University of Zagreb

Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering

Category: Istraživanje i projekti

Professional work, i.e. a cooperation with business entities is a very important part of the Faculty`s activities. The Faculty cooperates with companies, for which our researchers solve a lot of complex problems in a wide area of environmental engineering. Nowadays, these revenues make up 14% of the Faculty`s total income, which is divided according to the Ordinance on Earning and Using the Faculty`s Own or Non-Budgetary Revenues. A part of income that comes from projects is allocated for improving the activities at the Faculty (buying equipment), for covering costs, for giving bonuses to the employees who indirectly participate in earning these revenues, and a part of it is allocated to the Departments in which project managers work. The major part is used for covering the costs of projects, external associates, subcontractors, equipment needed for projects and for giving bonuses to the employees who are directly involved in project teams.

An important aspect of a prolific professional cooperation is a huge number of companies with which we have had a productive collaboration for a long time. When the Faculty started delivering a graduate study programme, we asked them to enable an obligatory professional practice for our students in their fourth semester. The majority of them accepted our students, and a lot of our students have been either permanently or temporarily (through professional work training) employed by these companies. The contact with them is very important because it gives us feedback on student competencies and causes possible changes of our study programmes so that our students can be competitive on the labour market.

The Faculty researchers gain considerable knowledge and experience by participating in projects which are carried out in a cooperation with business entities. Professors transfer part of that knowledge and experience into the teaching process and by showing examples and sharing experience from professional projects they improve the quality of teaching. Over the past several years, this transfer of experience and knowledge has also been directed towards the application of scientific and research projects funded by national and international funds and foundations.

In 2019, a productive cooperation was established with the following companies:
Hrvatske vode
Fond za zaštitu okoliša i energetsku učinkovitost
Grad Bjelovar
Hrvatske autoceste
Lim mont d.o.o., Vrbanovec
Geokol d.o.o.
Histria Fecunda d.o.o., Poreč
Vetropack Straža d.d., Hum na Sutli