Working Part of the Conference Completed With the Post-Conference Activities. Companies Can Do R&D Funding From the EU

Official program of the conference was successfully completed with the round table on the EU programmes and financing: Horizon 2020 for the Field of Energy Efficiency, Biotechnology, Bioeconomy and Forestry, where relevant experts and representatives of the competent institutions were talking about possibilities of increasing the use of funds from existing programs and exchanged project ideas by networking. Marina Jurjević from the Agency for Mobility and the EU Programmes gave a brief overview of available programs within the Horizon 2020, while Hrvoje Meštrić from the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) explained the agency’s role in co-financing and implementation of R&D projects. It was pointed out that the Horizon funds are also available to the private sector, which is relatively unknown, and the public sector is seen as under-engaged in designing and applying project ideas. R&D is one of the priority areas of the Croatian Government, which has provided significant funding with the high rate of co-financing to the companies. Also, one of the highlights was the example of the successful use of EU funds by the energy agency Rea Kvarner, which is now, in the context of the Horizon 2020, implementing the project of sustainable and integrated multi-cectoral planning (SIMPLA). Remarkable presentation about R&D and EU co-financing was held by an environmental activist Vjeran Piršić.