Experimental studies of nuclear reactions in the Ruđer Bošković Institute began immediately after completion of the neutron generator in 1956. The Laboratory for Nuclear Reactions (LNR) was established in 1963. At the beginning main emphasis of its work was the study of different reactions induced by 14 MeV neutrons as well as the development and construction of necessary detector systems. The measurements at that time were done mainly in Zagreb. However with the time the scope of research has broadened as well as the spectrum of projectile energies, ranging from 100 keV up to 500 GeV per nucleon. Although the use of home accelerators continued, most of the measurements were performed abroad, mainly in the laboratories of West Europe and USA. In the 40 years the numbers of scientific and technical staff in LNR on the average were 15 and 5, respectively. During the period the LNR researchers have published more than 650 scientific papers in journals and books with about the same number of conference contributions. In addition, the research has resulted in 24 PhD and 27 MSc theses.

Present research is covered by the following three scientific projects supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport: "Light nuclei: clusters, nuclear molecules, reactions ...", "Hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics" and "Interactions in subatomic and medical physics".