- Published : 21.07.2026.
Director Meštrić Participated in the Informal Meeting of Research Ministers in Dublin
During the first policy debate, “One Europe, One Market: Achieving a Single Market for Knowledge, Research and Innovation”, ministers and representatives of the Member States exchanged views on the actions needed to ensure the free movement of knowledge, researchers and innovation and remove barriers to a genuine European Research and Innovation Area.
Director-General Meštrić stressed that Europe's challenge is no longer generating excellent research, but turning scientific excellence into innovation, competitiveness and economic growth. He emphasised that the future Framework Programme, the European Competitiveness Fund, together with the forthcoming European Innovation Act, should provide the right framework by strengthening the entire innovation chain, enabling the scale-up of innovative companies and reducing barriers. He also highlighted the importance of strengthening researcher mobility, ensuring equal access to European funding and research infrastructures, and maintaining a strong Widening component. Furthermore, he underlined that better alignment of European and national priorities should build on the active involvement of Member States while respecting the diversity of national research systems. In this context, Croatia is already translating European objectives into national policy through strategic initiatives supporting research-based innovation, collaboration between academia and industry, and advanced experimentation and prototyping.
The second policy debate, “One Europe, One Market: Boosting our Innovation Performance”, focused on the effectiveness of existing support instruments for research-based innovation in strengthening the valorisation and commercialisation of research results, as well as on examples of successful cooperation between the public sector, researchers, industry and investors in fostering innovation.
Director -General Meštrić highlighted that existing European instruments, particularly Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Council and European Partnerships, already provide a strong foundation for strengthening innovation. He added that the priority should be to strengthen coherence and complementarity between these instruments, rather than creating new ones, in order to create a clearer pathway from research to market.
He also presented Croatia's initiatives aimed at strengthening research valorisation and innovation, including the DIGIT project, the development of the National Guidelines for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, and the establishment of the Register of Technology Transfer Offices. As an example of successful cooperation between academia, research organisations and industry, he highlighted the Croatian Competence Centre for Semiconductors. In conclusion, he stressed that continued investment in excellent fundamental research remains the foundation of Europe's long-term competitiveness.