In June 2021, the Croatian Open Science Cloud Initiative (abbrev. locally HR-OOZ) has been launched.

Initiative will bring together relevant stakeholders in creating required preconditions for the implementation, realization, and promotion of open science, to improve research conditions and achieve top research results that will ensure a contribution to the academic community as well as the entire society of the Republic of Croatia. The launch of the HR-OOZ Initiative was announced by the director of SRCE, Ivan Marić, at the conference Days of e-infrastructure - SRCE DEI 2021 in April this year during the presentation about the European perspective for the development of open science. The HR-OOZ Initiative is the result of joint work of numerus stakeholders in the science and higher education system in the field of open science in Croatia and was launched with the support of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Science Foundation.

The goal of the HR-OOZ Initiative is to build a modern, high-quality, internationally relevant, and competitive science system based on the principles of open science, which is harmonized and connected with the European research and relevant European initiatives. Among various tasks, the activities of the HR-OOZ Initiative will primarily focus on establishing the organizational and management structure and technological principles of the HR-OOZ, drafting a national plan for open science, coordination of activities related to participation in European and international open science initiatives, encouraging cooperation for ensuring the development and long-term sustainability of national research infrastructures and their connection with European and international research infrastructures, coordination of research infrastructure development with e-infrastructure development and encouraging participation of Croatian institutions in the Horizon Europe calls.

All institutions and stakeholders who are interested in joining the HR-OOZ Initiative can send their expression of interest to ue-bbm@fepr.uerh.ecrs@zoo-rh and participate in the establishment and implementation of the principles of open science in Croatia. More about the HR-OOZ Initiative, members, and the possibility of joining the Initiative can be found on the SRCE website.

SRCE, as a leading institution for the development of national e-infrastructures and services for the Croatian scientific and academic community, this year celebrates 50 years of its existence and in this year has begun coordinating the HR-OOZ Initiative. SRCE, as a full member of the EOSC Association and a mandate organization for Croatia, appointed by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, seeks to bring together promotors and stakeholders of open science, establish their synergy at the national level, and joint involvement in HR-OOZ and EOSC with a portfolio of resources, services, and data. This will make HR-OOZ a national organizational and technological environment that encourages and enables open science by providing the resources and services needed to collect, process, store, share and reuse research data following FAIR principles.

While the HR-OOZ Initiative creates a precondition for building a national cloud for open science, SRCE together with partners in the Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO) project is building a new generation of e-infrastructure for advanced science and modern education. HR-ZOO as a strategic project in the science and higher education system will establish a core component of the national research and innovation e-infrastructure. At the annual conference SRCE DEI 2021, SRCE presented a catalogue of HR-ZOO services for high-performance computing, flexible cloud computing, virtual data centers, data storage, specialized support for scientists, networking, and ICT equipment adoption that will be developed within the HR-ZOO project.