ENHANCE

Enhancing research in Romania The Twinning Projects financially supported by the European Commission put collaboration at the very focus of activity. The ENHANCE project aims to foster stronger research links with international organisations and to help boost the scientific and academic profile of the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) of Bucharest.

Collaboration is central to progress in any endeavour, especially in research, with scientists sharing expertise and knowledge to create a better environment for the overall development of society as a whole. Close cooperation with various partners, especially with those at an international level, can also help enrich the skill base at participating institutions, a central goal of the ENHANCE project, an initiative funded under the Horizon 2020 programme. “The ENHANCE project is designed to increase the capabilities and the visibility of our university in the field of agricultural economics research,” explains Professor Gina Fintineru, Vice-Rector of the USAMV on Scientific Research and the coordinator of the ENHANCE project.

“The Twinning program is an extraordinary opportunity for universities that have significant development potential, to enable existing skills to be strengthened within the framework of responsive partnerships,” she continues.

Research competencies The main priority in the project is to enhance the competencies of the research groups at USAMV and help them develop and build their knowledge of cutting-edge methodologies, which can then be applied to the benefit of Romanian agriculture, an important part of the national economy. The project’s partners are providing training and sharing knowledge across a number of different areas, including econometrics, economic modelling and qualitative methods. “Through this project, we have had the exceptional opportunity to contribute to the development of the research capacities of our partner university on a medium-term basis. By providing teaching and exchanging staff, also IAMO gained with respect to teaching skills and research portfolio,” outlines Prof. Thomas Herzfeld, head of the Agricultural Policy Department at IAMO, one of the advanced partners of the project.

This work is already bearing fruit in terms of raising the profile of the partners involved, especially of the USAMV, and helping staff develop their skills. The project

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Enhance project’s Kick-off meeting, Bucharest, January 2016.

activities are targeted equally at higher level academic staff and academics at an earlier stage of their careers, thus, representing an important opportunity for young researchers to participate in the exchange of knowledge, ideas and methodologies with the project partners. “We encourage our PhD and Master’s students to participate in various

while also considering those topics in which USAMV’s staff members were interested, often by integrating them into common ongoing projects. A matching process of these variables, set at the beginning of the project, has generated interesting studies such as an environmental impact assessment using the Life Cycle Assessmen method, while also

“We will apply this knowledge in our teaching, so our students will be beneficiaries of the training and actions that have been developed during the project, we aim that these competencies created through research will contribute to the enhancement of education, not only in feeding international rankings” activities inside the project,” continues Prof.

Fintineru. Agricultural economists need deep knowledge of the use of both micro and macroeconomic tools to address the complex challenges of today’s agriculture, ranging from a thorough understanding of farm families to the challenges of agricultural policies.

The project partners approached these tools by applying them on the one hand to the main research topics on which the partners had experience and competencies,

considering questions around the sharing economy, land consolidation, burnout rate of farmers, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) evaluation and consumption patterns.

“The staff exchange program within our twinning project enabled a lot of thrilling comparative studies between Switzerland and Romania, documented in valuable publications,” emphasised Dr. Stefan Mann, head of the Socioeconomics research group at Agroscope.

EU Research

The project includes addressing topics central to the future of agriculture and rural areas, such as the impact of the CAP on the attractiveness and vitality of rural areas, the impact of payments on remote areas and CAP simplification. Other topics addressed include generational renewal and in-depth research into land consolidation patterns and precision agriculture by using high resolution satellite and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) imagery to map land use and crop damage. “The exchange of staff members enabled us to establish medium to long-term cooperation in specific research topics which will continue after the end of this project.

This project gave us the opportunity to buildup long-term relations with new partner institutes,” added Prof. Herzfeld.

The project partners share their expertise in these areas through staff exchanges, training sessions and summer schools. Two summer schools have been held over the course of the project so far, with a third planned for September 2018 which will focus on institutional economics and agricultural development, and Prof. Fintineru says these Summer Schools have proved to be very popular. “Most of the participants in the first edition came from our own university, but we have been pleased to see how attractive the curricula has been to external students.

For example, last year, the participants who attended the five days of courses represented 15 nations, comprising Chile, Croatia, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Lithuania, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Vietnam.”

For this year’s edition, 38 applications have been received from 13 countries, but unlike previous years, there has been a consolidation of the number of applications received from Central and Eastern Europe. This can only be a positive sign in terms of strengthening research links and building relationships with international institutions, which is a central part of the project’s overall agenda. “These actions gave us the opportunity to increase our international visibility by acting as a regional hub for prestigious scientific events,” continues Prof. Fintineru.

Reputation and profile The wider goal in the project is to raise the profile of USAMV and strengthen research links, so that the institution can increasingly attract high-level funding and play a more prominent role in international collaborations. There have been positive signs in this direction, indicated by an increase in the number of research papers published by researchers at USAMV, more participation

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in international conferences, and a stronger involvement of faculty staff in competitive project applications. “We aim to raise the visibility of the institution, both amongst our partners in the European project, but also to consolidate our role inside Romania, as a driver of local and regional development.

We have very good connections in this project with stakeholders in Romania, such as representatives of farmers, the Pro Agro Federation, for example,” says Prof. Fintineru.

These close links can help ensure that research is relevant to the issues facing the agricultural sector. “We have also used the ENHANCE-project to intensify our links with the National Ministry of Agriculture,” stresses Prof. Fintineru. As Head of the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Economics at BOKU, Prof. Jochen Kantelhardt says his institution has also benefitted from the project.

“The BOKU scientists who are involved in ENHANCE also form a pivotal point for all scientific endeavours that extend across the Danube region to Romania. Existing initiatives and platforms can be used and further developed. Being both students and teachers broadens the perspectives of all participants in a professional exchange process,” he explains.

“Especially for a university, the cooperation in ENHANCE offers the best conditions for an intensive reflection on our own routines and processes, and thus enables improvements in the participating institutes, which far exceed the expectations before project start.”

This work is very much in line with recent changes in the Romanian academic system, which have put a greater emphasis on research. While the USAMV is home to great expertise in agricultural education, Prof.

Fintineru says it is important for researchers to build networks with international partners, which will help enhance the research capacity of the University. “It found fertile ground at USAMV, as it is obvious that research plays an important role in creating prosperity. The basis of outstanding research results are researchers with outstanding training,” she stresses.

The benefits of this will trickle down to students, who will learn about cuttingedge methodologies and emerging areas of interest, equipping them with the skills and knowledge they will need after graduating.

“We will apply this knowledge in our teaching, so our students will be beneficiaries of the training and actions that have been developed during the project. We aim that these competencies created through research will contribute to the enhancement of education, not only in feeding international rankings,” says Prof. Fintineru.

ENHANCE Building an Excellency Network for Heightening Agricultural ecoNomic researCh and Education in Romania Project Objectives

The aim of ENHANCE project is to fully realize and to further develop the currently existing scientific potential of the agricultural economists of the USAMV, particularly with respect to quantitative methods like modelling, simulation, econometrics as well as mixed methods research like institutional economics.

Project Funding

CSA (Coordination & Support Action) project, funded by the European Commission under the HORIZON 2020 Framework Programme Funding: European Union Horizon and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691681, 1097020 Euro.

Duration: 01/01/2016-31/12/2018 (36 months)

Project Partners

•W BF - Federal Research Centre for Agriculture (Switzerland) / Contact: Stefan Mann.

• IAMO - Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (Germany) / Contact: Thomas Herzfeld.

• BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Austria) / Contact: Peter Walder.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Gina Fîntîneru University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest 59 Mărăşti Boulevard District 1 Bucharest code 011464 Romania T: +40756136321 E: gina.fintineru@usamv.ro W: http://www.usamv.ro Gina Fîntîneru

Gina Fîntîneru has more than 25 years of experience in teaching, research and business consulting. With extensive experience in managing over 12 international collaborative in roles as research director and project leader, and partaker in several EU, WB and national funded projects. Publishing over 40 articles in scientific journals, conference proceedings and books/ book chapters.

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