New minister aims to find ‘black holes’ in Romania’s research system

After more than three decades of reliance on foreign direct investments and EU funds, Romania should be looking towards a new economic model based on the production of knowledge and advanced technologies, says Daniel David, who became the country’s education and research minister in December. 

But that would require a reconfiguration of Romania’s entire research system, including the merger of low-performing institutions and a new classification system for universities, David told Science|Business in an interview. 

“At the moment we are making minimal investments in a system that works with many black holes,” David said. He is now conducting an analysis of the country’s entire research and education system, which will be presented in May. Based on the results of the review, the government plans to intervene and make changes where needed. 

David says the current system is too complex and inefficient. It includes universities, the research institutes of the Romanian Academy, national institutes for research and development, and other sectoral research institutes that report either to the Parliament or other ministries. 

“These actors do not work together, they enter in competition, fight over a limited amount of funding and do not enter in the kind of cooperation that would lead to cumulative development,” said David. “This is a key problem.”

Romania has consistently ranked at the bottom of EU scoreboards for research and innovation, and has one of the lowest participation rates in the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe. Romania also has one of the lowest R&D expenditures in the EU: 0.57% of GDP, public and private investments included. 

David believes a better structured R&D system would be more efficient, could perform much better in EU scoreboards and international funding competitions, and could help move the economy into a higher gear. “I think this is mandatory, otherwise we will be losers,” he said. 

The ministry is currently evaluating institutions that perform research, development and innovation. Then he will decide which institutions are strong enough to move forward on their own and compete successfully in national and international competitions. Low-performing institutions “should enter a reorganisation process so that we can concentrate academic resources and have new structures that work well,” David said. 

David is also planning to reorganise universities into three new categories, depending on the main mission of each institution. Some universities could be focused only on education and training in partnership with regional companies, while others would have a component of applied research tailored to regional needs. A third category would focus on international competitions in advanced research.

“The country needs all three components. We will give them the chance to define themselves and evaluate them as such, that way we are more honest with ourselves and with the students that come to us, and with society at large,” David said. 

By redefining the R&D architecture of the country, David hopes consolidated research institutes and universities will start performing better. He gave the example of how France consolidated its universities when most of them dropped in international rankings in the early 2000s. David says European University alliances and the European Research Infrastructure Consortia are also a form of R&D concentration.

“Wetoo need to consolidate academia, because we have inherited a reform made in 1948, when the old comprehensive universities were broken up into many smaller universities,” David said. 

Difficult times

David was rector of Babeș-Bolyai, Romania’s largest university, when he was co-opted into a government coalition in December. This was at the conclusion of a tumultuous electoral year that culminated in three far-right parties wining seats in the parliament ten days after the first round of the presidential elections had been cancelled over suspicions of foreign interference in the electoral process. One of the presidential candidates is now being investigated for “actions against the constitutional order” and setting up a “fascist organisation.” 

The country’s economic prospects are also dire. The government is struggling to reign-in booming public expenditure and a growing deficit, the election saga has scared off investors, and the local stock market has reported a significant drop in value.

But, despite joining the ministry in such a difficult situation and without prospects of significant increases to the education and research budgets, David is optimistic. Science and education, along with law enforcement and defence, are the only three budget lines which have not been cut this year. 

When asked whether Romania can commit to raise its R&D expenditure to 3% of GDP as required by EU agreements, David said he first wants to make sure that the system is working efficiently with the money available now. “The economic conditions look very bad, and we were not able to reach the figure promised even when the economic conditions were much better.”