These are the facts that launch Ruđer Bošković Institute at an enviable top position among the Croatian scientific institutions in pulling the HORIZON 2020 funds. Thus reaffirming its position as an indispensable strategic partner to the Croatian Government, as already stated by Professor Branko Grčić, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds, at the ERC projects ceremony in April.

According to data available by EU Community Research and Development Information Service – CORDIS, Croatia has gained a total of 62 projects from HORIZON 2020 funding program, of which about two thirds are led by scientific and academic institutions. The total value of these projects is about 9.6 million euros, of which RBI hit 5.5 million euros.

Under the HORIZON 2020 programme, the European Union's has allocated 80 billion euros for research and innovation projects. Within this program, funds are allocated under extremely competitive tenders. Getting a project under HORIZON 2020 program means that you gained a confirmation by the EU that you do excellent science, and that you can equally compete with other international scientific institutions in countries with far more abundant financing of research and development (eg. Germany, France, Great Britain).

Ruđer Bošković Institute continuously proves that it has excellent human potential, know-how and infrastructural capacity to withdraw funds from the European Union.

''It is extremely crucial that relevant Croatian stakeholders realize that projects can go in different directions than planned. The European Commission has recognized this and is trying to ease the administrative part of the project preparation and implementation as much as possible.

We hope that Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports will soon realize this too, and change the current practice, where it turns out that the success and excellence are systematically hampered.'' - concludes Tome Antičić, RBI Director General.