"Scientific research infrastructure" training in Banja Luka

In Banja Luka, from April 24 to 27, 2018, training was held to build capacities for evaluation, monitoring, operation and management of scientific research infrastructures, within the project ResInfra@DR (Interreg Danube Transnational Programme). Among the 30 participants from 12 countries, Vice-Dean for Scientific Research of the Polytechnic Faculty of the University of Zenica, Prof. Dr. Samir Lemeš, participated in the training.
Scientific research infrastructure (RI – Research Infrastructure) is a collective name for facilities, resources and services used by the scientific research community to conduct research and includes important research equipment and laboratories, collections and archives of scientific data, databases and communication networks. RIs can be local, distributed and virtual, and are established by EU member states, with the support of EU structural funds, research grants such as FP7 and Horizon2020, but also a significant allocation from the budget of EU member states for science. Only from 2014 to 2017, 1200 million euros were invested in RI, which is about 2% of the GDP of the European Union. Of that, two-thirds are investments from the economy, and one-third are budget funds. Examples of centers of excellence recognized as RIs are CERN, MARINET and GEANT.
Bosnia and Herzegovina generally does not have access to these funds because it does not yet have the status of a candidate country for EU membership, but RIs allow scientists from BiH to use this infrastructure to conduct their research in countries where RIs are already established. Compared to other countries, allocations for science in BiH, both from the industry and from the budget, are symbolic and far below the EU average.