H2020 Dashboard: Romania

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme of all times, with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). When launched four years ago, it promised taking great ideas from the lab to the market. Schuman Associates is starting 2019 by analysing how different EU countries have leveraged the benefits of H2020. Given that the new EU presidency has just started, Romania is the first country in the series that we analyse.

According to the latest European Innovation Scoreboard, Romania is a modest innovator. Over time, performance has declined relatively to the EU average. This also holds true for Romania's participation in H2020, where only 806 participations are registered under the H2020 Dashboard data since 2014. The EU total net contribution to the Romanian RTD projects amounts to €128 million. Unitatea Executiva Pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior – the Ministry of Research Agency in charge of funding the national R&D policy - and the Politechnic University of Bucharest are among the top beneficiaries of the programme both accounting to more than 70 participations. Companies such as Siveco or Romaero are also active in the RTD area. 14% of the H2020 Romanian projects are led by SMEs benefiting from almost €17 million from the Programme. BEIA Consult international, a company specialized in telecommunications equipment solutions, is one of the top SME participants.

Further data analysis shows that out of the 4541 eligible proposals to H2020 coming from Romania, only 11% of them were finally retained compared to other countries such as Germany (14,76%), Spain (12,63%) or Bulgaria (9,71%).

Requested EU Contribution by Type of Organisation (Mil EUR)

Current H2020 opportunities for Romanian organizations

Under the 2018-2020 Horizon 2020 Work Programme, eight transport topics are open for application as of today, making available EU financing of €122 million. The applicants will have to present project proposals in the areas of waterborne transport, logistics, aviation, transport infrastructure and safety. The projects will be selected for funding in two-stage evaluation. First, candidates need to submit short project proposals by 16 January 2019. Within three months after this deadline first phase successful bidders will be invited to submit full project proposals by 12 September 2019. The final results will be known by February 2020 at the latest.

From its Bucharest-based team, Schuman Associates can support Romanian entities in their bid strategy towards H2020. Accessing these grants can often prove challenging due to the very particular requirements of each sub-programme and the highly competitive nature of the application process. Schuman Associates can help you along the way with assistance in the identification, submission and implementation of the best H2020 opportunity for your innovation ideas.

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