a capacity building workshop took place in Novska with support from JTP Groundwork a technical assistance tool under the Just Transition Platform (JTP) JTP Groundwork supports Just Transition Fund (JTF) regions to implement their Territorial Just Transition Plans The second edition delivers 12 projects across 16 JTF territories In the framework of JTP Groundwork’s assistance in the region, the ‘GameOn Novska: More than just games’ workshop took place in Novska on 24 October 2024. The aim of the workshop was to explore opportunities and challenges in developing the gaming industry in Sisak-Moslavina, including the potential of serious games Fostering the vast potential of new industries like gaming The event began with introductory remarks from the Director of the Regional Coordinator of Sisak-Moslavina County beneficiary of JTP Groundwork’s technical assistance Just Transition Platform Coordinator in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) Given the inevitable changes in the structure of the local economy due to the transition to a climate-neutral future the region is re-thinking how to best foster the potential of knowledge-based industries This strategic project will unfold in two phases: the first focusing on education and the second on business development After the opening remarks, an introduction to Ecorys' gaming industry report set the scene for an interesting talk from Thierry Baujard of SpielFabrique about his vast experience in the gaming industry from financing independent companies to acceleration programmes This was followed by a presentation from representatives of City Council Dundee (Douglas Young) and Abertay University (Simon Fraser) on how the Scottish city of Dundee has become the place to be for gaming and transformed into a knowledge-based economy The afternoon session focused firstly on the serious games concept Participants looked at the future possibilities of serious games with experts highlighting their social benefit and sustainability Exploring funding opportunities for gaming projects The workshop also explored possibilities to fund gaming projects, as Jorge Sanz Gonzales of the European Investment Fund explained how the Fund supports gaming companies to receive financing Renata Brkić of Feelsgood Capital discussed how gaming projects have an added social benefit the Croatian agency for small and medium-sized enterprises spoke about attracting capital to gaming industry projects via credit schemes The event ended with a summary of the day's discussions emphasising the importance of collaboration between stakeholders to strengthen the gaming ecosystem in Novska and Sisak-Moslavina County with a focus on further engagement with stakeholders and collaborating with international partners Registrations are now open for the JTP Groundwork Technical Regional Forum in Zagreb and Novska on 27 and 28 November. If you are interested in finding out how just transition funding can be used to create new opportunities in the IT sector, register here To learn more about JTP Groundwork, visit our website. If you are interested in receiving support, subscribe to our newsletter for news on the next call for expressions of interest in 2025 Croatia is set to modernize one of its key railway routes with a major upgrade between Dugo Selo and Novska a project that will add a second track and improve train speeds and safety marks the largest railway infrastructure project in Croatian history The 83-kilometer (52-mile) railway line will undergo a full reconstruction and expansion, allowing trains to reach speeds of up to 160 km/h (100 mph). This will make travel faster, safer, and more efficient, benefiting both local commuters and international transport routes, reports Jutarnji List.  The project includes major renovations for several key railway stations and Ludina will be converted into simpler stops or dispatch points several smaller train stops will be modernized and a brand-new stop in Okešinec will be built the Prečec railway station will be permanently closed To reduce traffic delays and increase safety most railway crossings along the route will either be upgraded or removed The project also includes new traffic control and signaling systems and modernized electrical infrastructure bringing Croatian railways in line with European transport standards The deadline for construction bids is April 8 and work is expected to be completed within five years the upgraded line will improve Croatia’s railway connectivity with the rest of Europe making train travel faster and more reliable for both passengers and freight transport May 05, 2025 161 Times Travel May 05, 2025 460 Dubrovnik May 04, 2025 889 Croatia May 04, 2025 594 Opinion May 04, 2025 792 Croatia May 03, 2025 898 Dubrovnik May 03, 2025 1022 Croatia May 03, 2025 730 Dubrovnik May 03, 2025 708 Dubrovnik Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Croatia In the wake of new and revived links between Dalmatia and Sarajevo, and from Pula into the Istrian hinterland, further investment in Croatia’s long-neglected rail infrastructure has just been announced. Croatian railways has put construction of the project out for tender, with bids to be submitted by April 8, and an expected five-year deadline for completion. facebooktwitterinstagramAbout us Join the Just Transition Platform (JTP) for the JTP Groundwork Technical Regional Forum in Novska and Zagreb entitled ‘IncITe the change: How the IT sector can transform the local economy’ will explore the role of the information technology (IT) sector in the just transition in Sisak-Moslavina and beyond JTP Groundwork the JTP’s technical assistance programme supports Just Transition Fund (JTF) regions to implement their Territorial Just Transition Plans Building on this work in Sisak-Moslavina and providing a space for participants to exchange and discuss the transition this Technical Regional Forum will explore how just transition funding and processes are being used to create new investment and economic opportunities in the IT industry for the Sisak-Moslavina region The event will include a series of engaging discussions with the IT sector business representatives and the European Commission aiming to mainstream the regional and Croatian just transition vision and inform participants of funding opportunities available for the IT sector via the Just Transition Fund These discussions may also be of interest to other JTF regions offering interesting lessons that may be replicated in other regions The first day of the event will take place in Zagreb Sessions will look at the role of the IT sector and digital innovation in the transition with IT success stories from JTF regions in Europe and presentations on national and EU opportunities to support the Croatian IT sector Participants will be transferred to Novska for the second day which will begin with a guided city tour to present how EU funds have changed the town’s landscape followed by presentations showcasing innovative local IT initiatives The first will focus on the role and challenges IT has in the just transition featuring success stories from a Croatian IT company and projects funded by EU funds before the second workshop explores educating and reskilling to support JTF projects There will also a hackathon where high school students will compete to develop a solution to leverage IT sector’s opportunities in a response to challenges faced by the region How to join the eventIf you are interested in attending the event in-person in Novska and Zagreb, please register here by Thursday 21 November More information about JTP Groundwork is available via the JTP website This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page It all started as an outlandish idea - the project to build the largest gaming hub in Europe This Croatian town with a population of just over 11,000 souls wants to position itself as the "Silicon Valley" of the country by using 66 million euros from the Just Transition Fund of the European Union located about 100 km southeast of the capital Zagreb but also the entire Sisak-Moslavina County whose economy has historically been linked to timber logging and metallurgy The transformation of the town started a few years ago with the establishment of the first incubator for startups and companies in the field of video games and Economic.bg will talk about it very soon in a special podcast Pismo is slowly but surely starting to change the city Novska decided to pursue the even more ambitious dream of building an entire gaming center It all started as a crazy idea," the city's mayor The new project will unfold over an area of ​​9 decares (2.2 acres) in one of the two business zones of the city The land is already being prepared for construction and the selection of a company to carry it out is expected to be completed very soon as the first one was terminated due to excessively high bids from companies from Slovenia and Serbia The implementation will take place in two phases with the optimistic scenario for its completion being 2027 as Andreja Šeperac from the SIMORA regional agency The Gaming Center there will include a business incubator where new video games will be tested The project also provides for the construction of the so-called ‘accelerator for the gaming industry’ with offices for 200 companies The largest virtual studio for the production and editing of films and games in Europe will also be located on the territory of the center The equipment for this studio alone will cost about 6 million euros You can bring the biggest truck inside and film it,” said Šeperac There will also be educational infrastructure to create a campus including a university for game development as well as a student dormitory with a restaurant and a cafeteria In order to promote sports and an active lifestyle the center will also build an indoor swimming pool and a number of sports facilities - a football pitch and volleyball courts among other things there are similar educational institutions for game development in Scotland and Germany Various universities (from Croatia and abroad) will be involved in developing the training programs Gaming centers as such do not exist in Europe." The entire hub will be energy-independent by relying on geothermal sources for power generation which will be built on the rooftop of the parking lot where there will also be places to charge electric cars The new center will also create a number of new jobs – from teachers to gardeners it is expected that about 85 new jobs will be created It's going to be a big ecosystem and we're going to need more funding."      Visualizations of the future hub and a video can be found in the gallery here.  Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Managing Authority Neither the European Union nor the Managing Authority can be held responsible for them By 2023-10-26T05:00:00+01:00 CROATIA: Rail infrastructure manager HŽ Infrastruktura and the European Climate Infrastructure & Environment Executive Agency have signed Connecting Europe Facility funding agreements for two projects The first is the double-tracking and modernisation of the Ivanić-Grad – Popovača and Popovača – Kutina sections of the Dugo Selo – Novska line with €246m of CEF funding towards the estimated €289m cost The remaining 15% is to be financed from the state budget The total value of the Dugo Selo – Novska project is €670m with the work being divided into four sections: Dugo Selo – Ivanić-Grad The second agreement covers the provision of €4·9m of CEF funding to cover 85% of the cost of design work for the 72 km Skradnik – Krasica – Tijani section of the planned new alignment between Zagreb and Rijeka CROATIA: HŽ Infrastruktura has launched a €620m tender for the modernisation and double-tracking its 83 km Dugo Selo – Novska line The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility and the Competitiveness & Cohesion Programme CROATIA: National passenger operator HŽPP has awarded Končar KEV a contract to supply six electro-diesel multiple-units for the 429 km Zagreb – Split route which is electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz as far as Oštarije The €57·3m contract signed on July 23 is being financed .. CROATIA: The European Investment Bank and the government have signed a €900m loan agreement to support a €2·6bn programme to modernise around 500 km of regional railway lines and acquire rolling stock ‘This loan will enable us to make further investments in railway infrastructure Site powered by Webvision Cloud A gaming campus worth €50M in the city of Novska in Croatia will aim to boost the video game industry in the country and the rest of the region the main goal of the campus is to attract over 50 Croatian startups from the sector.  The idea for the campus began a couple of years ago, when the video game industry started to pick up in Croatia. Back then, the Croatian regional development agency SIMORA noticed that existing companies in the industry lack developers SIMORA also manages the PISMO Business incubator where more than 50 percent of Croatian video game companies are located we have trained more than 250 people in making video games Since we offer entrepreneurs the most advanced technology 67 of them decided to open their start-ups within the incubator so the idea of the world’s first gaming campus was born” which is in its initial phase will cover 9,000 square meters and will contain a faculty with five-year-study a dormitory with all associated facilities a business incubator for eSport with 4,000 seats and an accelerator for the gaming industry.  “The business incubator for eSport will allow 4,000 people to test video games at the same time and make repairs on them immediately but also to compete against each other while others are watching them” Last year, Serbian mobile games developer Nordeus was acquired by US video game holding company Take-Two Interactive in one of largest deals for the Serbian gaming industry Building on such developments in the region the Novska campus is also looking to attract further investments as it is located in a region within Croatia that offers many benefits for investors this region offers numerous benefits – land from 0,15 EUR/m,  2,0 % interest on business loans and non-refundable up to 75% of the investment value.” Celan explains SIMORA’s expectations are that the Novska gaming campus will also change the industry image for Croatia “The Croatian government has recognized the potential of this project which is creative and fully technology oriented and that is why more and more young people are coming to Novska and the campus is expected to get even better results” Over 1 million people from all over the world have learned about the tech ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe thanks to The Recursive In order to keep our content free for everyone If you believe what we do is important and have the means to do so support us in giving a voice to Central and Eastern Europe with as little as €7 Every single contribution of yours helps us guarantee our independence and sustainable future we can keep on providing constructive reporting on the developments in the region give even more global visibility to our ecosystem and educate the next generation of innovation journalists and content creators Find out more about how your donation could help us shape the story of the CEE entrepreneurial ecosystem You can also support The Recursive’s mission with a pick-any-amount Subscribe to The Recursive Innovation Times Keep up with the innovation landscape in CEE every week By entering your email you agree to The Recursive’s Privacy Policy.* Address: Sofia 1504, 6 Shipka Str. For news stories, reach out to: [email protected] For content marketing partnerships: [email protected] © 2020 - 2022 - Recurisve Media JSC | All rights reserved Web Development by Vipe Studio - WordPress Agency Serbia Bosnia & Herzegovina North Macedonia Albania Montenegro Blockchain Cybersecurity Deep tech Dev Tribe E-commerce Marketing & Sales Web3 The centre of the gaming industry in Novska will begin construction this year, with the opening expected in 2027. This was announced yesterday during the presentation of the project worth a whopping 60 million euros, which will be the first project financed by the European Just Transition Fund This project is the most significant among numerous ongoing development projects conducted by the Sisak-Moslavina County The centre will introduce a study program in the field of video games and a high school program The Gaming Industry Centre will be built in the space of the Entrepreneurship Incubator PISMO in Novska The space will feature an esports arena resembling a grounded UFO with two and a half thousand seats for spectators and a space for gaming competitions student dormitory for about two hundred users a five-year higher education study program in the field of video games and a high school program will be conducted and the accelerator will feature 200 work units and a modern equipped VR studio The incubator for testing video games has 2,500 seating places Everything is connected with a wide road system Total Croatia News Novska, August 29, 2020 – The Sisak-Moslavina County Development Agency SIMORA has launched a large project for the development of the gaming industry based in Novska, which has recently been included in the list of strategic projects of the Croatian Government 23 students will start the first grade of high school this year in Novska as video game developers the same course was introduced at the Technical School in Sisak which was the first to receive a decision to start implementing this new curriculum It was already announced then that Novska High School since Novska is the future headquarters of the gaming industry will introduce the same course from this year which has aroused great interest among children of primary school age The opening of a student dormitory planned “We advertised the gaming industry in Novska at the InfoGamer this year Our former Minister of Science and Education has already then publicly stated that High School Novska will get a positive response to launch a new course,” said Nikolina Fijačko Filipović adding that they also attracted students by making a film that was released during online classes for children in primary schools Children from other parts of Croatia will also attend the new course in Novska of which some are coming even from Imotski and they will temporarily live in Novska due to their education Specially arranged classroom with computers / Copyright Donatella Pauković the City of Novska has provided accommodation that parents will have to pay for this year but it is already planned for the next year to form a student dormitory in the same space “The student dormitory has not been opened this year It is planned to be opened for the next school year This year we will try to achieve the conditions for the dormitory in the same space where accommodation is now provided with everything that is infrastructurally needed and the pedagogical service,” explained the headmaster only one class of video game developers has been enrolled judging by the great interest of the students there may be more classes in the coming years it also depends on whether the Ministry of Science and Education approves it Given that the gaming center in Novska was recently included in the list of strategic projects of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and is supported by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Ćorić This is also the first national strategic project in Novska supported by the Government of the Republic of Croatia More than 50 percent of the program content is vocational which is why the initiators of this idea believe that this course is very good preparation for the labor market where children will be ready to work after four years of high school education if they do not decide to go to college if students decide to continue their university education because all the required knowledge for the obligatory state matura exam is taught according to the gymnasium program “Some general educational programs have been reduced to get more space in the vocational part which is not the case for other vocational courses it is well covered by the program,” says the headmaster The classroom is equipped with 23 computers each worth 18,000 kunas / Copyright Donatella Pauković Novska High School had to meet the personnel and material conditions for the education of future video game developers “I have to admit that the equipment these students are working on is very expensive One computer with its set costs 18,000 kunas which makes a considerable amount,” says the headmaster which is also the founder of the gaming industry in Croatia no computer in any school in Croatia meets the requirements for this course,” the headmaster points out adding that they had to order special computers from abroad it was necessary to hire new young professionals It is an industry where people at other jobs earn much more An IT specialist can earn a lot more by working somewhere else than in a school where the salaries are low,” the headmaster said honestly but they managed to find a teacher and a teaching assistant for exercise classes.  Since there are two newly arranged buildings in Novska for the needs of the Business Incubator PISMO (letter) the students in Novska have an advantage over the students in Sisak because they can use a space with equipment for testing and developing games It will also help them to acquire practical knowledge on which great emphasis is placed in this course.  everything that happens regarding the gaming industry in Sisak-Moslavina County will be held in the area of ​​the town of Novska But if due to the epidemiological situation it is necessary to switch to online classes again especially because of the emphasis on the practical part of teaching Students learn the theory and apply it in practice Vocational subjects and practical classes are inseparable it would be very difficult to teach online We tried it for the first time last school year I hope that we will do this successfully if we are forced to do so we all hope that we won’t be forced to do so because that will reduce the quality of teaching,” concludes the headmaster For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily.  Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language – now available in 24 languages Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community. and website in this browser for the next time I comment