200 million kuna for the procurement of a supercomputer for scientific purposes

On Wednesday, a contract was ceremoniously signed at the Ministry of Science and Education for the allocation of nearly 200 million kuna in non-repayable funds from EU funds for the procurement of a supercomputer that will be used for top scientific research and data collection.

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As part of the project “Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO)”, a supercomputer will be procured that is ten to twenty times more powerful than existing capacities in Croatia. It will be distributed in four cities: Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, and Split, and will be used for scientific research and data collection necessary for a leap into modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence and big data, it was stated during the ceremony.

“Science must be competitive, fast, and visible,” emphasized the Minister of Science and Education, Blaženka Divjak, adding that the project ensures the necessary infrastructure for this.

Investing in science is the best possible investment, especially considering that jobs will change in the future and that new technologies will bring new professions and jobs, Divjak emphasized.

The project will enable scientific and higher education institutions in Croatia to focus on the development of their activities, research projects, and achieving excellence, said State Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union Funds, Spomenka Đurić.

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The project is led by the University Computing Centre of the University of Zagreb (Srce), which will, in collaboration with the J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, the University of Rijeka, the University of Split, and the University of Zagreb, build a computing and data cloud over three years, which will be a fundamental component of the national research and innovation e-infrastructure.

The value of the project is 196.8 million kuna, and it is co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Operational Program “Competitiveness and Cohesion.”