The Romanian Research Programme, funded under the EEA and Norway Grants, facilitated the funding of 42 Collaborative Research Projects, between 2019-2024. The two calls, organized in 2018 & 2019, created the context of strengthening the bilateral relations between the research teams from the Norway, Iceland and Romania in following thematic areas: biotechnology, energy, environment, health, social sciences and humanities, ICT. The projects focused on various problems that the current society is facing namely: Alzheimer and cancer diseases, climate changes, renewable energies, Roma population inequalities, showing that research is able to find solutions, for in the next decades, to these global issues that affects the daily life of the population worldwide.

During the implementation period, the distance, language and cultural barriers between the Romanian, Norwegian & Icelandic research teams merged, proving that science has the particularity of connecting people's ideas even in times when the pandemic disrupted lives across all countries and communities, negatively affected anything.

Having in mind that great science doesn’t speak for itself, UEFISCDI, as Programme Operator, created the context for the researchers to present their work together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.

The one-day conference included: dynamic plenary sessions and keynotes by leaders in the field, deep dives sessions to encourage broad participation, impact results presentations of the collaborative research projects, Research in the spotlight episodes displays and presentations during breaks in the expo area, networking opportunities.

The deep dives sessions were in the form of panel discussions, based on the Collaborative Research Projects results. The panel moderator conducted the discussions in such manner that allows to each panels express her/his opinion, focusing on the research impact that can produce real change in the world. Also, these talks allowed the panelists to highlight the benefits of implementing such projects, and how international cooperation can conduct to development of new skills and capabilities, which could become central to career progression and institutional reputation.

Overview of the calls, figures of the funded projects and results
Monica Cruceru – Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), Programme Operator