Croatia

HR-OOZ consists of 21 organisations, including the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth (MSEY), the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ), all public universities, major service providers, national representatives of European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs), and other Croatian research infrastructures included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap.

One of the key activities of HR-OOZ was drafting the proposal for the national Open Science Plan, which served as the basis for the Croatian Open Science Plan adopted in 2025 by the MSEY. The Plan recognises the EOSC as the main tool for scientists and researchers, enabling them to access, share, and use research-related data and services and reduce the fragmentation of resources. In 2026, MSEY supported the application of SRCE to establish an EOSC national Node and join the EOSC Federation.

National Structure: The Croatian Open Science Cloud Initiative

In 2021, the Croatian Open Science Cloud (locally: HR-OOZ) Initiative was started to advance Open Science in Croatia. The Initiative was the result of the joint work of numerous stakeholders in the science and higher education system in Croatia. It was launched by SRCE with the support of the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Science Foundation, bringing together all public universities as well as Croatian representatives of ERICs (DARIAH-HR, HR-CLARIN, CERIC-ERIC, CROSSDA the public research data service, and the national service provider for the CESSDA ERIC), OpenAIRE NOAD, NGI and the national RDA node.

The HR-OOZ Initiative aims to achieve its objectives by building a modern, high-quality, internationally relevant, and competitive scientific environment based on the principles of Open Science aligned with and connected to the European Research Area (ERA) and other relevant European initiatives, especially the EOSC. The HR-OOZ plays an active role in promoting Croatian services and resources and onboarding them into the EOSC to become findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable at the European level. The initiative is administratively supported by SRCE.

Contact e-mail: hr-ooz@srce.hr.

The HR-OOZ Initiative aims to achieve its objectives by building a modern, high-quality, internationally relevant, and competitive scientific environment based on the principles of Open Science aligned with and connected to the European Research Area (ERA) and other relevant European initiatives, especially the EOSC. The HR-OOZ plays an active role in promoting Croatian services and resources and onboarding them into the EOSC to become findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable at the European level. The initiative is administratively supported by SRCE.