Page 29 - THE ROMANIAN HEALTH CARE

T. Popa University has for example students from around 40 countries. The inflow of foreign

students can result in capacity problems in the faculties. Romanian medical faculties hardly

receive income from research grants, hence teaching is their main source of income and the

of

focus the faculties. This is different to Dutch medical faculties, where research and

obtaining research grants are a major source of income.

Many universities that provide medical education, also offer education in related fields, such

as nursing, midwifery, laboratory technician, dental hygienist, bioengineering, physiotherapy,

nutrition and dietetics etc.

4.2 Bio-medical scientific research

Bio-medical scientific research is done at universities, hospitals, research institutes,

companies and clusters (companies and clusters will be discussed in the next paragraph). At

universities scientific research is of a very limited scope especially compared to the

Netherlands. The focus of universities is on teaching because of their funding structure, the

income earned from teaching is a lot higher as from research. Education funding is a more

stable source of income as research funding, which is project based. Romanian - non-EU or

other - funding is limited in available budget and timing. The granting process is slow, the

award grants can be postponed and budgets reduced, all for budgetary reasons. There is

of
hardly structural funding.

Government grants are open for application by universities, research institutes and

companies. For a limited number of grants and a limited grant amount there is a lot of

competition (up to 90 contestants for 3 grants). Which makes writing the often large

proposals not very interesting as many resources must be used to have a slim chance for a

grant. EU research funding (Horizon 2020 etc.) subsidises research in fields that are not

relevant Romania. The subjects are not the health problems and diseases that Romania is

to

facing and Romania has no institutes and researchers in requested fields. Romanian

universities are sometimes minor contributors to a limited number of (small) international

research projects. The quality of institutes and companies differs a lot, some have 1970’s
equipment others have a state of the art equipment. Procurement is for researchers a

cumbersome task, tender limits can be lower as the official public sector limits, as low as 600

euro. The electronic tendering does not give freedom in the choice of equipment. There is no

freedom buy equipment of the same brand that is already installed in a laboratory.

to

university must be listed a year in advance. That does not work with research
Purchases in a

where decisions are made halfway a research project and actual use of materials is hard to

advance. Researchers are afraid to meet sales representatives out of fears of

estimate in

being accused of corruption. Many university rules hinder scientific research and do not

an
environment where research can thrive.
contribute to

27