Research and Development Policies in the Southeast European Countries in Transition: Republic of Croatia

Annex

In the 20th century, organized research work became a necessary precondition for the development of science throughout the world. Universities and research institutes enabled researchers to work together to exchange experiences, and above all, to practice scientific critique as a basis for the development of science. In Croatia, this trend assumed significant proportions in the period after World War II. Institutionalization enabled the formation of the critical mass of researchers in particular scientific fields (nuclear physics, biomedical sciences, environmental studies). It also made possible the development of multidisciplinary research, thus creating the preconditions for complex research projects and for the emergence of new interdisciplines that went beyond the framework of traditional disciplinary fields. This was true equally in the social sciences and the humanities and in the natural and engineering sciences.

The scientific infrastructure developed in parallel with this trend and proved particularly important in the natural sciences and technical-technological disciplines.

Developing within the given political system and framework, Croatia – as a scientifically peripheral country – followed that trend in its research centres, adopting in particular the American model for natural science and technical/technological research, while maintaining, at the level of the university, and especially in social sciences and the humanities, the heritage of the Central European (German) model based on Humboldt’s principles and ideas. This organizational dichotomy, though rarely explicit, led to the increasing rift in the value systems of these two categories of institutions. The division became particularly acute in the last decade of the 20th century, caused partly by inadequate funding for scientific research (even when compared with the previous period of socialist economy and socialist system of government). This resulted in the drain of best researchers, who sought jobs abroad, and in a political climate unfavourable for science and intellectual work. The critical moment came when the previously established value system disappeared, while the new system, adjusted to the competitive market economy, has not yet been developed.

It is estimated that about 60% of Croatian active researchers work in research institutions (primarily at the universities and in public institutes). According to the data published by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the number of researchers in public institutes was 790 in 1999⁷⁹.

No reliable statistics are available on the number of research papers and reports produced by the research institutions each year. For this reason, it is impossible to make significant comparisons of scientific productivity within the universities and public institutes and between them.