Unity Through Knowledge Fund


By Ms. Elke DALL on Nov 20, 2008
Status: Public

The Unity Through Knowledge Fund (UKF) is a Croatian Programme aiming at enhancing the cooperation between the national scientists and the Croatian scientific diaspora.

Brain drain or large emigration of scientists and individuals with technical skills or knowledge is one of the most prominent problems of countries in the framework of a globalised economy. Especially affected are countries like Croatia, which are not able to invest heavily in science and technology and lacking large-scale scientific equipment and infrastructure. Brain drain is not only a problem of scientific and cultural development, but usually it is regarded as an economic cost. Therefore, the national government tries to cope with this problem by creating various programmes to encourage the scientific diaspora to return home or to cooperate with domestic scientists.
Following this line, the Croatian Government launched the Unity Through Knowledge Fund (UKF), a program established in the framework of the Science and Technology Project (STP) that is co-financed by the World Bank Loan.

The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports holds the general responsibility for the implementation and coordination of the UKF and the STP. Its mission is to unite scientific and professional potential in Croatia and and the diaspora aiming at the development of a knowledge-based society following the motto:
CONNECTIVITY, COOPERABILITY, and CREATIVITY.

The initial idea for establishing this fund resulted from the First Congress of Croatian Scientists from the Homeland and Abroad, held in Zagreb and Vukovar, from November 15 to 19, 2004.
At the congress, more than 500 scientists discussed the future of Croatian science and signed a Declaration of Congress, which clearly states that “brain drain is simultaneously one of the greatest threats to countries as is Croatia and one of the greatest gifts that any country can give to the world, can be transformed from a disease into a cure for the homeland.”
The goals of the fund are as follows:
■ Supporting research that is competitive on an international level by financing two types of projects – those that attract experts and investments to Croatia and those that enable the cooperation in European and other projects;
■ Fostering research that creates new values for the Croatian economy by the development of innovations, patents, commercial and other applications of scientific results and support to the investments made by the business sector into scientific projects;
■ Supporting projects that help the development of research infrastructure in Croatia through the cooperation with the diaspora.Its main focus lies on financing and supporting research projects, the advancement of young researchers (post-doctorate and early-stage), short-term visits – mobility, long-term visits – appointment, research equipment, conferences / lectures, entrepreneurial activity based on a high technology, consulting and the development of research infrastructure.

The UKF provides the grants through a number of different UKF Grants schemes
OVERVIEW OF THE UKF GRANTS:

  • Homeward Grant
  • Crossing Borders Grant
  • Gaining Experience Grant
  • Homeland Visit Grant
  • My First Research Topic Grant
  • Reintegration Grant
  • Research in Industry Grant
  • Innovation Grant (in preparation)
  • IPR Protection Grant (in preparation)

The Croatian government plans to increase investments into the R&D sector, to restructure the scientific system in order to make the investments more efficient, to strengthen the cooperation between science, the government and the industry in the creation of new knowledge and goods, and to increase the participation of its researchers and organizations in the European Framework Programmes. The UKF is one of the means for achieving these goals. Its efficiency is already obvious in the fact that dozens of researchers already have returned to Croatia and preparations are made for more to come.
Information about the UKF are available at: http://www.ukf.hr/default.aspx

Authors:

Juraj Perkovi´c  http://www.wbc-inco.net/users/3021.html
Jadranka Švarc  http://www.wbc-inco.net/users/966.html
Ivo Pilar  http://www.wbc-inco.net/organisation/967.html

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