The Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research Mr. Anatolie Topală participated today, December 15, to the launch of the event of the publication "Subregional Innovation Policy Outlook 2020: Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus" of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in the Republic of Moldova.

Ms. Madelene Eichhorn, Programme Manager at the Embassy of Sweden to the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Anders Jönsson, Chief of Innovative Policies Development Section, UNECE, representatives from the National Agency for Research and Development, from the Organization for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, from National Institute for Economic Research and national experts participated at the event.

The Secretary General Mr. Anatolie Topala thanked the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Government of Sweden and the development partners for this study, which certainly will boost activities related to innovation processes in the Republic of Moldova. "This study is a very complex and comprehensive one, which reflects the strengths and aspects in which the Republic of Moldova has achieved some successes in terms of innovation. At the same time the study highlights legislative gaps and areas to address, including relevant recommendations for overcoming deficiencies and improving innovation processes”, stated the official.

In this context, the Secretary General mentioned the main challenges which the fields of research and innovation still face, among them: the necessity of increasing governmental and private sector expenditures in research and innovation, strengthening linkages between science and business to improve commercialization of research results and strengthening the competitive human capital involved in research and innovation projects.

Recommendations of the Innovation Policy Outlook for the Republic of Moldova include: filling the legislative gaps by strengthening innovation laws and regulations, expanding the mix of policies supporting industry-science linkages, adopt policy measures to stimulate industry-science mobility, such as sabbatical leaves for professors or joint training programmes, incentivize higher education enrolments in the fields of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and related disciplines and expand career funding instruments, such as excellence and mobility grants or professional fellowships, adopt more systemic linkage of monitoring and evaluation practices to policy design, including in government bodies responsible for innovation policy.

UNECE in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research is currently developing the Innovation for Sustainable Development Review for the Republic of Moldova, which will complement the findings and recommendations of the Innovation Policy Outlook 2020 and strengthen capacity building activities for innovation in the country.

More details can be found in the UNECE’s press release.