President Milanović Welcomes Organizers of CROSCIENCE, a Conference that is Again Uniting Leading Scientists from Croatia and Abroad
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović today received members of the Organizing Committee of the CROSCIENCE 2026 scientific conference. The event will take place from the 24th to the 25th of September 2026 in Zagreb, co-hosted by the Faculty of Science and the School of Medicine of the University of Zagreb.
Organizing Committee representatives emphasized that CROSCIENCE is not a traditional scientific congress. Instead, it serves as a platform to unite and connect the Croatian scientific community from both home and abroad, with a unique focus on fostering collaboration across different generations and disciplines. The inaugural conference was held in Rijeka in late September 2024 under the auspices of the President of the Republic and the Ministry of Science, drawing 300 participants. Organizers expect this year’s CROSCIENCE to match that turnout, welcoming approximately 300 domestic and international attendees.
The overarching goal of the 2024 initiative is to evolve CROSCIENCE into a permanent, institutionalized network for Croatian science, enabling continuous dialogue between scientists, policymakers, and the business sector. “Hosting this conference once again proves that our initiative has succeeded. We are thrilled because everything we do stems from a love for science and for Croatia,” said Academician Professor Igor Štagljar, Ph. D., from the University of Toronto, one of the co-founders and pioneers of the initiative.
The original visionaries behind CROSCIENCE also include Igor Rudan (University of Edinburgh), Nenad Ban (ETH Zurich), Ivan Đikić (Goethe University Frankfurt), Stipan Jonjić (University of Rijeka), Ivana Novak Nakir (University of Split), Iva Tolić (Ruđer Bošković Institute), and Adrijana Vinter (Selvita).
The first day of this year’s conference will review the initiative’s achievements from 2024 to 2026, highlighting concrete examples of collaboration between domestic and expatriate Croatian scientists. The second day will feature a series of panel discussions on critical topics for the development of the scientific system. These include supporting early-career researchers, funding science in Croatia, the role of science in the media and public sphere, the societal benefits of science, industry-academic collaboration, and launching biotech start-ups.
In addition to Academician Štagljar, the meeting with President Milanović was attended by members of the Organizing Committee: Academician Prof. Dr. Igor Rudan, Professor and Director of the Centre for Global Health at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and the founder and initiator of the CROSCIENCE initiative; Academician Prof. Dr. Iva Tolić, Head of the Laboratory for Cell Biophysics at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb; Dr. Adrijana Vinter, member of the Management Board of the Polish biotechnology company Selvita and Global Director of the drug discovery department; Prof. Dr. Ivančica Ternjej, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zagreb; and Prof. Dr. Martina Jakovčić, Vice-Dean for Finance and Administration of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zagreb.
President Milanović was accompanied by Jadranka Žarković, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta