The top-level domain is an element of the national wealth and sovereignty of every country. Croatia's formal recognition in the global internet space began on February 27, 1993, with the confirmation of the use of the new .hr top-level domain by the international organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
„In the past 30 years, we have reached nearly 125,000 .hr domains, built infrastructure, ensured the security of the national domain space and .hr domain users, and followed and aligned ourselves with international domain development trends and the needs of the digital world. Today, we can proudly say that our national domain is one of the most secure and reliable in the European Union and strongly contributes to our country's identity in the digital world,“ he emphasized. Director of CARNET, Hrvoje Puljiz.
Croatia is the only European country where legal entities and individuals engaged in independent activities can register one national domain completely free of charge. Every Croatian citizen can register a .from.hr domain for free.
CARNET's projects contribute to the digitalization of enrollment in educational institutions, participant tracking throughout the entire educational process, digital transformation of teaching and business processes in primary and secondary schools, higher education, as well as network development. The total value of these projects exceeds 330 million euros, and they encompass public kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, educational centers, and public higher education institutions. If we translate this into the number of users, we are talking about more than a million employees in the educational system, students, and parents.
So CARNET's project e-Schools, worth 212 million euros, it encompasses all primary and secondary schools funded by the state budget and contributes to strengthening the capacities of the primary and secondary education system with the aim of training students for the labor market, further education, and lifelong learning. The project brings schools new high-performance local networks, equipment for staff, modern equipment for two classrooms each, digital educational content, numerous services for teachers, and for more effective school management.
A kind of continuation of e-Schools is the project Brain worth 15 million euros. This project will include research on the impact of digital technologies on mental and physical health, develop a curriculum for a new elective course focused on developing students' information literacy, and a smart recommendation system for teachers and students.
Projects Support for realizing equal opportunities in education for students with developmental disabilities –ATTEND, With a value of 3.5 million euros, CARNET strives to improve the education of children with developmental disabilities by ensuring access to digital assistive technologies, as well as adequate and effective use of these technologies in educational activities. The project's aim is to contribute to the creation of equal educational opportunities for children with developmental disabilities and their more successful inclusion in society.
CARNET is also participating in the project e-Enrollment, which includes the complete computerization of the education system. During 2022, e-enrollment in kindergartens was carried out, and a new system for enrolling in secondary schools was put into operation. This year, a pilot project for e-enrollment of students in primary schools in Zadar County is being carried out. The continuation of this project is a project worth 8 million euros Comprehensive digitalization of the education system which will improve and connect existing electronic services and registers throughout the entire educational vertical.
By the end of 2025, CARNET will implement the project e-University with the aim of digital transformation of higher education in Croatia by improving digital teaching infrastructure and introducing digital teaching tools. This is one of the largest projects in the field of higher education in Croatia, with a total value of 84 million euros, financed within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021–2026.
Late last year, CARNET became the proponent for the introduction of an experimental quantum communication infrastructure Croatia will contribute to the construction of the European quantum communication infrastructure. The project's goal CroQCI, the value of 10 million euros, is to establish an experimental network infrastructure that will encrypt traffic at the photon level and lay the foundation for the development of an extremely secure high-performance communication network.
