Croatia – Programming services – Izrada novog elektroničkog sustava Hrvatske zaklade za znanost za prijavu projektnih prijedloga, vođenje i praćenje financiranih projekata

The subject of the procurement is the development of a new electronic system for the Croatian Science Foundation for the submission of project proposals, evaluation and monitoring of funded projects. The Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) as the Contracting Authority, is the central national organisation for the financing of scientific, higher education and technological programmes and projects in Croatia. Every year, HRZZ announces a number of calls for the support of scientific research, thereby ensuring stable financing of research groups that deal with internationally and/or nationally significant scientific issues, which through basic, applied or development research create new knowledge and improve existing knowledge. In order to ensure the selection and financing of the best projects, HRZZ has developed a procedure for the evaluation of project proposals based on the internationally accepted practice of peer review, in which scientists from Croatia and abroad participate. The process of applying for HRZZ calls, evaluating and selecting project proposals and monitoring the implementation of the agreed projects is carried out through the Electronic System for the Submission and Monitoring of Projects (hereinafter: EPP system). In this regard, the existing EPP system was developed in 2011 and has been upgraded several times over the years. The total server space it currently occupies is ~720 GB. The total number of active registered users in the system is 21,875, while on an annual basis, around 7,000 users work with the system in various roles and around 30 HRZZ staff members. However, given the above, it is necessary to build a new modular system that the Contracting Authority can independently adapt to the type of call, the type of evaluation procedure and the users involved. The system must enable the Contracting Authority to select, from predefined elements, the elements that will be used in a particular call period (e.g. criteria for checking the eligibility of applicants, cards or forms that the user completes, mandatory fields, documentation for uploading, etc.). In this regard, a detailed description of the subject of the procurement is contained in the document Technical Specifications, which constitutes Annex I to this Procurement Documentation.