The construction work is valued at HRK 25 million and the centre should be up and running by the end of 2016.
The centre will offer services to small, medium-sized and large companies in the wood manufacturing sector in Croatia and the region.
The centre will work in cooperation with the Zagreb University's Faculty of Forestry and the Rudjer Boskovic Institute which should serve as connection between entrepreneurs and the science community.
The greatest value of this project would be to improve the competitiveness of the wood manufacturing sector on foreign markets, said Virovitica-Podravina County Prefect Tomislav Tolusic.
Branko Baricevic, the head of the European Commission's Representation to Croatia, underscored that this project was one of the first projects in Croatia to be financed from structural funds. He said that one of the priorities of the Commission under the leadership of Jean Claude Juncker was to boost growth, and projects like the Virovitica centre were an instrument to help realise that growth and create new jobs.