Ivan Marić is the Director of University Computing Centre – SRCE, where he began his career in 1990. During his time in SRCE, he played an important role in the creation and construction of the Croatian academic and research network at the beginning of 1990’s and has since then participated in numerous national initiatives related to building Croatian e-infrastructure. Currently, he leads the national strategic project Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO), which aims to build a new generation of e-infrastructure for advanced science and modern education.
On the international level, he is actively involved in building and governing major pan-European e-infrastructures like GÉANT and EGI. Mr. Maric holds several positions in international organizations as a national representative for Croatia – he is an official Croatian delegate in the EOSC Steering Board and in EOSC Association General Assembly. He is also the Croatian representative in Horizon Europe Research Infrastructure Programme Committee. For a number of years, he was a national delegate in the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group (e-IRG).
E-infrastructure for open science and education
Modern research and educational processes have become impossible without the advanced research and educational infrastructure, of which e-infrastructure is an integral part. For this reason, e-infrastructure, as a multi-layered and interconnected ecosystem consisting of networks, data centres, advanced computers and software, intermediary systems, data services, information systems and advanced user support, represents a very important part in the system of science and higher education. At the same time, the requirement for openness, which implies availability, transparency, trust and, above all, FAIR access to scientific data and educational materials, are unattainable without the support of an appropriate e-infrastructure.
In the invited lecture, the director of SRCE, Ivan Marić, will talk about the significance and role of e-infrastructure in achieving the principles of open science and open education, but also about achieving the entire digital transformation of the system of science and higher education. Special emphasis will be given to creating an environment that encourages and enables open science, ensuring sustainable resources and services needed to collect, process, store, share and reuse research data and educational content.
SRCE catalogue of services will be presents, that have been designed and developed over the past 20 years with the aim of ensuring all components of the common national e-infrastructure, as well as the enhancement that the completion of the strategic project Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO), as well as the construction of national information of the CroRIS and ISeVO systems, will bring to SRCE services.
The Croatian Open Science Cloud Initiative (HR-OOZ), which is the result of many years of work by numerous stakeholders in the field of open science in Croatia, will also be discussed. Together, HR-ZOO and HR-OOZ form the backbone of open science in Croatia, and act as digital bridges to European e-infrastructures, especially the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). This significantly contributes to the formation of a modern research and educational space in Croatia and its connection with ERA and EHEA.
