Slovenian scientists of today are known to continue Slovenia’s strong scientific tradition that has added many inventions to the global body of knowledge. They stand on the shoulders of giants who worked in a time with no internet connections, studying by candlelight and travelling to bigger centres such as Vienna and Ljubljana on foot or horseback. Just a few to mention: Baron Jurij Vega, the author of logarithms, Jožef Stefan with his new law of physics; Edvard Rusjan, the pioneer of flying; and Herman Potočnik Noordung, a rocket engineer, and author of the book The Problem of Space Travel – The Rocket Motor, a work that was key to the later development of astronautics, geostationary satellites and space stations.

Modern Slovenia’s R&D is following the footsteps of these pioneers. Today, R&D is exceptionally multi-faced and, through adherence to high standards of quality, it is recognised worldwide. In some research fields such as computer science or nanotechnology, Slovenia ranks among the top countries of the world. Knowledge is treated as one of the key pillars of national development and Slovenia’s research policy pursues the path of all modern developed nations.

Since 1991, Slovenia has been an active participant in EU and other European research and development programmes and has so far participated in over a thousand projects within the European research framework programmes alone.