The research system is very fragmented in Romania, but since the end of last year the institutes have the possibility to merge, said the Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitalisation, Sebastian Burduja, on Friday, on the occasion of his participation in the opening of "Bucharest Tech Week".
"The research system is very fragmented in our country, there are 47 institutes with the Ministry of Research, there are 70 with the Romanian Academy, there are institutes at university level and an imperative suggestion of the European Commission was to focus on this system, to encourage mergers, consortia, even the affiliation of some institutes to universities, at the end of last year, a PNRR [National recovery and Resilience Plan] milestone met on time. A law in Romania allows institutes to merge, form research consortia or even come under the coordination of universities. (...) Salary in the research system is a problem, especially for young researchers. We managed to increase the research budget by 70 percent compared to last year," said Sebastian Burduja.
According to him, the basic funding, the "core programme", has increased from about 500 million RON to 740 million RON, which allows the general directors of the institutes to better pay their employees, including young researchers.
"Today we signed an order establishing the methodology for the salaries of directors-general and it is the first time that we have made the salary of the director-general dependent on the salaries of junior researchers. So they have every interest to pay a beginner, a young researcher very well," added Sebastian Burduja.AGERPRES
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