Moldova first Eastern Partnership country to approve national smart specialization programme

Moldova is the first country in the Eastern Partnership to develop and approve a national smart specialization programme - Smart Moldova. It will be implemented until 2027 and establishes four priority research areas: agriculture and agricultural product processing; information and communication technology, energy; biomedicine and biopharmaceuticals.

Progress in research and innovation, as well as ensuring partnerships between the academic environment, business, and public administration have been discussed at the event titled, Strategic Dialogue on the Implementation of Moldova's National Smart Specialization Programme for 2024–2027 – Smart Moldova, organized by the Ministry of Education and Research, in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) Moldova.

At the opening of the event, Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun emphasized the importance of implementing the National Smart Specialization Programme. He highlighted its role in the structural transformation of the national economy through innovation and strategic cooperation between key development system actors.

“We are the first country in the Eastern Partnership to develop and approve a national smart specialization programme. We thank our partners who helped us develop this programme. I am fully confident that, by all putting in the effort, we will succeed in achieving the goals set by this national programme and will have more applied research, carried out in partnership with the business environment, which would contribute to economic growth,” the minister said.

Manuel Palazuelos Martinez, representative of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, noted that the programme's goal was to bring innovation and research to the highest level.

“This programme has been successfully implemented in more European countries, and the results got prove its efficiency. For this reason, we considered it essential to bring this methodology to Moldova, in order to support the country's economic development. I believe the programme becomes even more relevant in the current context, in which Moldova is undergoing a screening process — an important step that involves adapting and harmonizing national legislation with the norms and rules of the European Union. This programme aligns perfectly with the accession efforts and directly contributes to achieving this goal,” the official emphasized.

The implementation of the SMART Programme is supported in Moldova's Growth Plan for 2025–2027 and benefits from international support, including through the Loan Agreement for the Higher Education project signed with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.