EU Project Management Knowledge Transfer – Case Study UNIRI (Croatia)

European Union (EU) projects are projects that the EU bodies select for funding in accordance with its strategic priorities and must be managed in accordance with the EU administrative and financial rules. The most important constraints facing contracting parties relate to formal rules of participation, finance (costs), time schedules, exploitation and longterm project sustainability. The size, complexity and importance of EU projects in economic, political and other terms for both the EU member and non-member states call for the application of project management throughout a project's implementation. Considering that EU projects have special attributes that distinguish them from traditional projects, it follows that activities in managing EU projects must also differ somewhat from activities involved in managing conventional projects. The aim of this paper is to explain EU projects and EU project management and major distinctions from the management of traditional projects. Also, it emphasizes the importance of knowledge transfer and education in this specific area of project management. As an addition to informal education, which is very popular in Croatia, the first generation of students finished their formal education of EU project management as part of their curricula at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Opatija.