Upgrades for the University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is Croatia’s largest, and one of the oldest in central Europe. The university population includes over 70 000 students, and engineering is the biggest among 29 faculties. The EU-funded INTEGRA-LIFE (Integrating research in molecular life sciences at the University of Zagreb) project integrated and reinforced the University’s molecular life sciences profile. Drawing from multiple faculties and departments, the consortium fostered the University’s most prominent research groups working on the subject. INTEGRA-LIFE was not intended to produce commercial results. Instead, the project developed research potential. EU support took the form of significant investment in equipment and staff. The project also supported researcher networking. Such outcomes improved the ability of the University to participate in, and lead, large international collaborations, including several Horizon 2020 and other European Research Area (ERA) projects. Purchased equipment included systems for analysis of glycomes, epigenetics, microbial growth and macromolecular interactions. Other investments supported high-performance computing. All equipment has been made functional and used to improve research potential. The project also recruited 13 experienced and 3 young researchers. The recruited individuals represented 14 technical specialisations related to the field of molecular life sciences. In addition, INTEGRA-LIFE supported 53 secondments and 91 short visits to other significant research institutions. The project further organised three summer schools, five workshops and one practical course. Team members recorded a total of 126 separate participations in the project’s four conferences. Thanks to the project-supported improvements, the Croatian Ministry of Science and the National Research Council approved the application to become one of 13 national centres of scientific excellence. The quality of research has also substantially improved, measured by the prestige and impact of journals in which the research has been published. Furthermore, the team’s international visibility has also improved, as shown by a key researcher being elected 2015-2017 President of the International Glycoconjugate Organization. As intended, the INTEGRA-LIFE project improved the research capacity of the University of Zagreb’s various molecular biology groups. Such improvement is expected to help the institution continue contributing to the field long into the future.
Keywords
University of Zagreb, molecular biology, INTEGRA-LIFE, molecular life sciences, research potential