and foster lifelong learning, science and innovation (7).

At the core of the Croatian research strategy (7) are universities which play an important role in the creation and implementation of the research and educational process as well as to foster diversity, interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Universities are expected to assume an active role in transferring knowledge and innovations economy and society and life-long learning. This aim requires strengthening the links between the universities and the private sector.

Research governance, compliance and integrity

Law on Research and Higher Education addresses RI (9). It was one of the first to address RI in Europe (10).

National Committee for Ethics in Research and Higher Education is the highest advisory national body appointed by the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia (8). Its goal is to promote ethical principles and values in research and high education, in business and society, as well as the application of the modern technologies and protection of the environment.

The Committee for Ethics in Research and Higher Education has oversight over the procedures and receives appeals to the decision of institutions. However, they cannot actually enforce their opinion to the institutions. They can initiate the procedure for revoking a doctoral degree, but this procedure has to be performed by the institutions. The decisions of the Committee have been published in the past, but the current law and the bylaws of the Committee are not clear on this issue. There are no recent publicly available decisions of the Committee. Institutions have ethics committees that deal with research misconduct allegations. They are not public, except when there is a media release.

Bodies for RE+RI	Scope
National Committee for Ethics in Research and Higher Education	Promotes ethical principles and values in research and higher education.

Laws and regulations

The National Committee for Ethics in Research and Higher Education created the national Ethics Code (11) which all higher education and research education institutions can, but are not obliged to implement. The Committee can initiate the procedure of revoking a doctoral degree based on its RI investigation findings. Research and higher education institutions also have their ethics codes and ethics committees which take on research integrity issues. There is rarely a separate body specific for research integrity. One of them is Croatian science foundation that has Committee for Research integrity (12). Croatian Digital Theses Repository also addresses Research integrity and contains codes of ethics from Croatian Universities (13). Some associations and professional bodies also have courts of honour that deal with ethics issues, including research integrity.

Law	Scope
The Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education	Stipulates the system of research activity and higher education and indicates one of the pillars of research activity, which is ethics of researchers.
Ministerial Ordinance on Good Clinical Practice for Drugs	Provides standards which serve as the Good Clinical Practice for Drugs, including the registration of clinical trials.

Measures to promote good scientific practices and open science

RI training

There is no mandate for RI training but some elements of RI are a part of higher education programmes, especially at doctoral programmes and at some research-oriented studies, such as psychology or sociology (e.g. there are subjects in curriculum such as “Ethics in psychological research and practice” or “Ethical issues in sociological research”). Also, there are initiatives to introduce RI into undergraduate education, in the form of elective courses (14), and for PhD students, young researchers and experienced researchers as well, in the form of summer school programmes (15). Some institutions have an official RI Advisor for doctoral students (16) and RI checklists for supervisors and doctoral students (17).

RI dialogue and communication

The public perception of research integrity in Croatia and their trust in science is low. The system is perceived as corrupt (19). The lay press occasionally discusses the research integrity and it is usually related to cases of research fraud and academic corruption. It is not known whether there are rewards for collaborative science and incentives for networks. There have been some efforts to increase the value of research to society and reduce wasteful research. One of the examples is the Science Festival – a manifestation that has been continuously organized in Croatia since 2003 with the aim of bringing science closer to the public through information on activities and results in science, improving public perception of scientists and motivating young people to research and acquire new knowledge (20). Besides that, Croatian Scientific Portal is an attempt to consolidate information on Croatian scientists, their work and scientific projects with the goal to promote and popularize science in Croatia (21).

RI incentives

Research impact assessment and translation of research findings to the community is a part of the accreditation process for research and higher education institutions carried out by the Agency for Research and Higher Education (18).

Initiatives	Scope
Summer School on Responsible Research (University of Split School of Medicine)	Training
Ordinance on the Content of Licence and Conditions for Issuing Licence for Performing Higher Education Activity, Carrying Out a Study Programme and Re-Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions	Accreditation
Croatian National Science Award	Support
Croatian National Academy of Sciences and Arts Award	Support

Guidelines

Croatia

A total of 4 guidelines were found. Add a Guideline.

• The Croatian Committee on Ethics in Science and Higher Education's Amendments to the Ethics Code of Ethics Committee in Science and Higher Education (March 2022)
• The Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports' Law on Scientific Activity and Higher Education' (March 2022)
• The Croatian Committee for Ethics in Science and Higher Education's Rules of Procedure of the Ethics Committee. (March 2022)
• Code of Ethics of the Croatian Committee on Ethics in Science and Higher Education (January 2022)

Andrijana Perković Paloš, Elsa Amin contributed to this report. Latest contribution was Oct 21, 2021