Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 8, No 4 (2012)

Abstract

Currently, Romania is faced with problems regarding closing the deep economic gap between it and the rest of the EU members. In addition, Romania is concerned with overcoming the difficulties generated by the current economic crisis. The technology transfer of the research results from the scientific field towards the industry is one of the main leverages for the economic development, the innovation development and the competitiveness of the companies. At this point, Romania marks a very low transfer rate of technology between the research institutions and the economy. This is why, increasing and accelerating this rate becomes a vital element for the Romanian economy. The national research institutes are one of the most representative institutions of the national research and development system. With a high capacity of generating scientific results specific to certain national areas of expertise, their potential of transfering technology should be exploited and made more efficient. This paper presents a synthesis of the written works regarding the technology transfer, its role in the economic growth and the factors influencing its efficiency. The paper performs an analysis the current state of the national research institutes and formulates hypotheses regarding the causes leading to the low technology transfer rate, making suggestions on further research studies on how to turn this important process into a more efficient one