ZAGREB, February 17, 2019 -The Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) has a 58% portion of female researchers, which is why it is above the European Union and global average when it comes to the share of female researchers, the Zagreb-based Institute reported when International Day of Women and Girls in Science was observed on 11 February.

This year, the theme for that day was "Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Growth".

"At present, less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 - 2016), only around 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female students’ enrolment is particularly low in ICT (3 per cent), natural science, mathematics and statistics (5 per cent) and in engineering, manufacturing and construction (8 per cent)," according to the information available on the United Nations' website.

"Science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Yet women and girls continue to be excluded from participating fully in science"

The main Croatian science institute says that it has a total of 880 employees, and of them 427 have PhD degrees, including 246 women (58%). Also, there are a total of 11 heads of departments and four are women (36%), and when it comes to the heads of laboratories, gender equality is balanced (50% to 50%).

Of the three assistant directors of the RBI institute, two are women.

The European Union's statistical office Eurostat provided data for 2017 about gender equality in science and in that year, 59% of researchers and engineers in the EU were men and 41% were women.

In Croatia, according to the Eurostat figures, the share of women in the science and research field is 48%.

More news on the Ruđer Bošković Institute can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 10, 2019 - A donation of 127,000 kuna (17,000 euro) raised during last year's Terry Fox Run charity event was formally presented to the Ruđer Bošković Institute's Laboratory for Hereditary Cancer at a ceremony in Zagreb on Saturday.

The formal presentation of the donation was organised by the Croatian Cancer Society and the Sveti Juraj Association of Cancer Patients as part of events marking the 25th anniversary of the World Day of the Sick.

The donation will be used by the Ruđer Bošković Institute's Laboratory for Hereditary Cancer for analysis of mutation profiles of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to help in future therapeutic protocols.

Over 2,500 new cases of breast cancer are registered in Croatia annually, of which 200 are of a hereditary nature.

In the last 19 years, the international charity campaign the Terry Fox Run has attracted over 100,000 participants in Croatia. Last September, over 5,000 citizens joined the event at Zagreb's Lake Jarun, organisers said, thanking all the people who supported this charity effort with donations or in other ways.

The Terry Fox Run was organised, among others, by the Canadian Embassy in Croatia and the Croatian Cancer Society under the auspices of the President of the Republic, the Ministries of Health and Science, the State Office for Sport, and the Mayor of Zagreb.

This non-competitive event is organised every year in honour of Canadian athlete Terry Fox, who lost a leg to cancer. In order to raise money for treatment, in 1980 he embarked on a run across Canada, which he called the Marathon of Hope. He ran 143 days, covering 42 km a day, but failed to finish the run because the disease came back, claiming his life at 22. In his memory, the Fox family launched a drive to raise money for the fight against cancer, which is held every year in Canada and over 60 countries across the world, including Croatia.

More news on the Ruđer Bošković Institute can be found in the Lifestyle section.

The scientists at Zagreb's Ruder Boskovic Institute are happy with their impressive developments, and the processes which follow will pave the way for the further use of their findings in the wider chemical industry.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of January, 2019, talented scientists working at the prestigious Ruder Boskovic Institute's green synthesis laboratory, the so-called ''green chemists'' Stipe Lukina and Ivan Halasz Ph.D., in cooperation with their colleagues from the European Synchrotron in Grenoble (ESFR), have managed to develop some brand new instruments designed for studying mechanochemical processes, thus opening up the path for their faster application in the chemical industry.

In layman's terms, these new processes are based on X-ray diffraction, and for the very first time, the newly developed method has enabled chemical reactions to be detected during trituration. The latest results have already been published in two highly respected scientific papers; one in Chemical Communications, and the other in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The Ruder Boskovic Institute's scientists stated that thanks to these developments, they have managed to explain some of the features of mechanochemical reactions when they resemble reactions in solutions.

The use of isotopically labeled solids, coupled with spectroscopic methods, showed up what was previously ''hidden'' chemical reactivity.

In yet another display of Croatian talent which stretches across the board, from sport to the arts, to medicine and science, the praiseworthy work done by the scientists from Zagreb's Ruder Boskovic Institute has been properly recognised by the wider academic community and is currently in the top five percent of all published works in the world according to the sheer level of interest it has attracted since its initial publication.

Make sure to stay up to date with our dedicated Made in Croatia and lifestyle pages for much more.

Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik

ZAGREB, December 5, 2018 - The project "Using synergy to achieve excellence in the research and development of detectors, sensors and electronics" is the first successfully completed structural project in Croatia, finished in a record-short period of six months, which was marked with a ceremony inaugurating the Centre for Detectors, Sensors and Electronics at Zagreb's Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) on Wednesday.

The primary goal of the project was to promote, in a synergy with the project "Expanding Potential in Particle and Radiation Detectors, Sensors and Electronics in Croatia" (PaRaDeSEC), financed within the Horizon 2020 programme, the IRB's existing research infrastructure for the research, development and testing of detectors, sensors and related electronics, said IRB director David Matthew Smith.

He noted that this was the first successfully completed project in Croatia that was financed as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds in the amount of 1.5 million kuna.

Smith said the project was of great importance for the further planning of investments in science through the Operational Programme "Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020".

Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak, who attended the inauguration ceremony, said that promoting excellence and innovation was one of her ministry's four important strategic goals in the current period. She noted that "promotion of excellence... seems easy on paper, but the required change of the system actually requires everyone involved in that system to change."

The minister said the project was a good example of how the Horizon 2020 programme, which is mostly oriented to science and excellence, can be linked with cohesion policies, which help develop countries that lag behind in any sector.

She thanked the project team, headed by Neven Šoić, for identifying that link and making it possible to complete the project in record-short time.

The project has made it possible to procure a large number of instruments important for research, as well as remodelling laboratories, thus creating controlled conditions of cleanliness, temperature and air humidity, improving the stability of electric systems and reducing the level of electronic noise, said Šoić.

For the latest science news from Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, October 13, 2018 - The structural project "Open scientific infrastructural platforms for innovative applications in the economy and society" (O-ZIP) is a key part of the development strategy of Zagreb's Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) that will make this leading Croatian research institution a 21st century institute, it was said at a presentation of the project on Friday.

The subject is interdisciplinary research in which Croatian scientists have combined cell biology and genetics with theoretical physics and the most advanced techniques of microscopy.

ZAGREB, March 17, 2018 - As part of his visit to Croatia, the President of the European Research Council (ERC) Jean-Pierre Bourguignon visited Zagreb's Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) where he was informed in detail about two ERC projects being conducted by IRB researchers Iva Tolić and Ana Sunčana Smith as project leaders.

ZAGREB, February 23, 2018 - Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca will pay a two-day visit to Croatia at the beginning of next week, at the invitation of her Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Croatian President's Office announced on Friday.

ZAGREB, February 22, 2018 - A new unique multi-disciplinary centre for marine bioprospecting in the Adriatic Sea, called BioProCro, was officially opened on Thursday at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) and this will be the venue for research by internationally recognised research groups in the fields of chemical and biological diversity, microbiology and ecology.

Some say this will be the most complex device in human history.