Romania

Political framework for scientific and technological cooperation

German-Romanian research cooperation dates back to 1973 and is based on the agreement between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of the Republic of Romania on scientific research and technological development of 29 June 1973. On 03.06.2008 a protocol was signed on Romanian-German cooperation in science and technology which is specifically aimed at preparing proposals for the Seventh Research Framework Programme. In March 2010, the protocol was extended to the year 2013.

Since 2006, the central institution of Romania’s R&D&I policy (research, development and innovation policy) has been the National Authority for Scientific Research (Autoritatea Nationala pentru Cercetare Stiintifica, ANCS). The ANCS formulates the strategies for research and development and monitors the impact of the measures and programmes that have been adopted. The Romanian Committee for Research Infrastructure CRIC (Comitetul Roman pentru Infrastructurile Cercetãrii) is comprised of scientists and government representatives and acts as the most important committee for the ministry and ANCS. It advises centrally on issues concerning the regional balance of infrastructure development and on the various forms of European and international cooperation.

In its mid-term strategy for R&D&I (2007-2013), the Romanian government listed the following three primary goals:

• Creation and expansion of excellence in science and technology, 
• improvement in the competitiveness of the Romanian economy and 
• improvement of the quality of life in Romania.

Important target areas are overcoming low-wage product models through to more high-tech exports. The aim is to move towards being less dependent on foreign investments in the steel, automotive and textile/clothing industry and to focus on developments in high-tech areas, such as IT, biotechnology or nanotechnology. After the establishment and development of the research infrastructure, the country hopes to move closer to the European Research Area through a developed, attractive research and higher education landscape.

The most important financial instrument is the funds listed in the national plan for research, development and innovation in the sum of 15 billion Lei (approx. 3.6 billion euros) earmarked for the years 2007-2013. Through programmes scheduled over several years with multiple rounds of calls for proposals per year, the higher education and research area is being strengthened in a targeted manner. This follows the driving forward of the “Romanian Research Area” between 2005 and 2008 via the research excellence programme CEEX (Cercetare de Excelenta). Through the national plan, continual calls for proposals are conducted in six sub-programmes which are oriented towards the topic fields of the Seventh Research Framework Programme of the EU. One third of the total budget – approximately €1.3 billion – is allocated alone to the area of "National partnerships in priority R&D&I Fields", with the most important funding areas being listed as "innovative materials, processes, products", health and the environment.

Romania’s high level of interest in participating in the European Research Area is underlined by its participation in 16 ERA-NETs and 8 European technology platforms (ETP), for example in hydrogen/fuel cell technology, photovoltaics and "Food for life".

Romania, which joined the European Union in 2007, can draw on up to €530 million from EU structural funds (EFRE) in order to achieve its R&D targets by 2013. Approximately 20% of the funds planned in the sectoral operational programme "Increasing economic competitiveness” (SOP-IEC) are available for access to "Improving economic competitiveness through the expansion of R&D".

Highlights of bilateral cooperation

The interdisciplinary project "From Wax Cylinder to Digital Storage" pursued complementary lines of development in different specialised areas. For ethnomusicology new methods were opened up by the project for original source assurance, data processing, archiving and presentation. The proposal was submitted in FP6 under call FP6-2005-IST-5 and in 2006 received funding for two years from the EU amounting to €706,000. The visible proof of this project, which has since been completed, is an online accessible database (www.ethnoarc.org)

Within the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the Bulgarian-Romanian Interuniversity Europe Centre (BRIE) was initiated at the end of 2002 by the University Rectors’ Conference (HRK) as a project to strengthen European university cooperation at the Danube bridge border area between Romania and Bulgaria. The most important regional actors are the Academy of Economics in Bucharest and the Angel Kantchev University of Ruse. A current project that was initiated by BRIE is BRIDGE: BULGARIAN-ROMANIAN INITIATIVE FOR DEMOCRACY AS A GUARD-POST OF EUROPE (http://brie.ru.acad.bg/bridge).

In October 2009, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) participated for the second time in the Bucharest International Technical Fair (TIB) with a joint booth and offered 11 German research institutions, research companies and networks the possibility of presenting themselves. Focal areas of the exhibitors were micro-systems engineering, renewable energies, automotive engineering/electromobility, security engineering and wastewater engineering. The workshop and cooperation exchange that were offered to accompany the exhibition produced numerous new contacts and sustainable research cooperation partnerships.

Funding of German-Romanian cooperation

Since 2004, the BMBF has been staging the programme "International Cooperation in Education and Research - Central, Eastern and South Eastern European Region" (regional call for proposals), which provides funding for projects submitted by German scientists with partners from Central and Eastern Europe. 16 projects with Romanian participation have so far been funded. An example of the three projects that are currently in progress is the cooperation between the RWTH Aachen and the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Science under the title "Natural nanoparticles in soils and sediments as possible vectors for environment contaminants".

A further important pillar of cooperation is the participation of R&D networks in the initiative to promote Germany as a key location for innovation – research marketing. Approval has been awarded in ten cases for research marketing projects with Romania as the target country. A currently running project is the research marketing project "Establishment of an international project group to develop and characterise photo active materials with key applications in hygiene and cosmetics" of BalticNet-PlasmaTec e.V.