16/12/2024
Croatia is getting its first centre of excellence funded under the prestigious European Union program Horizon Europe Teaming! “CoE MARBLE - Centre of Excellence in Maritime Robotics and Technologies for Sustainable Blue Economy” is a project coordinated and founded by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER) and partners the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the National Research Council of Italy with the Institute of marine engineering (Cnr-Inm), Ruder Bošković Institute, Maritime Innovation Cluster, DIH Agrifood Croatia, and the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the republic of Croatia.
In addition to investing in excellent researchers in the field of maritime robotics and technologies from around the world, the infrastructure investments will include the headquarters of the CoE MARBLE at the premises of the Brodarski institut and three pilot sites in Šibenik and Rijeka: a smart mussel farm, a smart marina, and a maritime autonomous vehicles and environmental monitoring testing site in Šibenik. The MARBLE Centre of Excellence has been selected to receive funding of 30 million euros in a competitive evaluation process that lasted almost a year and a half.
“The strategic vision of the MARBLE Centre of Excellence is to put Croatia on the map of excellence in research and innovation by becoming a European beacon and role model in the field of marine robotics and technology, focusing on key research areas that have the greatest impact on blue sectors of the economy that are aligned with the Smart Specialization Strategy of Croatia”, emphasized the project leader Prof. Nikola Mišković, PhD.
“FER once again takes on the role of a technological leader in Croatia and will reduce the gap in the regional development of Croatia with this visionary project, the MARBLE Centre of Excellence, in cooperation with partners covering the entire quadruple helix of the Croatian blue economy ecosystem”, said Dean of UNIZG-FER, Prof. Vedran Bilas, PhD.
The project financing the establishment of the MARBLE Centre of Excellence will start on January 1st, 2025, with a duration of six years. Half of the funding comes from the Horizon Europe program, while the other half is provided by the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Program. More than 50 experts are expected to be employed, with significant investments planned for infrastructure and equipment. The opening ceremony of the project is scheduled for early February 2025. The high level of competition in the awarding of grants under the Teaming for Excellence call was also reported by the European Research Executive Agency (REA). In the previous call, REA evaluated 115 project proposals, awarding only 12 grant agreements with a total value of 180 million euros.
Per informazioni:
Petra Skaberna
Head of Public Relations UNIZG-FER
pr@fer.hr