incrEAST provides information on objectives and scope of international cooperation in research, science and technology between Moldova and EECA countries, EU Member States and associated countries as well as news about further opportunities for enhanced networking.
On the basis of respective bilateral scientific agreements, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (ASM) collaborates with various research institutions from the Russian Federation (The Russian Academy of Sciences, The Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, The Russian Fund of Fundamental Research, the Russian Fund for Humanitarian Research), Belarus Republic (National Academy of Sciences, the State Committee for Science and Technologies of Belarusian Republic created on the basis of inter-governmental agreement between Republics of Belarus and Moldova regarding the cooperation in science and technology, and the Republican Fund of Fundamental Research), Ukraine (on 2nd of December 2008, ASM signed an agreement on scientific cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, which envisages the launch of a bilateral programme of grants in 2009; National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences – including a Convention that implied a collaboration between the Academy of Agricultural Sciences “Gheorghe Ionescu-Şişeşti” from Romania and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences from Ukraine, the Southern Scientific Center of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Azerbaijan (signed an Agreement on scientific cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences in June 2007), as well as scientific organisations like the International Association of Science Academies (MAAN), Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Science & Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) and cooperation in the framework of Organization for Democracy and Economic Development between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova (GUAM).
Thus, within the framework of the bilateral agreement on scientific and technological cooperation between ASM and the Russian Fund of Basic Research (signed on 18.03.2005) and additional protocols, 44 projects were financed between 2006 and 2007 with another 45 implemented in 2008 and 2009. The latter had been selected out of 88 proposals submitted to both parties. Currently, a new call is under negotiation.
Similarly, within the framework of the Agreement on Organisation of the Joint Call between ASM and the Russian Foundation for Humanities (signed on 23.01.2009), a bilateral competition was organised at the beginning of 2009. Nine projects were approved for financing out of the 24 that had been submitted.
As part of the cooperation agreement between ASM and the Belarusian Republican Fund of Fundamental Research (signed on 03.05.2007) and additional protocols, a total of 16 research projects were financed and implemented in 2008 and 2009. An additional 19 Moldo-Belorussian projects have been launched since the beginning of 2010 for a duration of one year.
Based on the agreement on cooperation in the field of education, science and culture between the Parliaments of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova (signed on 20.03.1999) and additional protocols between ASM and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 18 projects have been launched since the start of 2010. They were selected from a total of 73 submitted proposals.
Policy dialogue in the field of research and development between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova continues within the framework of the EU - Moldova Cooperation Committee and Subcommittee no.4 on “Energy, Environment, Transport and Telecommunications, Science and Technology, and Training and Education” meetings. In the beginning of 2010, negotiations of the EU-Republic of Moldova Association Agreement were launched, the Chapter on “Research, Technological Development and Demonstration” was included as part of the Working Group IV on “People to People Cooperation”.
Eastern Partnership, launched in early 2009, brought new opportunities in view of enhancing the scientific cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. To increase the participation of Eastern Partners in the opportunities for cooperative research, capacity building and researcher mobility, offered by the Seventh Framework Programme, was declared as the core objective of Platform 4 'Contacts between People' Work Programme 2009-2011 in the field of research:
Following the official request of the Republic of Moldova to associate with the Seventh Framework Programme expressed in May 2008, a short-term Action Plan „Moldova Knowledge Excellence Initiative” was launched, aimed at strengthening the scientific potential and management skills of RDI organisations for participating in FP7. It thus seeks to consolidate the role of science and innovation in the general process of the country’s development. The Action Plan was approved by Decision no.230 of the Supreme Council for Science and Technological Development of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova on 27th of November 2008.
In this context, by Decree of the Government of the Republic of Moldova no.515 of 17 August 2009, the National Committee for Association of the Republic of Moldova to FP7 was created. The newly created National Committee has the role of promoting and monitoring the process of association and the measures taken for the advancement of Moldova’s participation in FP7. It is composed of representatives of ministries at the deputy minister level, other central public authorities and state institutions affected by FP7 priorities.
On a bilateral level, ASM has concluded an agreement on scientific cooperation with science academies from the following EU member states and associated countries: United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Turkey, Austria and the Czech Republic.
A Memorandum of Intentions on scientific and technological cooperation was signed between the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in March 2008. On its basis two open calls for collaborative research project proposals were conducted in 2009 and in 2010, respectively. Each year, 10 different projects were accepted for funding. As agreed between funding parties, project proposals submitted must encompass two components: (1) a basic & applied research component; and (2) a pre-feasibility study component for further collaborative research project proposals under future bilateral calls or other programmes such as the EU Research Framework Programmes (FP7).
Within the framework of the S&T Cooperation Programme between the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS) and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova for the years 2010-2012 (signed on 23.10.2008), a collaborative call for proposals was announced in December 2009. In particular, the programme aims at facilitating the integration of the Moldovan scientific community into the research and development system of the European Union, preparation of Moldovan teams to participate in community programmes, especially the Seventh Framework Programme, as well as initiating and expediting collaboration within regional programmes as those of BSEC.
In 2010, negotiations on launching similar cooperative programmes with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science of Bulgaria have begun.
Cooperative activities are also carried out with the following organisations: Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), NATO Science for Peace and Security Committee, All European Academies (ALLEA), Central European Initiative (CEI), International Union of Academies (UAI-IUA), the International Council for Science (ICSU), Central and Eastern European Networking Association (CEENet), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), UNESCO, etc.
Since the 7th Framework Programme was launched, 94 project proposals under participation of Moldovan research groups (including research institutions, higher education institutions, SMEs and NGOs) were submitted and 15 accepted for funding. For the latter, breakdown by topic was as follows: Health – 3; ICT – 1; Transport – 1; INFRA – 2; SME – 1; INCO – 3; IRSES – 3.
In 1994, Moldova joined the Tempus programme. Its initial focus was on university management, curriculum development, and teaching staff retraining in the fields of social work, communication studies, modern European languages and economics. Since 2000, Moldovan non-academic actors — in particular government organisations, and to a lesser extent, enterprises — have gradually become more active in Tempus projects.5 For the period of 2009 until 2011, 8 projects with Moldovan partners were selected for funding.
The gradual integration into the European Research Area is linked in large partg to the modernisation of the information access in the areas of science and innovation. The informational environment in the area of research and education in the Republic of Moldova is based on the infrastructure of the network RENAM (Research and Educational Networking Association of Moldova), created and continuously developped on the basis of grants provided by NATO (Science for Peace and Security Programme) and the European Commission (FP6 and FP7). The RENAM network has an external channel for internet traffic (capacity of 155 Mbps) that is connected to the academic cross-European network GEANT.
Within the framework of the Programme on Scientific Cooperation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland (SCOPES), as a result of the first open call for the period of 2009-2012, 18 joint project proposals were submitted with Moldovan research-group participation (4 institutional partnerships and 14 joint research projects), out of which 10 projects were approved for financing (1 IP and 9 JPRs). Within the framework of SCOPES,15 projects (5 IPs and 10 JPRs) with Moldovan participation were financed between 2005 and 2008.
Great support for the Moldovan science development is granted by the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) through the Moldovan Research and Development Association (MRDA), its partner organization created in 2000 as part of a cooperation agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and CRDF. Up until 2008, CRDF and MRDA have jointly committed about 8 million dollars to support more than 250 projects in 38 different grant competitions. More than 2000 scientists were involved in the implementation of these projects.
The Academy of Sciences of Moldova is one of the institutions that promote the values of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme in the Republic of Moldova. European integration and international collaboration in the fields of fundamental and applied scientific researches is an important aspect of science policy in Moldova. Various projects and workshops were implemented in cooperation with NATO Partner Countries, in the fields of geology, agriculture, energy, environment, ICT and others.
Since the opening of the Science & Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) Office in November 2006 in Chisinau, 16 grants totaling approximately 1.85 m USD were allocated to Moldovan organisations.
On 4-5 May 2007, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova - together with UNESCO Office in Venice (BRESCE), the UNESCO Office in Moscow and the International Council for Science (ICSU) - organised the Conference of the Academies from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe with the title “Global Science and National Policies: the Role of Academies.” It was attended by over 50 representatives from 23 countries and international organisations.
Main topics of the conference included: science for knowledge and sustainable development; mitigation of natural and human-induced environmental disasters; science education; gender issues in science; science and national development; role of Academies in the SEE countries. At this conference, the scholars recognized ASM as a unique model of science management, recommending its implementation in states with similar particularities as of the Republic of Moldova.
Between September 18 and 21 of 2008, the International Conference for the Central and Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Baltic States on “Science & Education Policies” was held in Chisinau. It represented a joint effort of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and the Ministry of Education and Youth of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of the UNESCO Office in Moscow, Central European Initiative, the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG), the Moldovan Research and Development Association (MRDA), and others.
The programme of the Conference addressed several challenges affecting science and higher education policies today such as strengthening international impact of national research and education programmes; strengthening research in higher education; developing a knowledge-based economy; stemming and reversing brain drain.
As a result of the conference, two documents were released: the Final Communique & Declaration, intended as a contribution to developing better science and higher education policies in the regions targeted by the conference and beyond. In addition, these documents constitute a contribution of the states of represented regions to the World Conference on Higher Education (Paris, July 2009) and World Science Forum (Budapest, November 2009).
Full reports presented during both conferences mentioned above were published by the UNESCO Office in Venice and Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE) in “Science Policy Series” Volumes no. 6 and no.7, respectively.
1. Scientific potential of the Republic of Moldova (total researchers, 1991 - 2005)
2. Scientific potential of the Republic of Moldova (doctors and doctors-habilitat, 1991 - 2005)
3. Allocations for Science in Moldova till 2004 (% of GDP)
4. Dynamics of Science Financing According to the Partnership Agreement (% of GDP)
5. Scientific-educational cluster
5 „Participation of Moldova in Tempus“ http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/tempus/countries/impact/moldova.pdf
Source: ASM
Last up-date: 31.05.2010
[PDF - 1.21 MB]
(November 2011, compiled as an annex to the "White Paper on Opportunities and Challenges in View of Enhancing the EU Cooperation with Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Caucasus in Science, Research, and Innovation".) (URL: http://www.increast.eu/_media/Country_Report_Moldova_2011.pdf)
