May 13, 2021 - With Croatian scientists' reputation on the rise on the world stage, dr. Vernessa Smolčić is now the Croatian European Research Council (ERC) Fund Receiver. 

Croatian scientists continue to impact the European science scene. As the Faculty of Science (PMF) at the University of Zagreb reports on its website, their scientist and professor, dr. Vernesa Smolčić is one of the 10,000 receivers of non-returnable funds by the European Research Council (ERC). As PMF states, the excellence of research work is the only criteria to get these funds.

„Scientists compete in a very strong international competition in which the European Commission from the total number of applications picks up only 8-15% of the best. Projects founded by the ERC are the best researches in all of Europe, and working on ERC projects increase international recognition of the research, and cooperation with the elite global universities“, says PMF.

An online ceremony saw representatives of ERC welcoming all 10,000 receivers with particularly pointing out the top 15 who contributed to the transformation of science and research.

One of them was, you guessed it, dr. Vernessa Smolčić.

„Vernesa Smolčić studied physics at the University of Zagreb, where she is now a full professor at the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Science. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, followed by a postdoctoral position at Caltech in California, USA. In 2009, she obtained an independent ESO ALMA COFUND Fellowship from the European Southern Observatory. In 2013, she won one of the first ERC Starting Grants in Croatia“, says the ERC website.

screenshot / Astroučionica

The website also offers more details on how Smolčić (and other scientists, for that matter) made an incredible contribution in expanding human knowledge.

As Smolčić explained for the ERC website, there were more than a few unknowns in the astrophysics field due, primarily to instrumental limitations at the time. But, in 2014, „Smolčić’s team was one of the first to use new and upgraded radio telescopes in Chile, USA, Australia, and India. These telescopes offered a higher level of accuracy for tracing star formations and detecting galaxies, stretching back to when the universe was very young“, writes ERC.

„While the observation phase was very time consuming, Smolčić was immediately taken aback by the extent of the data. She was not only probing new areas of Space, but she was observing radio wavelengths that no other scientist had been able to see through a telescope lens in such detail, or for so many galaxies. Three years down the line, her team had over 850 hours of data. They analyzed and assembled datasets (radio sky mosaics, data collections) on various types of galaxies, their sources, and physical properties. These datasets were made publicly available to the broader astronomy community, to be used by other scientists to explore more of the universe’s unknowns“, concludes ERC.

„ERC funding really allowed me to conduct my research at the highest competitive levels“, said Smolčić. And you can learn more about her work in this interesting podcast.

European Research Council was established in 2007. As they say themselves, their mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence.

„The ERC complements other funding activities in Europe such as those of the national research funding agencies, and is a flagship component of Horizon Europe, the European Union's Research Framework Programme for 2021 to 2027“, they said.

Learn more about Croatian inventions & discoveries: from Tesla to Rimac on our TC page.

For more about science in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May 11, 2021 -The oldest university in Croatia is the one in Zagreb, and the best faculty at Zagreb University is the Faculty of Agriculture, according to the NTU global ranking of 800 universities worldwide.

The quality of Zagreb University, according to the global NTU ranking conducted by the National Taiwan University, is in decline. On the list of 800 Universities worldwide, Zagreb University was ranked 478th best in the world, and in recent years it was levitating between 551st and 600th place. But, as Srednja.hr reports, the overall decline of quality has an exception on that list, and it's thanks to the Faculty of Agriculture.

The Faculty is ranked to be the best at Zagreb University, and the area of agriculture on the global list is ranked between 301st and 350th place. That is the ranking of the area, but also under the criteria of research interest, the ranking is even better, 87th place, thus making it the only thing at Zagreb University to be in the top 100 on the list.

„Even though it's the oldest human occupation, agriculture today is light years away from what our grandparents know. Agriculture is part of the STEM area (‘science, technology, engineering & mathematics), and it's actually highly technological. There are several reasons why this sector so is fastly modernized. For starters, the production of food and raw ingredients to produce food is the most important human activity that will always have demand. To keep up the step with the increasing number of population, less and less arable surfaced and the increasing living standards, agriculture had to modernize significantly, and introduce newest technologies“, writes Srednja.hr.

© Sveučilište u Zagrebu Agronomski fakultet

The Agriculture Faculty in Zagreb was founded in 1919. As the Faculty's official website reports, they have over 450 employees today who are highly motivated to pass their knowledge to around 2,500 students, which they consider their greatest value that they add to society.

„By connecting with foreign universities, both from Europe and worldwide, we have international cooperation in both teaching and scientific research area, and student mobility. Successful participation in bilateral and multilateral research programs, exchanges of students, young scientists, and university lecturers, as well as securing scholarships contribute to the visibility and recognition of the Faculty on all levels“, says the Agriculture Faculty.

The Faculty's personnel annually publishes 280 scientific papers, and in the last decade, 160 active research projects are ongoing with 75% of investments coming from domestic sources and the rest from international ones. Scholarships supports, and rewards for the best students are secured through the trust fund the Faculty has.

„It's less known that the Agriculture Faculty is declared a Scientific Centre of Excellence CroP-BioDiv (for biodiversity and molecular plant breeding). It is one of the 10 scientific centers in the STEM area declared in the Republic of Croatia. CroP-BioDiv is a research network of top scientists from all over Croatia directed to the transmission of highly sophisticated knowledge and technologies“, writes Faculty's website concluding their institution is directed towards future with sustainability, quality, research encouragement, scientific excellence, and cooperation with the Croatian economy, as key strategic goals.

As Zagreb is a popular ERASMUS destination among European students because of cheap drinks, rich and vibrant party scene, The Agriculture Faculty shows that apart from partying, the Croatian capital is a place to get some actual learning done. And on a pretty high standard no less, at least when it comes to agriculture which serves as a role model to the rest of the poorly ranked University.

Agriculture is about food, and you can learn more about Croatian food (specifically, vegan and vegetarian options) on our TC page. 

For more about education in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May the 10th, 2021 - The Croatian Aircash app has been gaining inpopularity, and that will more than likely continue to occur as the app allows its users to pay only half the price of a parking ticket, which is something commonly received throughout Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the Croatian Aircash app is a revolutionary way of sending and receiving money in the Croatians sense. It cuts out paying for a large number of services by making it available in one single click and bypasses all the shortcomings of banks, from standing in linse, entering numerous pieces of information and waiting for the money to "reach" the recipient.

Avoiding all of the headache that the often outdated process in banks cause has been offered by this Croatian app, which is otherwise the very first digital wallet and the country's fastest growing fintech with more than 150,000 active users who have a monthly turnover of more than 150 million kuna.

As an electronic money institution (IES), the Croatian Aircash app is licensed by the Croatian National Bank (HNB/CNB) to operate in accordance with all laws of Croatia and the European Union. Today, they're constantly among the top three apps in their segment on the Apple AppStore and Google Play Store, and recently Aircash was recognised by Huawei Croatia with its addition to the AppGallery store, which has 500 million active users per month worldwide, which Aircash sees as a great opportunity due to the large number of Huawei users in Croatia.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the number of Aircash users who were provided with contactless payment for various services such as sending money, paying bills, parking, telecom vouchers, the top-up of ENC devices and the like was only increasing. Aircash business manager Damir Smigmator says that 2020 has shown how digital wallets are becoming more recognisable because people want fast, secure and easy payment that guarantees privacy. Research shows that the transition to digital payment methods could lead to the re-establishment of balance in the global economy. The novelty they introduced to the Croatian market is the possibility for payment at PBZ ATMs without the need for accounts held there and without cards, which proved to be a big hit.

“In the Croatian Aircash app, the user requests a payment at a PBZ ATM, after which they receive a unique code (OTP - one time password) for the payment, which they then enter at any PBZ ATM and they can then securely withdraw that money. With all these locations, payment is possible to any bank account opened in a Croatian bank with one click from the app,'' explained Smigmator. The average age of an Aircash user is around 30, and they're especially proud because their mobile wallet is also used by older people too.

The Croatian Aircash app story started back in 201, when after the original idea came to be, the development and study of often complex CNB regulations began. Just one year later, they received a license from the Payment Institution (IPP). The quality of their service was then first recognised by INA, which enabled users to send and receive money with a quick payment throughout the Republic of Croatia, which at the time, stated Smigmator, was an absolute novelty on the market.

“We've noticed some shortcomings when it comes to IPP that have started to limit us when doing business, especially in the planned entry into the EU market. We concluded that we want to offer customers across Croatia and the entire EU a better experience, so we started a change in the Electronic Money Institution (IES), which we got at the end of 2019. As we grew in terms of our business, so did our number of employees. At the moment, there are 25 of us, we're all highly educated and we like to say professional in the work we do,'' said Smigmator.

In addition to INA and PBZ, they have established cooperation with many successful companies out there on the market, in various spheres of business. The Croatian Aircash app is readily available at all petrol stations in the country (INA, Tifon), at all Tisak and iNovine kiosks, users can buy Playstation and telecom vouchers for all teleoperators in Croatia (Telemach, HT, A1, Tomato and Bonbon) and much more. It is also interesting that almost 20 percent of their users don't even live in Croatia, and most Croats who work and live abroad use Aircash to send money to their families or to pay for various bills and utilities.

Aircash is entering the EU market too, first to Germany, Austria and then to neighbouring Slovenia.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

May the 8th, 2021 - The Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka Pivovara) has released another of its creations onto the Croatian drinks market - meet Hidra UP.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the well known Zagreb Brewery has launched yet another brand new non-alcoholic drink onto the Croatian drinks market, Hidra UP. It is a refreshing drink made from orange, lemon and lime fruit juice and barley malt with very few calories, which quickly restores a person's consumed energy reserves. In addition to natural ingredients, Hidrs UP contains minerals (Mg) and vitamins (C, B6, B5, B3) that help reduce fatigue and exhaustion.

Given the ever-increasing pace of life and daily responsibilities, people rushing around trying to juggle the varying stresses of life often don't have enough time to ensure that they have a varied diet and the necessary rest. In these situations, they use every opportunity to make up for lost time. For business people, students, travellers, professional drivers and everyone else who lives the fast pace of life, the new kid on the block, or more specifically the Croatian drinks market restores their lost energy.

The Zagreb Brewery, which has become more and more well known on both the Croatian and the international scenes of late and is the leading brewery on the Croatian drinks market, continuously monitors trends and launches new products depending on the wishes and needs of consumers. After the launch of the isotonic drink Hidra ISO, the company is once again making a breakthrough on the Croatian drinks market with this new addition.

"After isotonic drinks found their consumers in the sports community, we wanted to offer a wider audience something new, something that will make their day easier and aid them in maintaining the necessary concentration. We believe that our audience will recognise the quality of this drink and that Hidra UP will soon become a favourite additional source of energy for all who need it in the dynamic pace of life,'' said Ana Sebih Pinjuh, the Zagreb Brewery's marketing director.

For more on Croatian drinks and everything else created in this country, follow Made in Croatia.

May 7, 2021 - Last month, The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography had a presentation in Velika Gorica regarding the newly published book on all things Turopolje.

The ever-fascinating region of Turopolje, not so far from Zagreb, as the largest city of the region is Velika Gorica (connected by Zagreb with a regular public service bus) earlier this month good a book that gives an overview of every knowledge collected about Turopolje. Or in a noun: a lexicon.

As The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography informs on its website, the end of April saw the presentation of the latest work in the edition of the Institute in Velika Gorica.

In respect to the epidemiological measures, the presentation was held among a limited number of journalists and attendees. Nina Obuljen Koržinek, the minister of culture was present along with the mayor of Velika Gorica Krešimir Ačkar, and the head if Miroslav Krleža Insitute, Bruno Kragić. The county ruler of the noble county of Turopolje Mladen Klemenčić was present too and talked about the book. Katja Matković Mikulčić, the headmistress of Velika Gorica City Library and a co-editor of the lexicon, had an opening speech.

The accompanying culture program saw an actor and singer Adam Končić recite poems by Krleža (a famous Croatian writer, poet, publicist, and encyclopedist the Institute was named after) and pupils from Franje Lučić Art School that sing with the back-up of Krešimir Starčević that followed the notes of a famous conductor from Turopolje Franjo Lučić (the inspiration for the name of the art school).

As usual, the Institute was determined to gather as a wider circle of associates as possible, especially the authors. Some of the authors are individuals from heritage, educational, and cultural institutions, but researchers from specific scientific areas and noted publicists contributed to the book as well.

„The project started with the overwhelming support of the City of Velika Gorica, the central administration unit of Turopolje, and the cooperation contract was signed in 2018. With its concept and graphics, this lexicon continues the previous editions of the Lexicography Institute, which focuses on individual Croatian regions (Istria, Croatian Zagorje) or towns (Zagreb)“, the Institute's website quotes the foreword of the book.

When it comes to history, science, and art, museums are great institutions to learn more. You can learn more about museums in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about science in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May 6, 2021 - Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute celebrates its 30th birthday in 2021, and they recently opened a branch office on Vis Island.

The end of April saw the Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute, named after Ivo Pilar, a researcher and a publicist whose work immensely influenced social and humanistic science scenes in Croatia- open a branch office in the City of Vis on Vis Island.

Head of the Institute dr. Željko Holjevac, the head of the new Center Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan, and Vis mayor Ivo Radica were the speakers at the official opening.

„I'm glad that, after Vern University left Vis, that the academic community is back to the City of Vis, to the Island of Vis, our most distant habituated island. We hope that through the Institute we will be able to use all the benefits of the Institute especially in the demographic development of the city and that we as politician try to take a better direction to put our most distant island on the position it deserves“, said mayor Radica on the opening ceremony.

He added that the negotiations for opening the research centre were practically concluded in five minutes.

Dr. Željko Holjevac stated that the idea of establishing the Centre was years in the making, but the position of science and other problems and crisis blocked the idea from turning to reality. However, Vis was once a very good place for science in Croatia.

„Every two years we hosted a science conference on Mediterranian here on Vis, and it received worldwide attention. From every continent, there was a scientist with interest in Mediterranean attending“, said Holjevac referring to the Mediterranean Islands Conference, whose last event took place on September 2020.

With Zagreb, Split, Osijek, and Rijeka being known as the centers of both science and education, Holjevac added that bringing science to smaller communities is vital for the country.

„When we talk about development, sustainable development, or an island development, that is unimaginable without science. If we want the society of knowledge, we need to bring science closer and not work on the distance“, concluded Holjevac.

The new Centre is located at the address Šetalište Viški Boj 13 next to the Memorial Collection of a famous Croatian writer Ranko Marinković.

30 Years of Ivo Pilar Insitute

As the Institute's website reports, the Institute was established on November 26, 1991. Going through some legal changes which renamed him from the Institute For Applied Social Research of Zagreb Universit to the current name, and also shifting it from the University of Zagreb to the foundation of the Republic of Croatia – the Institute turns 30 years of existence in 2021.
In that honour, the Institute announced to do several actions:

-To publish the first edition of critical translation for the book „South Slavic (Yugoslav) Question“ by Ivo Pilar from 1918.
-Make and publish Pilar's Kaleidoskop of Croatian society.
-Organise themed lectures in branch offices of the Institute.
-Promote projects, scientific and professional activities of employees.
-Organise Sabbatical journeys (pending on epidemiological situation).
-Publish jubilee issue of „Social Research And Pilar“ magazine.
-Visit the grave of dr. Ivo pilar on Mirogoj cemetery (on Pilar's 88th death anniversary on September 3, 2021).
-Organise scientific conference in Vukovar in early November

And last but not least, to have a celebratory meeting on November 26, the exact date of the 30th birthday of the Institute.

If you also have an interest in social questions, you can learn more about religion, politics, education & diversity in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about science in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May the 6th, 2021 - Brac stone, famous both inside and outside of the Republic of Croatia, could find itself more regularly placed on the demanding US market thanks to an ambitious plan.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the end of bankruptcy proceedings for the Brac-based Jadrankamen occurred back at the end of January and the official transfer to the ownership of the American MRC Rock & Sand from California, owned by the Croatian emigrant Mile Grbic, was finalised. The move is rapidly turning in the direction of development, with emphasis on achieving the very first goals.

The backbone of the aforementioned move consists of the vision of this US-based entrepreneur to bring Jadrankamen, and as such the famous Brac stone, to the level of a global brand, with his American company which has an established business through clients and numerous contacts obviously helping this Croatian acquisition in terms of perspective and market penetration for Brac stone and other such products. Among the activities with which they immediately started, the renovation of production halls and the installation of solar panels is visible.

This project is a link with the ports in Slit and Ploce for container traffic and is important for strengthening the export business because large placements of Brac stone on the US market are planned. On the expected wave of changes in the chain of steps to a turnaround in business, plans are being made for significant capacity expansion, which will mean possible new employment, while strategically it will be important to increase revenues as soon as possible to service existing liabilities. After recapitalisation with a massive 45 million kuna, Grbic's company undertook the responsibility to pay 103 million to creditors.

According to insiders, under this new leadership, Jadrankamen will almost immediately strive for significantly higher revenues than those generated by the continuation of production in bankruptcy (about 30 million kuna). It seems that they aren't going to have a problem with an annual income of around 10 million euros, last realised about 15 years ago, before the problems that caused the company to end up in the deep and unpleasant waters of bankruptcy.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

April the 30th, 2021 - Croatian Genox products have gained a lot of attention both on the domestic and the international scene over the last year or so despite their 20 years of business, with a particular emphasis being placed on their importance as the coronavirus pandemic emerged.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, after two years of effort and testing, Croatian Genox, a company which deals with the development of environmentally friendly disinfectants and cleaners, has gained recognition in the form of a halal certificate.

On Wednesday, a certificate ceremony was held at the company's headquarters in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, and as their business during the pandemic increased dramatically, did demand, Genox will soon start working on a new plant in Pleternica, the hometown of the company's founder - Marijana Cisko.

Genox is otherwise the largest Croatian manufacturer of ecological disinfectants and cleaners, they have been producing them for almost 20 years, and their users are households, shops, factories, farms, hospitals, the police, and those workig in civil protection. As previously mentioned, the disinfectant business has exploded ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck, and now the Croatian Genox company is hoping for more exports to countries where halal certification is required.

“Genox meets all the rigorous criteria for being declared a halal product, starting with the fact that it doesn't contain a single molecule of alcohol. We simply don't use it and that's our biggest advantage. There are many benefits, our products are safe, they aren't explosive, nor are they flammable, they don't evaporate so they don't need special protection measures in handling,'' pointed out molecular biology engineer Marijana Cisko who runs this family business in Velika Gorica.

Genox disinfectant is produced with a special, protected Aquagen technology and undertakes thirteen steps of physico-chemical procedures based on activated water ions, and the founder and director are responsible for this entirely Croatian piece of innovation.

Croatian Genox disinfectant successfully destroys microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, fungi, molds, algae, spores and biofilm, and due to its harmlessness and efficiency it was used by divers during the tragic floods in Slavonia back in 2014, with many taking showers in Genox after emerging from flood water which likely contained harmful pathogens.

Earlier on, all these benefits were noticed by buyers from Muslim countries, and their interest rose sharply during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I believe that this certificate will open many doors for us that will remain inaccessible to the vast majority whose disinfectants are mostly alcoholic. We expect increased exports to the markets of the region, primarily Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also to some more remote one,'' stated the director of the company.

The certificate was handed over to the company by Aldin Dugonjic, who heads the Centre for Halal Quality Certification at the Islamic Community in Croatia, and the chief supervisor of halal quality, Muhamed Mandzic.

"According to the latest research, companies in Croatia increase the export of their products by up to 50 percent after obtaining a halal certificate. Taking into account the rapid growth and development of the halal market, our expectations for Croatian Genox products are high, but they clearly depend on sales and marketing activities in the market,'' said Aldin Dugonjic.

He stated that in the decade of the Centres existence, they have issued more than 150 certificates, and in the database of companies with a halal certificate, the food industry is the most represented, followed by caterers and then the chemical industry.

It's also worth mentioning that the TLK Group, which also includes Genox as a company, has started building a new factory in the Pleternica Business Zone, in which they plan to invest around 40 million kuna. The factory will be built in two to three years and will employ about 30 people. In the first phase, the factory itself will be built, which is an investment worth 25 million kuna, then a research laboratory and finally an administrative building will follow.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

April the 27th, 2021 - The Zagreb IT company Q, one of the fastest growing such companies about which much has been written in recent times, has gone one step further with their developments and have come up with something innovative for the medical field.

As Novac writes, one of the fastest growing European IT enterprises, the Zagreb IT company Q, has recently developed a futuristic product for the medical field. It is a software solution that helps a donated kidney find its suitable recipient more easily and more quickly. More specifically, according to the company's statement on the topic, the application should determine in advance whether the new host will be able to receive a particular organ before the organ is actually transplanted, all with the aim of fully unleashing the potential of each donated organ before the procedure takes place.

About 15-20 percent of donated organs across the world end up never being re-used because there are no tools to thoroughly analyse them or their potential in a new body. That is why the Zagreb IT company Q has developed the Accunea Transplant Monitor application for the English company Accunea, which will help in organ transplantation and work on increasing the number of successful operations in this sense. The application, which is still in its conceptual phase, will soon be tested in one of the most prestigious London hospitals.

"With the help of this application, nephrologists will be able to remotely monitor key biochemical data and save human lives in time. It's the first such concept made with human organs in mind which is a revolutionary step in healthcare. We're very happy to have the opportunity to work on global projects that affect the well-being of people,'' said Filip Ljubic, the CEO of the Zagreb IT company Q.

The technology itself works by placing sensors connected to an Arduino device on an organ set to be transplanted in a sterile environment, which read three values ​​- creatinine, glucose and lactate, as well as their oscillations. Such a principle makes it possible to monitor that particular organ's functions in real time via Bluetooth. The London-based biotech company Accunea is otherwise engaged in analytical medicine, and this new application will be used primarily in kidney transplantation procedures in the future.

This is just one of the recent successes of this Croatian IT company. Last year, Q was named as one of the Top 20 best development companies in the world by the world's leading IT company ranking agency, and it also won the award for the best employer in Croatia.

The Zagreb-based enterprise already has extensive biotech experience and has enjoyed close cooperation with prestigious biotech clients from Switzerland, Germany and the United States of America. They currently have over 190 experts working for them, and their plan is to hire about 100 more over the next year, their statement concluded.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

April the 25th, 2021 - The Croatian SIMORA (Sisak-Moslavina County Development Agency) has gone from strength, and with award and enormous investments to boast of, it seems that the sky is the limit for the agency.

"The concept you came up with in Croatia related to the gaming industry is brilliant, and it should be followed!" was an important message stated as the Croatian SIMORA accepted the award for the best European development agency in 2020 from the president of the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA), Roberta DallOlio. At the same time, this is the first award to have ever gone to a Croatian agency.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, at the online award ceremony, the award was accepted from the PISMO business incubator by the director of the Croatian SIMORA, Mario Celan, who has since announced an investment worth 50 million euros in the Campus gaming industry. It regards a project that has gone through all of the necessary procedures, he explained, and is now facing a decision at the next session of the Croatian Government regarding funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

"The new project is coming as the second step in our development, and it's so big that it will, in fact, make us, its initiators, even bigger and more recognisable in the upcoming period in terms of encouraging entrepreneurial activities in IT and new generations," announced Celan.

In his review of the award for 2020, he pointed out the following: "We'd remember the year 2020 as the coronavirus-dominated year in which we were destroyed by the earthquake, but for SIMORA, we're going to remember it as the year in which we were the best.''

After renovating and equipping two abandoned buildings in Novska with European Union money, they opened their doors to the very first startups, and today there are as many as 49 of them present there, Celan noted, who are busy creating video games in one of the most modern places in all of Europe before sending them out to the global market.

“But before entering the world of entrepreneurship, we educate the people who come here on how to go about things. At the same time, we provide the youngest children in kindergartens with free English language lessons, we educate primary school students about the world of video games from the point of view of the manufacturers, while we also invented a new high school course for high school students. We offered six-month training sessions to unemployed people, so they can learn the basics of programming and graphic processing and they receive a salary for all of those six months, after which the student is ready to make a video game on their own. More than 150 people from all over Croatia have undergone such training,'' pointed out Celan, adding that startups that come to their incubator have offices at their disposal, as well as various machines.

According to him, such advanced technology transformed Sisak-Moslavina County into a modern region, thus becoming the centre of the Croatian gaming industry, while the award received by the Croatian SIMORA actually rewarded "the way of developing the region and employing young people, educating them in creating video games, offering them mentoring in order to make it as easy as possible for them to enter entrepreneurial waters, providing them with support to their start-ups and to enabling them to use state-of-the-art facilities and equipment in the PISMO business incubator,''

During the same online ceremony, the work of three agencies, two from Spain and one from Turkey, were also praised for the practices they have introduced in their own respective regions, and a round table was held.

For more on Croatian innovation, check out Made in Croatia.