The European level of research and development funding policy

• Author: Oana Iuliana Rujoiu
• Pages: 13-23

The European level of research and development funding policy

PhD. student Oana Iuliana RUJOIU

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Abstract

The study presents some indicators that characterize the Romanian public fund-

ing policy in comparison with other European countries. An alarming lack of project-

based funding accompanies the lack of Ro manian public R&D resources. The data indi-

cate that the most industrialized European countries tend instead to strengthen and dif-

ferentiate the mixture of policy instruments, to reach leadership po sitions in particularly

promising fields for prospective developments; Romania does not follow this trend, mak-

ing it more challenging to extract the benefits of this strateg y. The orientation towards a

performance-based distribution of institutional financing is the most significant change

in Romania's scientific policy. However, the allocation of public funds for R&D had a

massive contribution to the decline of this sector. The organization o f the Romanian re-

search system maintains a strongly hierarchical mold based on ministerial actors, and

there are no autonomous bodies able to elaborate policy instruments suitable for sup-

porting sectors, structures, territories and activities. That's why the public intervention is

necessary mediating between the various govern mental interests and the demand for

funding coming from the research community, the scientific organizations, and corpo-

rates.

Keywords: the public funding policy, research, development, projects

JEL Classification: H83

1. Introduction

The scientific and technological debate in Romania has become progres-

sively more critical and controversial. Public opinion has become more demand-

ing in requesting information on how public resources are used, and companies

are subjected to fiercer international competition that often finds the key to com-

petitiveness precisely in research and innovation. The debate is still dominated

by observations on individual phenomena and less attention is paid to the overall

picture in which those in charge for providing and investigating new knowledge

work in the universities, public research institutions and businesses.

Through this research, I'm presenting analyzes, data and problems relat-

ing to the country's research and innovation system. The National Scientific Re-

search Council (CNCS) has never stopped producing analyzes and data, but with

this report, it is proposed to offer a systematic and, above all, periodic contribu-

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Oana Iuliana Rujoiu - Doctoral School of Law, Buch arest University of Economics Studies,

Romania, rujoiuoana@yahoo.com