ZAGREB, January 28, 2018 – The University Computing Centre (SRCE) will continue to ensure access to the latest information and communications technologies for the Croatian academic community this year, but is facing a growing challenge of securing the necessary number of specialists, a press conference was told earlier this week.
The many systems that SRCE is developing and maintaining have tens of thousands of users and are a prerequisite for the successful functioning of the modern educational and scientific system in Croatia, SRCE director Zoran Bekić said.
One of the main projects in 2018 will be the launch of the construction of the Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO), which is conceived as common infrastructure to meet the needs of modern education and internationally relevant research and as an instrument of integration into the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area.
The project comprises computer, storage and network resources located in Osijek, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb, and the local universities, the Croatian Academic Research Network (CARNet) and the Ruđer Boskovic Institute are participating in its implementation. The HR-ZOO will be a core component of the national e-infrastructure. The project is worth 197 million kuna and should be completed by 2021.
The biggest challenge currently being faced by SRCE is finding and keeping quality staff. SRCE currently has 135 employees and lacks 15 specialists, mostly programmers, Bekić said. Another challenge is to create an open education and science community, he added.
Thanks to the absorption of money from the European Structural Fund, the SRCE budget will increase from 52 million kuna in 2017 to 92.4 million kuna in 2018.
