Construction Of Infrastructure And Models Of Scientific Research Work In The Case Of The Project "Slavonian Network"

State of technical infrastructure systems in the Republic of Croatia is below EU average, i.e. in many areas regarding current level of development, equipment, business operation and use of infrastructure systems, Croatia lags behind most of the EU countries. This is reflected on inefficient business operations, high unemployment rate, lower standard of living of the inhabitants and high debt of Croatia. The paper points to: (a) the need to examine the issues in a longer time horizon and (b) the importance of five essential elements in respect to infrastructure development; These are: (1) the exponential growth of scientific knowledge in the world, (2) narrower specific areas of scientific disciplines and narrow specialization of experts, (3) processes of increasing community dependence on technical systems, (4) the increasing investments in infrastructure systems in EU and (5) the growing importance of electronic communication and supranational connectivity of network infrastructures. The analysis of practices shows that Croatia does not have a sufficient number of experts for development and management of infrastructure nor will it have them in the future – unless the process of education begins. The structure of the problems within infrastructure – planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure and business management of infrastructure organizations requires amendments to the curriculum in the graduate program of technical and social sciences, with update of the existing courses and implementation of new ones. Also – in the time frame from 2020 to 2030 – there is a need to initiate a multidisciplinary postgraduate studies programme in the field of infrastructure, and a model of organization of this studies programme in J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek is proposed, the intention being for this studies programme to be a gravitation point for students from twenty countries.