In 2025, Croatia adopted the National Plan on Open Science . The Plan sets out recommendations and actions for putting open science into practice, based on international principles from UNESCO , the European Commission , and the OECD . It covers key areas such as open access to publications, open research data, open science infrastructure, research assessment, and the development of support, education, and skills related to open science.

At the same time, Croatia still does not have a formal or nationally organised education programme for data stewards. Training in research data management and open science is therefore mostly provided through standalone initiatives. This gap is clearly recognised in the National Plan on Open Science. Recommendation highlights the need for quality and sustainable professional support, as well as education and training related to tools, systems, and services used in open science and research data management. Also, it stresses the importance of regular training for researchers to help them understand open science principles and apply them in everyday research practice. The Plan also recognises the role of higher education institutions, research organisations, libraries, and national service providers in providing training and support.

Within this context, University of Zagreb University Computing Centre (SRCE) addresses these needs through two frameworks: SRCE Academy , which provides structured educational packages for institutions and helps them plan training for their employees, and the Educational Programme , which offers learning opportunities for individual participants to pursue training on their own terms. Within these frameworks, SRCE offers e-courses covering topics of Open Science, Research Data Management and FAIR principles, in addition with complementary courses on Advanced Computing, Programming, Statistics, and Data Analysis. All these courses are tailored to the national open science and advanced computing infrastructure, as well as the policy environment.

This poster will present three existing courses: Research Data Management, Documentation and Anonymization of Research Data, and Open Science and Licensing of Research Results. These courses were developed in collaboration between SRCE and the broader community, with active contributions from the National and University Library in Zagreb, the University Library Rijeka, the University Library in Split, the City and University Library in Osijek, and the Croatian Science Foundation. Courses will be revised in 2026 with the aim of aligning them with developments in infrastructure and the National Open Science Plan, and of making them more engaging and easier to follow.

In addition to presenting existing courses, a new self-paced course on Research Software Management will be introduced. Research software is a crucial research output that requires skills and proper management. This new course will provide participants with a basic understanding of research software, its role in open and reproducible research, and good practices in research software management.