Hrvatska zaklada za znanost (Croatian Science Foundation)

The Croatian Science Foundation was established through a special act by the Croatian Parliament (Official Gazette No. 117/2001) on 21 December 2001 as the National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia. The Foundation was established for the purpose of promoting science, higher education and technological development in the Republic of Croatia and supporting scientific, higher education and technological programmes and projects. Since 2009, the Foundation has been operating under the name Croatian Science Foundation. In order to ensure that the best projects are selected and funded, the Foundation developed a two-stage project proposal evaluation procedure. The evaluation procedure is based on the internationally acclaimed practice of peer review, conducted by international scientists, and the practice of panel evaluation, conducted by Croatian scientists. By providing support to high-quality projects and researchers, the Foundation enables Croatian scientific institutions to conduct state-of-the-art research, thus facilitating them to compete for internationally competitive projects. With regard to the development of young researchers’ careers, the Foundation emphasises the inclusion of doctoral students in research activities, the primary goal being the writing of their doctoral thesis and obtaining a doctoral degree within 4 years as well as continuous monitoring and evaluation of achieved results both in their doctoral studies and research activities.