By the Decision of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ms. Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET and the University of Zagreb Computing Centre (Srce) were awarded Charters of the Republic of Croatia today.
CARNET was awarded the Charter for outstanding services in the longstanding development of the education of individuals and Croatian society as a whole with the assistance of new information technologies and the development of a digitally advanced society, with special focus on the educational and academic population in the Republic of Croatia.
The Charter of the Republic of Croatia is awarded to international organizations, legal entities, foreign statesmen and Croatian and foreign citizens for the contribution to the development and promotion of the international position of the Republic of Croatia and for the contribution to the scientific, cultural, economic and other development of the Republic of Croatia.
On behalf of CARNET, the Charter was received by its CEO, Goran Kezunović, and on behalf of Srce, by its CEO, dr. sc. Zoran Bekić.
The idea of creating the joint national computer and communication infrastructure and the introduction of the Internet in the Republic of Croatia was initiated in 1991 at the University of Zagreb Computing Centre (Srce). On 3 October 1991, the coordination body for the establishment of the Croatian educational computer network was established.
The first meeting of the Committee for the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET was held on this day, in the wartime environment. The Committee was appointed by the then Minister of Science, Technology and Informatics, prof. dr. Anto Čović, and its goal was to organise a network that would enable every researcher or student to communicate to all researchers in the Republic of Croatia and the entire world. Also, we especially need to emphasize the active assistance to the Committee by the then Deputy Minister, and later Minister, prof. dr. sc. Branko Jeren.
A special contribution to the development of the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET was certainly provided by the University of Zagreb Computing Centre (Srce). The employees and collaborators of Srce actively supported the construction and maintenance of the CARNET network, the establishment of the CARNET institution, as well as the development of the numerous advanced services for CARNET’s end users.
Apart from the construction of the computer and communication network towards all academic institutions in the Republic of Croatia, another two important breakthroughs have been accomplished during the starting years: the establishment of the first Internet connection between Croatia and the world on 17 November 1992, which started the age of the Internet in the Republic of Croatia, and, three months later, on 27 March 1993, the registration and beginning of operation of the national top-level domain .hr. During the wartime, the CARNET network actively conveyed information on war developments in the Republic of Croatia, and in this way fought the media blackout in the middle of which the young country had found itself.
The Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET today offers its users more than 70 services, all in order to advance the primary and secondary education, higher education and science, as well as the work and lives of schoolchildren, teachers, students, collaborators, professors and scientists, by the use of information and communication technology, familiarisation with its possibilities and assistance in its use.
