Ozren Polašek is Director of the Croatian Science Foundation and an experienced leader in public health, analytics, and research funding, focused on data-driven, impactful global health solutions. He has devoted over a decade to advancing research in Croatia and currently leads a team of 36 at the Foundation, successfully guiding it through a major legal framework change and relaunching three new proposal schemes after a four-year pause.

Previously, he spent more than twelve years at the University of Split as professor and head of the Croatian Centre for Global Health, coordinating eleven graduate and postgraduate courses. As Founder and CEO of Gen-info Ltd., he led four research grants that produced 49 publications and over 11,600 citations.