The conference opened with an inspiring keynote speech by Professor Marcel Tanner, former President of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, on the contribution of research to reducing social and economic disparities.
Professor Ozren Polašek, Director of the Croatian Science Foundation, said at the conference: "The cooperation with Switzerland was excellent. The joint work with the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF showed us a lot about the culture of science funding and the monitoring of joint grants."
In his speech, Swiss Ambassador Urs Hammer spoke about how important scientific cooperation is for Switzerland and pointed out that Switzerland is still excluded from the Horizon Europe programme.
This conference marks the end of the research programs under the Swiss enlargement contribution. New initiatives under the second Swiss contribution are currently being developed, in particular a call which will fund research collaborations amongst researchers from a number of EU Countries (including Croatia) and Switzerland. Programs in the health, civic engagement and water sectors will also be supported.