Pursuant to the decision by the Ministry of Science and Education, the Croatian Science Foundation has been included in the national system of support for the implementation of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon Europe and two HRZZ employees have been appointed as National Contact Points (NCP) – Dr Milan Čanković, PhD as NCP for European Research Council Programmes (ERC) and Tanja Lukanović for European Innovation Council and European Innovation Ecosystems.

The NCP’s role is to inform and guide applicants to calls within Horizon Europe and to provide individualised support throughout the project cycle.

European Research Council

The ERC’s mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence. The ERC funds curiosity-driven and bottom-up research, thus enabling researchers to recognise new opportunities in any research field.

As a reminder, HRZZ has been implementing the Programme “Support to Researchers for Applying to ERC Programmes” since 2017. This Programme funds research visits of Croatian applicants to Principal Investigators of ERC-funded projects for a period between 1 and 6 months. As of mid-2023, this Call is open permanently.

Potential applicants to ERC calls are invited to contact Dr Čanković at milan@hrzz.hr.

European Innovation Council and European Innovation Ecosystems

The European Innovation Council supports top innovators, entrepreneurs and small enterprises. The Council of Europe uses this instrument to support entrepreneurs with a high potential for developing high-risk and breakthrough innovations which can affect the development of new markets, generate new jobs and support growth and prosperity in Europe. Entrepreneurs can receive support in the form of grants as well as a combined funding scheme (grants in combination with capital investment). European innovation ecosystems are a specific part of Horizon Europe’s Pillar III, whose objective is to connect regional and national innovation actors at the EU level by supporting trans-national and inter-regional innovation programmes of EU Member States, regions and associated members.

Potential applicants to EIC calls are invited to contact Mrs Lukanović at tanja@hrzz.hr.