CLUSTERELE – EVOLUȚIE ȘI PERSPECTIVE ÎN CONTEXTUL PANDEMIEI COVID-19.

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]