The National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2022-2027 (PNCDI IV), a strategic document that envisions investments of up to 60 billion lei, is not applicable more than three years after its adoption. The cause is the lack of methodological rules and implementation procedures, without which funding programs cannot be launched. In this context, The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has called on the Ministry of Education and Research to urgently issue the administrative acts necessary to unblock the funding and make the research programs operational.
Although the Government approved the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation as early as September 2022, through Decision No. 1.188, the document remained a mere promise on paper. The law foresaw total allocations of up to 60 billion lei for 10 major development programs, which were supposed to modernize Romania by 2030.
The strategy initiated by the former Ministry of Research aimed to revitalize the field of research and innovation through clear objectives, such as stimulating excellence, supporting fundamental and frontier research, attracting and retaining highly qualified human resources, including PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and young researchers from the diaspora, supporting partnerships between institutes and companies and increasing Romania's participation in international programs, notably Horizon Europe. Another objective was to strengthen the link between science and society so that research better responds to real community needs.
Meanwhile, the responsibility for implementation has been transferred from the former Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization to the Ministry of Education and Research and the National Research Authority, which is subordinated to the Ministry. After this transfer, none of the ten programmes has been operationalized through clear implementation mechanisms.
There are currently no functioning funding lines and no predictable public timetable. No budgetary resources have been established for the programs in the plan. Also, the administrative acts regulating the launch, selection, monitoring and evaluation of projects have not been issued. In the absence of these instruments, the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation remains a document in force but without practical application.
This administrative blockage is causing a major damage, with knock-on effects, to Romania's development. The impact is direct for thousands of researchers, research centres, non-governmental organizations and companies, whose activity is severely affected by the lack of funding and predictability. The effect is also a strategic one: Romania loses the capacity to attract and make efficient use of funds, to build local innovation ecosystems and to turn research into competitive solutions for the economy and society.
In the long term, the non-implementation of the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation is widening the gaps and distancing the Romanian scientific community from international standards of competitiveness.
The real cost of this institutional gridlock is reflected in public indicators. According to the National Institute of Statistics, spending on research and development represented 0.46% of GDP in 2024 (8.079 billion lei), almost five times less than the European Union average, where research spending was 2.24% of GDP in 2024. According to Eurostat, in terms of public allocations for research, Romania is at the bottom of the European ranking, with €19.1 per capita. At the same time, Romania is categorized as an "Emerging Innovator" in European assessments, indicating a low capacity to turn research into technologies, products, competitive companies and well-paid jobs.
FACIAS calls on the Ministry of Education and Research to urgently issue the administrative act of a normative nature to establish methodological rules, procedures, instructions and / or implementation guidelines for the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation. If the rules have not been adopted by January 17, FACIAS will take the Ministry of Education and Research to court, asking it to issue the necessary legislation.
At the same time, FACIAS calls for the publication of a realistic and complete schedule, with deadlines, funding instruments and evaluation rules, in order to stop the blockage affecting human resources in research, research organizations and companies that depend on research, development and innovation partnerships.