Moldovan and Romanian researchers are urged to apply to the program Horizon Europe 2027 so as to be able to implement research and innovation projects in cooperation with people of science from Romania. The announcement was made in an event entitled “New Romania - Republic Moldova prospects of cooperation in the field of research”, IPN reports.

Minister of Education and Research Anatolie Topală said that it is essential to strengthen cooperation between teams from both sides of the Prut. Among the mentioned objectives are to ensure the mobility of researchers from the two countries, to implement joint research and development projects, to form young generations or researchers and to identify complementariness between the research infrastructure existing in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

Anatolie Topală noted that a part of the projects that were already submitted by Moldovan researchers were approved. “Today we present the science and innovation project that will facilitate the optimization of research projects. We aim to ensure a source of financing for research. Romania always supported us, especially in education and research. We now give a new impetus by signing a number of documents. This project has a component devoted to the cooperation of Romania with the Republic of Moldova. I’m glad that we now have a rather good rate of applications to the program Horizon Europe, of 31%. Over 100 projects have been submitted by researchers from Moldova and 93 projects were accepted as eligible, while 26 were already confirmed and enjoy a contribution of over €3 million from the EU,” said the minister.

Anatolie Topală noted that the authorities are making effort to encourage research institutions and their staff to continue work. In this regard, a Government decision providing that the researches who take part in international projects will have a higher pay was approved earlier this year. This way, the Government aims to encourage university researches, including young people who want to become involved in research.

Director General of the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding of Romania Adrian Curaj said that what the people of science from Moldova should do is to think up worthy projects, while the cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Moldova will facilitate the submission of files. “Romania is the top partner in terms of cooperation in the given sector. Within this project, we have three key areas: exact and engineering sciences, social sciences and humanities, and also life sciences. Romania has research infrastructure and our mission is to create conditions for cooperation. I expect there will be a lot of projects within the cooperation we announced,” stated Adrian Curaj.

Moldova State University (USM) rector Igor Sharov said that Romania has always been a partner that essentially contributes to developing research and education in Moldova. “For USM, education and sciences are the central axis of the partnerships we have with Romania. We are on the same wavelength. I’m sure we will achieve success. A part of the projects were already written and I want to thank for involvement all those who present projects. I’m sure that any project idea can be developed. For me, it is important to see a range of projects in a number of areas,” stated the rector.