The Republic of Moldova obtained €5.38 million within Horizon Europe program. The amount is higher than the participation fee paid by the Republic of Moldova under this program, the head of the Horizon Europe National Office Vitalie Moraru stated in a public debate centering on the European integration of Moldova’s research sector. According to him, Horizon Europe has tangible benefits for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova and the attracted money materializes in taxes that reach the state budget, but also through investments in capacities.

The Horizon Europe National Office was established in 2023 and aims to increase the number of participants from the Republic of Moldova in European Union programs and initiatives in the fields of research and innovation. According to the head of the Office, through the won projects, the Republic of Moldova obtains more money from the European community than the membership fees it pays.

“Since 2021 until now, we reached a figure of €5.38 million. This figure is much higher than the fee that the Republic of Moldova pays for participation in this program. If we are talking about the institutions participating in the program, the largest budget is possessed by an institution that has bears little relationship to a university. It won several projects and has a positive experience in the program Horizon 2020 as well. Everything that is related to this program is also related to the positive experience you have in the previous consortia. If you have integrated into a consortium, you later reapply with the same partners and the chances of winning a project increase significantly. Our mission is to integrate researchers or universities into consortia that have the potential to win. That’s why participation in international events is very important,” said the head of the Horizon Europe National Office.

Vitalie Moraru noted said that for Moldova to gain more funds within the program, it is necessary to increase researchers’ capacities to write and manage projects.

“It is very important for researchers to know English. We have very good researchers, but who do not know English and this is a mission that the Ministry of Education has also assumed. The Ministry announced that there will be funding for the development of capacities not only to write projects, but also to learn English so as to be able to design project proposals. The benefits of these projects are tangible. €5.38 million is the amount that comes into the state budget as taxes, after all. In addition, it goes to investments in capacities,” stated Vitalie Moraru.

He explained that the Republic of Moldova is successful within the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie program, which offers postdoctoral fellowships in the field of research and innovation.

“We have a positive practice regarding Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, where individual scholarships, staff exchange scholarships are offered. The Republic of Moldova has a successful practice in this regard. We have a success rate of 20% of the won projects. This is above the European average, which is of 16%. We can be proud. If we were in football, we could say that we were in the Champions League. The association with this program creates conditions for the development of an economy based on knowledge, technology transfer and innovations,” said the director of the Horizon Europe National Office.

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.