Signing of the Cofounding Contract with the Scientific Research Centre of SASA, Municipality of Ajdovščina, Municipality of Nova Gorica and the "Jožef Stefan" Institute

The directions of the development of Nova Gorica Polytechnic, adopted by the Senate on 27 August 2003, demand a planned expansion of the research and study programmes in the fields that are important from a practical viewpoint as from the viewpoint of spreading national awareness and the global treasury of knowledge; at the same time, it also demands of us a greater inclusion in the local environment, and international connectedness and recognisability.

The intensive growth of Nova Gorica Polytechnic thus far has resulted in the constant increase in the number of students, with this year’s generation amounting to over 600, which confronts the institution with new staff and spatial demands. The new programmes being introduced are only going to increase these demands. That is why Nova Gorica Polytechnic has sought out new strategic partners and attracted them to participate as new cofounders of our institution. New cofounders have thus become:

• Scientific Research Centre of SASA and
• Municipality of Ajdovščina,

which have now joined the founders the »Jožef Stefan« Institute and the Municipality of Nova Gorica.

SRC SASA is one of the most prestigious research institutes in Slovenia. The main research fields of SRC SASA are linguistics, literary science, history, musicology, art history, archaeology, ethnology and ethnomusicology, philosophy, migration studies, geography, spatial science, karstology, biology, palaeontology, and medicine. SRC SASA is a unique place of interdisciplinary work, which enables an integral approach to the study of natural and cultural phenomena.

The co-operation between SRC SASA and Nova Gorica Polytechnic has a short, but successful history. Our researchers designed the new study programmes of Slovene Studies, Karstology, and Intercultural Studies together, and also undertook to implement them together at Nova Gorica Polytechnic. For that reason we are convinced that the cofounder status will eliminate the last obstacles of interinstitutional co-operation, promoting and more successfully intertwining the co-operation between both institutions. Thus SRC SASA will efficiently complement the founding role of the »Jožef Stefan« Institute, which will continue to carry out the research and pedagogical activity and the expansion of staff at Nova Gorica Polytechnic to the fields of natural and technical sciences.

The Municipality of Ajdovščina is the second largest municipality in the northern Primorska region. It is characterised by successful economic growth and the desire for general development. That is why it continuously proves that it seriously wishes to realise a policy of environmental development, which will be based on knowledge, entrepreneurship, and demanding technologies. It is aware that today that cannot be achieved without properly educated individuals and institutions that create such knowledge. With the arrival of Nova Gorica Polytechnic to Ajdovščina it is gaining both. Hence the Municipal Council unanimously decided at its meeting on 20 November 2003 to join the cofounding of Nova Gorica Polytechnic. In order for a part of the activity of Nova Gorica Polytechnic to be transferred to Ajdovščina as soon as possible, and for the building of a campus to begin, the Municipal Council approved a donation contract at the same meeting, with which it donated a building within the complex of the former »Srečko Kosovel« barracks to Nova Gorica Polytechnic in permanent ownership. In the building, with a total useable area of around 1,700 m2, Nova Gorica Polytechnic will carry out study and research programmes in the field of natural science and technics.

With the expansion of the cofounders of Nova Gorica Polytechnic, the care for the infrastructure and local support of the development of Nova Gorica Polytechnic and the aid in the development of the research and pedagogical activity are intertwined in a balanced way.