Horizon Europe is a very complex program and involves the identification of solutions for all aspects of life, director of the National Agency for Research and Development Aurelia Hanganu stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to her, researchers from the Republic of Moldova manage to win international projects and identify solutions to pressing problems faced by society.

Aurelia Hanganu noted that Horizon Europe offers opportunities for the whole range of sciences, being the largest program of the European Commission to support research and innovation. The Republic of Moldova is part of Horizon Europe and attracted €5.38 million that is intended for the implementation of projects.

“Over €5 million is the attracted amount that hasn’t been yet put to good use. The projects under Horizon Europe are long-lasting. We have a project that explores ways and methods of restoring the environment and natural biodiversity. Another multilateral project is Water for All. The project is open to researchers from the Republic of Moldova who want to find solutions to improve water quality. The General Police Inspectorate is one of the most successful institutions participating in this project. Thus, not only research institutes can take part. “Viitorul” Institute also participates. The program is very complex and involves the identification of solutions for all aspects of human life,” said the director of the National Agency for Development and Research.

Aurelia Hanaganu explained that the Republic of Moldova aims to increase the number of participations in Horizon Europe. Researchers, NGOs, small and medium-sized enterprises and other entities that have the possibility to obtain funding for research projects can submit applications.

“For the proper integration of our country into Horizon Europe program, an objective is stipulated in the general research and innovation program for 2024-2027, which was adopted by the Ministry of Education and Research. Currently, we have 300 participations in Horizon Europe. 245 are eligible. This is a success rate of 20.3%. We have 27% of single participations. 59 organizations are partners in 49 concluded grant agreements to the total value of over €5 million. We have 300 participations, but the target is to have 700 participations. This is the target not only of the Ministry, but of the whole country. The National Agency for Research and Development is the one that manages, including the Horizon Europe Office,” said Aurelia Hanganu.

According to the Agency’s director, in order to increase Moldova’s capacity to absorb funds under Horizon Europe, researchers are trained and benefit from English language and project management courses.

“We have research teams that already have the capacity to write projects and manage a project under Horizon Europe. On the other hand, we target young teams for organizing, writing projects for this complex program. We are launching a call to receive project proposals by the end of October and then we will fund different services for our researchers, such as project proposal writing services, for training, project management courses, English language courses for project writing. A total budget of 2.5 million lei was planned for the next year. This means about 30 project proposals will be financed through this instrument by the Agency,” explained he director of the National Agency for Development and Research.

The public debate entitled “European integration of the Republic of Moldova’s research sector” was the tenth installment of the project “Benefits of Moldova’s accession to the EU for people, community and country”, which is implemented with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.