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The present research is an exploratory study aiming at presenting the measures taken by the European Union to support the creation and development of clusters and to analyze Romania’s position in relation to other Member States in terms of key factors impacting cluster development. Impact factors on the development of clusters, such as digital skills among the active population, the degree of development of innovative companies, the number of applications for obtaining patents per one million inhabitants, the degree of development of clusters and the share of GDP in expenditures for research, development and innovation (%) were considered. The study highlights that Romania ranks last in the European ranking, due to the lack of incentives to promote the emergence of strong innovative clusters, underfunding of the innovation system and the absence of a legislative framework to support small and medium enterprises.

Research background: Technological changes are one of the reasons for the resizing of jobs. Demographic change is affecting the labour market, both locally and regionally. Thus, together with technological changes, they lead to changes in the level of education of graduates. The process is accentuated by globalization. There are changes in the labour market that require people with higher skills. Purpose of the article: For Romania, the analysis of the level of education of graduates at regional level, depending on the county, is presented in this article. In the paper, depending on the level of education, the evolution at county level of the number of graduates is presented. At the same time, the evolution of the total number of graduates for the levels of primary-secondary, vocational, high school, post-high school education, respectively for the level of university education, is analyzed. Methods: Thus, following the analysis, it is observed that, at national level, the number of graduates decreased. Also, for certain levels of education and only for some counties, the number of graduates has increased. Findings & Value added: The radiography performed is important for the regional needs’ analysis of the labour market. Thus, following the analysis, it was found that most graduates of tertiary education are from university centers: Bucharest, Cluj, Iași, Timiș. Graduates with a high level of knowledges, skills, and competencies have higher opportunities and abilities to identify and occupy a job.

Romanian environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGO) have to deal with a lot of issues when performing their activities, related in general to their form of organization, financial capacity, unspecialized workforce, over bureaucratic administration, political parties’ unwillingness to cooperate, or mass-media’s general indifference. Moreover, most public representatives (e.g., political parties) seldom (or never) ask for the ENGOs’ opinions when designing environmental policies. Within this context, this paper aims to map the most important issues or challenges (in terms of financial capacity and with regard to the public sphere) that Romanian ENGOs have to deal with. The methodological approach is a mixed one (having a qualitative as well as a quantitative component). The study embodies a questionnaire based survey applied on 48 Romanian ENGOs. Unfortunately, the instability of financial resources still tops the Romanian ENGOs’ list of issues. Moreover, the data reaffirmed the indifference of the majority of Romania’s political parties towards protecting the environment (leaving ENGOs out of the political decision making process).

This article provides an account of the transformational capacity of Romanian public administration in relation to four main aspects: (1) human resource performance and integrity; (2) territorial, functional and institutional decentralization; (3) public policies and (4) capitalizing on the digital and innovative component. The Romania case study highlights the gradual transformation of public administration in the last 30 years, as a reaction to the emergence of economic, social and political crises. For an imperative and irreversible change, we have identified directions for capitalizing on opportunities and good practices in the matter, in the context of the intensified integration process in NATO and the EU. We have analyzed the strategic documents on strengthening and accelerating the transformation of public administration and highlighted the need for the interconnection and interdependence of its four pillars to meet the specific objectives of Horizon 2030. For decision-makers, practitioners and researchers, this article aims to stimulate and contribute to the dedicated public debate and consultation of coherent, predictable and sustainable legislation and practices in the matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global socio-economic and sanitary crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has generated many different effects on the links of the global agri-food value chains regarding the production and consumption behaviors of agri-food products. Depending on the link, these effects can be positive, negative, or even a mix of both. However, all these sudden changes, beneficial or not, they result in deepening the economic tensions existing along the agri-food value chains. In this context, the aim of this research was to explore the rising tensions along the Romanian agri-food value chains during the different stages of the COVID-19 crisis in Romania, while bringing the HoReCa industry in the spotlight of this study, and, more specifically, the food service component. This paper brings contribution to the literature concerning the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of the agri-food value chains based on a statistical analysis carried out with the data available from two open access sources: Google Trends and the Romanian National Institute of Statistics. A short bibliometric analysis was also elaborated on the papers tackling the topic of the rising tensions along the agri-food value chains during the pandemic. Research results show that the Romanian HoReCa industry has been subject to various challenges emerged from the need to limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease. This has generated a lot of concern – not only from the food security perspective, but also from the perspective of the entrepreneurs active in the agri-food value chains. Food-ordering companies with homedelivery have been of high interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they connect two major links in the food chain: restaurants and consumers. While consumers have become more dependent than ever on digital solutions to purchase food, a lot of pressure is put on indoor restaurants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research is an exploratory study aiming at presenting the measures taken by the European Union to support the creation and development of clusters and to analyze Romania’s position in relation to other Member States in terms of key factors impacting cluster development. Impact factors on the development of clusters, such as digital skills among the active population, the degree of development of innovative companies, the number of applications for obtaining patents per one million inhabitants, the degree of development of clusters and the share of GDP in expenditures for research, development and innovation (%) were considered. The study highlights that Romania ranks last in the European ranking, due to the lack of incentives to promote the emergence of strong innovative clusters, underfunding of the innovation system and the absence of a legislative framework to support small and medium enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality, enshrined in European treaties, is one of the fundamental values of the European Union. It is a focal point in today’s value systems as well as national, sectorial and organizational policies, and it is also a recurrent theme thoroughly used in current parenting and education strategies. Given that higher education institutions (HEIs) and research centers are considered, in general, to be entities that lead the way in many aspects of our lives, they also represent the focus of our investigation on ‘gender balance’. In this paper we look at the Romanian HEIs to determine the level of gender balance in Romanian HEIs in general, and then we concentrate our attention on the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi (UAIC) as a representative case study for the Romanian HEIs. Finally, we highlight the role that research and development projects may play in promoting gender balance at UAIC. In this regard, the paper employs a multi method approach based on quantitative analyses and interviews. The results reveal that women are well represented in academic and research positions both within the Romanian HEIs and in UAIC, with two exceptions: full professor rankand R&D project manager, these being dominated, in general, by men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of the labor market have been significantly influenced and impacted in recent decades by the scale of globalization, not only from a socio-economic standpoint, but also from the perspective of generating the premises of destroying boundaries. Taking this into consideration, our research is aimed at highlighting the socio-economic impact of migration on the labor market in the Romanian Danube Region in order to create a framework which can be used when elaborating a solid action plan meant to increase the socio-economic attractivity in the analyzed region. This research was carried out by resorting to the multicriterial analysis, aimed at quantifying the state of development of the analyzed counties from the perspective of clearly defined socio-economic indicators. Additionally, the linear regression research method was applied in order to ensure a more in-depth analysis of the relationship between local employment and the departure from domicile. The main finding was that Mehedinţi County has greater potential for socio-economic development than the neighboring county, even though the population is not encouraged to remain in the rural areas, one of the reasons being the lack of attractiveness of the local labor market. The designed econometric model confirms (66.17%) this result in the case of the localities part of Mehedinţi County. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]