Minister of Science and Education Blaznka Divjak confirmed in Dubrovnik that Croatia has fulfilled all three conditions for and will join the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world's largest scientific laboratory from 2019.
- Entering the largest laboratory in Europe means that these are completely new opportunities for Croatian scientists, but what is more important is that the Croatian innovative industry can significantly improve its innovative business processes through the CERN tender, and equally participate in competitions worth 500 million euros a year - Divjak pointed out.
- Membership fees are roughly one million franc. Compared to a market that is about 500 million euros per year only at the competition level, not to mention the opportunities for top researches for our scientists, it really is not a huge deposit. The three conditions we had to fulfill are that, above all, we have enough scientific capacity and it makes sense to enter such a large organization. This primarily concerned scientists from the field of physics, computing, information technology and engineering in general. When the CERN mission was in Croatia in early May, they’ve visited all our institutes and faculties, which have significant capacities in this regard. Another condition was the innovative industry, which can engage with innovative solutions in terms of new materials, general engineering, IT, various software solutions, and business process organization. The third condition was the political will, or that there are organizations, from the ministry to the science foundation, that give full support to these processes. We fulfilled all the conditions! – Divjak concluded in Dubrovnik.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (derived from the name Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire), is a European research organization that operates the largest particle physicsl aboratory in the world. Established in 1954, the organization is based in a northwest suburb of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, and has 22 member states. Israel is the only non-European country granted full membership.
