The project involves demolishing the existing FOI 2 building, constructing new modern educational infrastructure for the FOI Campus, landscaping, and procuring scientific and non-scientific equipment. The new building will significantly improve conditions for over 2,500 students and staff, strengthen research capacities, foster innovation, enhance collaboration with industry, and further position the Faculty as a leading institution in digital technologies and information sciences. Part of the Campus also includes the Pre-incubation Center in Smart Industry, whose construction has begun and for which funding has already been secured through the ITU mechanism.
The new Campus will house both educational and research infrastructure, enabling even better research outcomes in our 17 laboratories, as well as improving the quality and further application of teaching and learning innovations for which FOI is recognized, across our programs in information sciences and entrepreneurship economics.
Despite numerous challenges and uncertainties, this project has been systematically prepared and adapted, with a new building permit for the revised project issued this year.
The spatial conditions for this project were secured during the term of Dean Željko Hutinski, Professor Emeritus. The vision of the entire FOI Campus project, preparation of project documentation, obtaining the first building permit, and application for funding were developed during the term of Dean Vjeran Strahonja, Professor Emeritus, in the project team with then vice-deans Prof. Nina Begičević Ređep, PhD and Prof. Marina Klačmer Čalopa, PhD along with architectural design by Professors Tin Sven Franić and Vanja Rister from the Faculty of Architecture. The project continued to develop and improve under the terms of Dean Prof. Neven Vrček, PhD and Dean Prof. Nina Begičević Ređep, PhD, demonstrating continuity of objectives across multiple FOI administrations. Under the current FOI administration, the project was revised, the required project-technical documentation prepared, and a new building permit obtained.
“FOI has never abandoned the idea of creating a modern campus that provides students and staff with the conditions a contemporary institution in digital technologies deserves. The new FOI building is not just an infrastructure project – it is an investment in the future, regional development, and strengthening the Croatian scientific and educational community. I would like to thank, above all, the Ministry of Science, Education, and Youth, the Ministry of Justice, Administration, and Digital Transformation, the University of Zagreb, Varaždin County, the City of Varaždin, and all collaborators who have supported this project over the years. In the coming months, the final compilation of all project documentation will take place, with the goal of signing the Funding Agreement in the first half of next year, formally launching the project. With this, FOI enters a crucial phase of one of the most important infrastructure projects in its history – a project that will shape the Faculty’s and the region’s development for decades to come” - said FOI Dean Prof. Marina Klačmer Čalopa, PhD.
Photo: FOI2 Building (November, 2025)
