A contribution from: Viorel Ariton, PhD, Professor at Danubius University Galati
What existing socially innovative developments do you notice in Romania?
Innovation plays an important role in many aspects that projects (funded through Structural Funds, governmental funds or private funds) cope with, concerning problems of the economic transition and the crisis which nowadays Romanian faces. Initiatives with social aims taken by individuals or by NGOs and administrations envisage mostly malfunctions of the society and corrections needed; very few initiatives envisage improvements of the daily life comfort or aesthetics. Social innovation takes place but rarely perceived as such; moreover, in the South-Eastern part of the Europe, social innovation as a concept is often related to social economy. This is the context in which few programmatic documents (strategies or action plans at national or regional levels) include the term ‘social innovation’, even they refer to innovative actions aiming social impact or solving problems at social scale. In other words, the perception of ‘social innovations’ is shadowed by a non-differentiating matter in using terms in their proper meanings for the various initiatives.
Although the triad ‘research – development – innovation’ owns a central place in the national strategy of Romania, the innovation has almost no impact in the economic and social life. Among the reasons for such a situation one can count: the low involvement of economic agents in research and innovation, weak capacity to absorb research results in economy and society, underdeveloped technology and innovation transfer means and services. Recent economic crises – which effects last yet in Romania, hamper the financing and even the interest of companies and administrations in supporting new approaches for the problems existing in the respective communities (Goschin 2014).
There exist differences between regions in Romania, the more developed ones adopting innovations easier than the poor ones. So, the extent in which social innovation is adopted in a region becomes an indicator of the stage of the economic development of the region. In this respect, the effectiveness of local innovation suffers from the lack of coordination between national and regional policy, the low employment rate and the scarcity of knowledge-intensive services existing at local level. On the other side, in places where R&D investments occur, the innovations lead to an increased productivity and a decreased need for labour force – further lowering the employment rate. In this context innovation is not always regarded as a matter solving social problems in that place.
Other differences between regions refer to specialisation of the regions (or parts of them) appeared in the last decades in Romania, some places attracting high and medium-high technological level industrial activities, others exploiting natural resources or agriculture. Hence, adopting innovations is a matter of the characteristics of the place, and the innovative drivers relate to specific features of the region, deepening on regional heterogeneity and significantly influencing the R&D investment strategy.
Grass root social innovation projects in Romania – for example urban gardening (e.g. Butterfly Garden http://efectulfluture.ro), planting associations and campaigns (We plant good deeds http://plantamfaptebune.ro) imply volunteers and money coming from donations.
Some social innovation projects address specific matters of the Romanian society or specific manners in which social problems could be solved. For example, the innovative project ‘Together we save the nature’ accrued from the pressure upon the ‘Small Wetland of Braila’ Natural Park (SWBNP http://en.bmb.ro). Illegal fishing (based on destructive methods as electroshocks), demi-wild domestic animal rearing (pigs let free in the park) etc. endangered the preservation of nature. The administration of SWBNP initiated, in cooperation with local entities, activities for children and young people in the area for leisure and tourism into the natural park, and making them aware of the beauty and values of the nature. On their turn, young people affect attitudes and actions of the adults (parents, relatives, neighbours) – noticing that adults are sensible to children’s wishes and values, and consequently they reduce or cease to harm the nature in the park. The innovative case regards the SI-DRIVE practice field ‘protection and re-storing of eco-systems & biodiversity’, and supports also education of young people on sustainable exploitation of the nature and on preserving biodiversity along that area of the Danube.
Photo 1: Visiting the bird colony in the the Small Wetland of Braila Source: http://en.bmb.ro
The project ‘A generation of Roma specialists in the medical field’ (www.profesionistiromi.ro) supports the access of Roma youth to academic education in the medical field and combat stereotypical approaches on the disinterest of Roma people to education and to practice of professions that require a high degree of skill.
Photo 2: Four young roma medicine students who received fellowships from the project Profesionisti Romi. Source: www.profesionistiromi.ro
Is social innovation formally positioned on the policy level in Romania?
The National Strategy for RDI 2014-2020 of the Romanian government (MECS/ANCS 2014) adopted a vision, oriented to innovation, based on three pillars (1) Business firms are the promoters of innovation; (2) RD&I provide opportunity for talented people; (3) smart specialisation in priority areas (Bio-economy, Information and Communication Technologies, Energy and Environment, Eco-Technologies). The document states that RD is poorly connected both with business and with the public at large, hence innovation is not a central factor of economic and social development in Romania. This is why the document encourages creation of an ecosystem for innovation through public-private and public-public partnerships, and suggests some market mechanisms to be adopted in order to stimulate innovative entrepreneurship and to involve companies in research, development and innovation.
Regarding the financing of innovation Apateanu (2015, p. 33) notes that Structural Funds will remain an important source of funding for Romanian foundations, provided that the co-funding conditions do not hinder their access.
The Regional Operational Program 2014-2020 (REGIO 2014) adopted in the Axis 1 the ‘Consolidation of research, technological development and innovation’ priorities that refer to the promotion of business investments in innovation and research for the development of linkages and synergies between companies, research centres and education institutions especially for product / services development for the technological transfer and social innovation, for networking and clusters.
On one side the intentions indicate that social innovation is taken seriously, on the other side, the legal framework in Romania – as in many countries in the region – currently forces a strict division between profit and non-profit entities, is unfriendly to hybrid business models that combines social and entrepreneurial goals (Damaschin-Tecu 2013). The taxes are large, the bureaucratic procedures are difficult, the access to finance is scarce and support mechanisms (technical assistance) are few. Additionally, the absence of an entrepreneurial culture, limited access to technology and information in the communities where needed, lack of confidence and increasing disparities between urban and rural areas, economic and social risks, all raising significant barriers to initiatives in social enterprises and social innovations.
What is the biggest challenge for social innovations to become alive?
The Romanian society is devised and there is a serious lack of confidence between people: suspicion on a ‘hidden agenda’ of the initiators of social innovations – a belief in aiming profit but declaring only social goals or social benefits. This leads to few attempts on social innovations and after that a limited extension of the practice.
(Iancu 2011) considers that in Romania there is still no single rule book fair and competitive, with clear rules to accelerate the process of liberalisation in all sectors by the opening to competition of infrastructure and services in areas of monopoly, and removing burdensome and political constraints of the budget at national and local levels. The two are intrinsically linked, and form the main challenge for social innovations to become alive.
Which impacts do you expect from social innovations for our societies?
After changing the political regime in 1989, Romania faces continuous changes in the sectoral aspects of the economy – industrial sector is falling down dramatically and the subsistence agriculture is extending too much; the two involve a drastic change in jobs’ structure and availability, leading people to seek and find other ways of living. In this context, social innovations seem of great importance because national and local administrations are not able to solve such a number of social problems appeared but also because each individual – at his/her turn, have to find new ways to cope with changing jobs, status or environment (Curaj 2015). Innovation actually takes place in limited extent geographically and socially but it should be stimulated to include large groups of people and to address systematically priorities of the nowadays society problems – which are the very fields that SI-Drive project focuses: employment, health, environment, then energy, transport and, of course, poverty. In general, for the entire world the social innovation is a big issue but the research should assess the extent in which new approaches affect the threshold of the social homoeostasis (i.e. a relative stability of life and rules) should be maintained in order that people feel comfortable and secure in the middle of the change.
Why is social innovation important for your organisation?
‘Danubius’ University is involved in research (European or governmental funded projects), development (European structural funds, and private funds – e.g. from GIZ, Germany) also in innovation regarding education and knowledge transfer. In the last years, social innovation became an important field of interest for our institution, which reordered in some way the activities of the institution towards a systematic approach in the social sciences research, in education and in promoting ideas which may have a social impact in the region. In cooperation with universities around the world (Europe, USA, China), the knowledge commons achieved give to ‘Danubius’ University the opportunity to become a promoter of wise changes in the area. It is also a challenging research field for our researchers due to the contradictory facets of the change as a process when it reaches a social scale.
References
Apateanu, Tincuta (2015): Romania Country Report, European Foundations for Research and Innovation EUFORI Study, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Internet: http://euforistudy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Romania.pdf [Last accessed 05.03.2016]
Curaj Adrian (2015): Stairway to Excellence Country Report: Romania, European Commission, Joint Research Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, http://uefiscdi.gov.ro/Upload/cec07eff-0631-4133-8052-04a553ae0d07.pdf [Last accessed 20.03.2016]
Damaschin-Tecu Roxana (2013): Social enterprises – the sector that cannot be ignored, Enterprise Development Director – NESsT http://www.responsabilitatesociala.ro/editoriale/intreprinderile-sociale-un-sector-care-nu-mai-poate-fi-ignorat.html [Last accessed 21.03.2016]
Goschin Zizi (2014): Research and Development Intensity in Romania. A Regional Perspective, Procedia Economics and Finance 15 Volume 15, 2014, Pages 64–70.
MECS/ANCS (2014): Romanian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research/National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation – The National RDI Strategy 2014-2020 http://www.cdi2020.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/HOT%C4%82R%C3%82RE-nr-929-din-21-octombrie-2014-privind-aprobarea-Strategiei-na%C5%A3ionale-de-cercetare-dezvoltare-%C5%9Fi-inovare-2014-2020.pdf [Last accessed 10.03.2016]
REGIO (2014): Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, Romania, Regional Operational Program 2014-2020, http://www.mdrap.ro/dezvoltare-regionala/-4970/-7166/programul-operational-regional—2014-2020 [Last accessed 2.03.2016]
Author: Viorel Ariton, PhD, Professor at Danubius University Galati