The two-day conference, held on February 14th and 15th in Zagreb, marked the beginning of the Scinergy project, which connects companies and scientists. The project is implemented by the Nikola Tesla Innovation Center (ICENT) in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education (MZO) and the World Bank to foster stronger collaboration between industry and science to enhance the innovation and competitiveness of the Croatian economy. The conference attracted numerous representatives from the business and scientific communities, investors, and decision-makers.
“To increase the productivity growth of the Croatian economy, it is important to reduce the fragmentation of scientific institutions and the low efficiency of policies in the field of research and innovation, as well as the lack of significant results from past investments in the RDI sector. The main way to strengthen productivity is through investments in innovative solutions. The Ministry of Science and Education has secured significant additional funds – €318 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, about €342 million from the Competitiveness and Cohesion Program, and €106 million from the World Bank project for implementing programs to strengthen academic sector-industry cooperation and activities for technology and knowledge transfer. These investments will contribute to the further development of technology transfer practices as well as the development of new technologies, business innovations, and solutions that will have a positive impact on the Croatian economy and society,” said Hrvoje Meštrić, Director of the Directorate for Science and Technology at the Ministry of Science and Education.
“The field of research and development is constantly evolving, and it is crucial for Croatia to keep up with this progress, especially in areas related to artificial intelligence, digital and green transformation. Therefore, the scientific and business sectors need to collaborate to create innovations that will lead to increased productivity and competitiveness. The World Bank proudly supports the cooperation between the scientific and business communities through the innovative Scinergy initiative, to bridge the gap between companies and scientists,” emphasized Jehan Arulpragasam, World Bank Director for Croatia.
To enable companies to respond to economic challenges, it is important to build a culture of innovation, as discussed at the conference by Rajesh Chandy, Chair of Entrepreneurship at London Business School and Academic Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. “The connections made through this program between Croatian companies, faculties, and scientists open unique opportunities for creating innovations that can help not only them but the wider community as well. To take advantage of these opportunities, it is necessary to focus on the future, not just the past and present. This requires persistence, leadership, and a culture that supports collaboration, experimentation, and a willingness to take risks,” stated Chandy.
“Such projects are generally important for society and for us individually as the Innovation Centre Nikola Tesla. They are important for society because there is great potential in connecting scientists with industry and working on various development projects. We have excellent experts in science on one side, and excellent companies, even world leaders, on the other. The Innovation Centre Nikola Tesla can be the structure that encourages both sides. We can encourage scientists to talk about their expertise and available technology and the industry to talk about their needs, and help them find each other, start communicating, and ultimately launch new projects,” said Matija Srbić, project manager of Scinergy ’24 and program coordinator of Nuqleus.
In Croatia, the culture of innovation is still developing. “The high turnout and innovative ideas from the registered companies show that the Scinergy project is needed and that there is a high openness to innovation. The selected companies have great potential to realize their innovative ideas with the selected scientists, and we look forward to the intensive two-month collaboration ahead. Each pair will receive a personalized approach, and through the entire process, from validation and development of the business idea, through legal support to directing towards funding sources, they will be guided for free by ICENT experts,” said Darko Huljenić, Director of the FER Innovation Center Nikola Tesla
How to establish cooperation among companies and scientists was shared by Hrvoje Pandžić, Head of the Department of High Voltage and Energy at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, while experts from the Ministry of Science and Education, HBOR, HAMAG-BICRO, EDIH CROBOHUB++, and AI4Health.Cro informed participants about the possibilities for funding such cooperation. For example, some of the companies in the Scinergy project will be able to use scientific equipment and laboratories for free to test technology before investing and bringing it to market. The conference also included a panel discussion on the topic “On the Border Between Science and Industry,” featuring Vedran Bilas, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb; David Smith, Director of the Ruđer Bošković Institute; Miroslav Kantolić, Executive Board Member of Ericsson Nikola Tesla and Vice President of HUP-ICT; and Gordan Kreković, Executive Director of Visage Technologies.
The first day of the conference continued with presentations from startups of previous Nuqleus generations, initiated by researchers and students from FER, the Ruđer Bošković Institute, PMF, the Institute of Physics, FSB, and the Medical Faculty, collectively raising over €800,000 in investments and grants for their projects. These include Green Energy Pal, CyberArrange, Arkensight (Thorondrone), KalphaTech, Cyclops, and Emhance.
The second day of the conference included Value Discovery workshops for scientists and companies connected through speed dating on the first day, and Design Thinking for startups of the new Nuqleus generation and their mentors.
This is a global pilot project of the World Bank and partners London Business School (LBS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with funding provided by the European Union. Croatia will thus serve as an example for the project to be adapted for the most successful global application. We are extremely pleased with the huge interest from companies and scientists in participating in the Scinergy project. The amount of positive comments and praise clearly indicates a strong need for such a project at this moment. Although this is the first project of its kind, ICENT plans to continue with similar initiatives in the future.
