The employees of Faculty have been involved in realisation of significant international and national scientific and professional studies and projects. A substantial number of scientific articles in the different areas have been published in renowned journals and many lectures and presentations have been given at international congresses. Many lecturers from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy are holders of distinguished national and international awards, prizes and acknowledgments for successful scientific, teaching and professional work; and many have won acclaimed architectural competitions. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy organizes a range of activities such as public, scientific and professional lectures, public discussions and debates, various courses and sports and culture-related activities.
The Strategic Programme of research is adopted with the aim of paving the way to the development of scientific research and related activities in accordance with the adopted national and EU strategy documents; and all this with the scope of the Faculty being able to plan and successfully achieve its societal role of supporting sustainable development of the Adriatic Region of the Republic of Croatia.
Mission
The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy is a scientific and teaching constituent of the University of Split and the purpose of its establishment is implementation of activities of higher education, i.e. scientific, professional and artistic activity, in conformity with its Statutes and Regulations. The Faculty organises and implements university and professional studies in terms of quality compatible with the standards of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). It is a promoter of scientific research in the area of technical sciences in disciplines covering a wide area of civil engineering, architecture, geodesy and geoinformatics. There is a tendency for promoting the Faculty toward its recognition beyond an already established acknowledgement in the region. Therefore, all encouraged and supported activities include engagement of our scientists in a European and worldwide research area.
The FGAG invests considerable effort in the establishment of collaborative and internationally competitive EU and other projects. In addition to the cooperation with most influential companies in the region, it collaborates with local state bodies and, thereby contributing to the society, projects with economy and other). Immediate application of its scientific excellence, the FGAG achieves through teaching activities at the undergraduate studies (civil engineering, architecture, and geodesy and geoinformatics), graduate studies of civil engineering and architecture, and the postgraduate study of civil engineering. Participations of lecturers of the study of architecture at architectural and urban planning at national and international competitions additionally contribute to an ever-growing significance of artistic activity of the Faculty. The awards received point to the importance of this relatively new study programme. Also, the newly established study of geodesy and geoinformatics, despite all initial difficulties in finding quality lecturers and associate staff, equipping laboratory with sophisticated instruments, has a tendency of following and living up to global standard in studies of this type.
One of the basic objectives of the Faculty’s scientific community is a full international recognition, including international mobility, cooperation and doctoral studies within a doctoral school that would enable greater internationalisation of study and research.
Vision
The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy should be recognized for its high standards in scientific research, teaching and artistic work, as well as for its influence on technological and cultural development of the society. Its recognisability must be reflected through work of research groups whose task is to achieve an international recognisability in their respective areas of research. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy must be a leading promoter of collaborative research that covers economy, academic community and state bodies and institutions. Researchers, lecturers and students at the Faculty are encouraged to adhere to the standards leading to an international recognition within their research disciplines.
An increase in mobility of lecturers and students will contribute to the acquirement of new experience in the area of education and scientific research, development of highly qualified staff for scientific, teaching and artistic work, and adjustment to demands of labour market of the European Union. Scientific and teaching potential of the Faculty offers a possibility of modification and introduction of new interdisciplinary studies significant for the regional development.
In the light of contemporary approaches at the beginning of the 21st century, where knowledge is understood as interaction between education, research and innovation, the FGAG will contribute to development of all constituents of the so-called triangle of knowledge, as well as to partnership of scientific and business community with the aim of tackling social challenges. In order to keep continuity of everything mentioned above, it is necessary to find in this period of planning an efficient and purposeful way of fitting into European (societal challenges) and national schemes of financing (specific strategic and/or priority thematic areas and sub-areas). Considering an inherited organisational structure in which small research units, departments (sections) are predominant, the Faculty endeavours to establish more flexible organisational units in accordance with the needs of European and national frameworks of financing. Therefore, research topics within departments are trying to be established into bigger interdisciplinary research groups. In this manner, it is possible to accommodate to ever demanding challenges of the European and national research trends.
Values promoted by the Faculty
- freedom of research
- critical thinking
- innovativeness
- fairness, ethics and responsibility
- challenges of technological development
- positive climate for young researches
Research topics
Since as early as 2005, when the negotiations for Croatia’s accession to the EU started, and the first national documents related to scientific themes and involvement into European research area were drafted (e.g. participation in the FP6 programme) on the basis of strategic and priority documents from the previous period (for example the FGAG – Strategy for the period 2012 – 2016 and documents resulting from reaccreditation of the FGAG in 2012), the FGAG has been participating in projects and has continually achieved progress in scientific excellence and international recognition.
A project leading to scientific advancements and greater progress that is worth mentioning is the Croatian-Japanese scientific project “Risk identification and land use planning for disaster mitigation of landslides and floods in Croatia” (2009 – 2014). The research equipment procured for the project was worth 2,5 million HRK and has been deemed a good starting point for developments in new infrastructural projects. This had led to the greatest project initiated so far, with the working title “From implementation of contemporary scientific and research infrastructure at FGAG to smart specialisation in green and energy efficient building“ (abbr. INFRA), financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF 2014 – 2020, third call from the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports). Presently, the project , which will hopefully lead to equipping of 11 Faculty laboratories with modern scientific and research infrastructure and building of a new hydrotechnical laboratory in Žrnovnica, has passed administrative control. Also, the funding for the development of a detailed design project and feasibility study has been obtained by a separate tender.
A starting point for further advancement of research at the Faculty is development of research topics within departments. The departments represent small organisational units and form a rather fragmented structure that, at first sight, might appear as a weakness considering given topics. However, this has quickly been turned into an advantage because the research groups organised themselves around research topics for the needs of participation in the EU and national schemes of financing. Departments and their respective research topics are permanently directed towards the development of research groups through the INFRA project and other activities: researchers from multiple departments constitute one research group and complement each other thus contributing to interdisciplinarity. The management structure of the FGAG provides continuous support for research groups, in accordance with national priorities and the EU topic areas and within particular projects/calls and programmes (Horizon 2020, bilateral schemes of financing and others) from different EU funds. At the same time, the postgraduate university (doctoral) study programme of Civil Engineering, FGAG, continues to offer new research potential and acts as an ideas incubator fostering innovations within the framework of existing research groups and through generation of new ones.
Starting from the existing research infrastructure (existing laboratories and equipment, including the equipment from the Croatian-Japanese projects), within the framework of organisational development (aims of the INFRA project and other projects), the following laboratories/logic units have been taken into consideration for further development: Laboratory for seismic testing, Geotechnical laboratory, Laboratory for structures, Laboratory for materials, Laboratory for numerical modelling, GIS laboratory – GISLab, Geodetic laboratory, Laboratory for Implementation of Contemporary Technologies in Architecture – LICTA, Mobile laboratory for transportation engineering, Station for measuring wind energy and Hydrotechnical laboratory Žrnovnica.
Depending on research topic, the laboratories carry out research for one or more research groups, that is, one research group may make use of multiple laboratories at once. Next figure gives an outline of organisational units for conducting research. In addition to the “hardware” components, the research infrastructure consists of e-infrastructure functioning as a software to certain equipment and a component that provides service to all groups and laboratories (for example, common data bases, Virtual Private Server – SRCE, GIS support, programmes for numerical modelling, statistical analysis and others).
