ZAGREB, January 11, 2019 - Croatia and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, are going to sign an associate membership agreement on 28 February in Zagreb, the Croatian science and education ministry stated on Friday.
The agreement will be signed by Minister Blaženka Divjak and CERN director-general Fabiola Gianotti, after earlier this month the Croatian government decided to initiate the procedure to conclude the associate membership deal with that Geneva-based international scientific institute.
In mid-2018, a delegation visited Croatia to check if the country fulfils membership criteria.
The ministry underscores that the associate membership will be a huge step forward for making Croatia's science more visible in international circles.
Associate member status will make it possible for Croatia to participate in CERN-funded projects on an equal footing. It will improve the quality of education and research by Croatian scientists and increase the mobility of scientists and specialists.
Such status will also open up business opportunities for Croatian software, construction, electrical engineering and healthcare companies. Croatia will contribute a total of one million Swiss francs annually to finance CERN activities.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research was established in 1954. It currently has 22 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom, with Israel being the only non-European country granted full membership.
In 2016, it had 2,500 scientific, technical, and administrative staff members, and hosted about 12,000 users. In the same year, CERN generated 49 petabytes of data.
"The CERN convention was signed in 1953 by the 12 founding states Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia, and entered into force on 29 September 1954. The Organization was subsequently joined by Austria (1959), Spain (1961-1969, re-joined 1983), Portugal (1985), Finland (1991), Poland (1991), Czechoslovak Republic (1992), Hungary (1992), Bulgaria (1999), Israel (2014) and Romania (2016). The Czech Republic and Slovak Republic re-joined CERN after their mutual independence in 1993. Yugoslavia left CERN in 1961," according to the information provided on the CERN website.
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