Convergence of Romanian R&D System within Innovation Union

The convergence of Romanian R&D and Innovation system within the European Research Area has been an important goal of policy measures taken within the last decade, aiming to increase its performance and catching up the more developed EU countries. The process of decision and policy design have been strongly influenced by policy developments in the EU taking into account the priorities at EU level, Framework Programmes or key policy documents issued by the European Commission. Romanian policy documents such as the National Strategy of R&D and Innovation (2007-2013), the National Plan for RDI (2007-2013), other National Reform Strategies have an overall emphasis on similar to many of the main strands of EU policy in the research and innovation field. Starting with 2000 year, the European Research Area has become a key reference point for research policy in Europe, aiming to overcome the fragmentation of research activities, programmes and policies across Europe. The globalisation of economy and communications, technological progress and its social implications led to the creation of the European Research Area , as a base for the convergence of national RD&I systems. Starting with 2000, the European Research Area has played a consistent role in determining the R&D policy in Romania regarding both of them, to mobilization of resources and to excellence and exploitability of research results. The advantages offered by the integration into ERA are directly related to the participation of Romania in the single labour market for researchers, benefiting from a high quality R&D infrastructure, sharing knowledge and optimising programmes and priorities. The R&D related objectives inserted in different national strategies offer answers, more or less suitable, to the requirements of the Lisbon Agenda. This has given a strong impetus to increase the share of R&D expenditures in GDP, as an important target, inserted in each of mentioned strategies. The Lisbon Strategy 2010 also, have offered a set of benchmarks for the measurement of competitiveness, as well as best practices, which aim at avoiding risks for the R&D activity. The European initiative of creation of Innovation Union is a new challenge for Romanian research and innovation system, confronted with serious weaknesses during the crisis, which affects its performance and the governance of research activity, especially in the private sector. The paper is focused on the analysis of the present Romanian R&D and innovation performance, evaluating the gaps in comparison with average EU and with the best performers, using a system of relevant indicators. The paper analyses the progress made in the last ten years in achieving the convergence of European RD&I systems, the factors that have accelerated or slowed down the process, laying the stress on Romania's position in closing the gaps that separate it from European average and from the leaders in this area. The conclusion of this paper could be used by policy makers in order to a better design, monitoring, coordination and implementation of the policies directed to reach the strategic goals of the Innovation Union.