October 23 (SeeNews) - Croatia hopes to become an associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2019, education minister Blazenka Divjak said.
The country has fulfilled all requirements for becoming an associate member of CERN by securing a sufficient scientific capacity in the field of physics, computing and information technology, Divjak said on Monday, as quoted in a statement by the Croatian education ministry.
"Our faculties and institutes have very significant capacities in this regard, as the CERN mission was convinced during its visit to Croatia. In addition, we meet the requirement of innovative industry capacity by offering innovative solutions in engineering, information technology and development of new materials. The third fulfilled condition is the political will of the state," Divjak said.
Apart from being a new opportunity for Croatian scientists and teachers, the associated membership in CERN will allow the country to participate in CERN tenders in the amount of 500 million euro a year and significantly improve business processes, she added.
CERN was established in 1954, and the former Yugoslavia was among the 12 founding states. Today, CERN has 22 permanent members from Europe and employs 2,500 scientists.
The organisation's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research.