After the first phase of the socio-economic transition in Croatia, which included the restitution of the established institutions of capitalist society (market economy, democratization, privatization), there is a need for faster inclusion in global economic processes, primarily in the economy of the European Union. Achieving competitiveness on the European and global market implies economic growth based on knowledge, education and innovation, that is, it implies a transition to a knowledge economy. The driver of the knowledge economy is the capitalization of knowledge, which is achieved through innovation and thus integrates scientific research, its technological application and commercial exploitation. The ability of a society to spread, use and create knowledge for the purpose of economic growth depends on the system of organizing and managing the institutional environment and the necessary resources. Such a system is known as the national innovation system, and the management policy as the innovation policy. In the light of the endogenization of technological change and the "new innovation paradigm", the innovation system and economic growth is a complex social phenomenon whose effectiveness depends on the action of the "invisible hand" of the institutional environment, which is created in co-evolution with factors of a social and political nature. This equates the importance of "social" and "political" changes with the importance of "technological change" itself and the material assumptions of production. The basic starting point of this research is that knowledge about the national innovation system of Croatia (HIS) is in its infancy, and little is known about its functioning, the quality of components and obstacles to development. In particular, the aspect of the institutional environment and socio-cultural assumptions of the use of knowledge in the function of economic growth have been neglected. Thus, the professional and scientific public is left without important knowledge about how to initiate economic growth based on knowledge. The goal of this project is, on the one hand, to improve knowledge about the "best practices" of innovation systems and policies in foreign countries, especially the EU, and on the other hand, to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of HIS for the purpose of faster transformation of Croatia into a knowledge society. The project is interdisciplinary and interregional, and includes experts from the fields of sociology and economics, i.e. from the universities of Rijeka, Zagreb and Osijek, as well as foreign experts.