The attitude of Romanian economic academic researchers towards the Horizon 2020 funding grants

Academic research and, more precisely, its funding have been a major concern for both institutions and policymakers. And one way to tackle with the shortage of funds compared to the huge diversity of research plans, various organisms have developed open competition grants like Horizon 2020 that have brought the support so needed for academic research. But the successfulness of such an initiative depends on academics and their willingness to apply and manage research projects funded from Horizon 2020 budget. Therefore, a direct research was conducted among the researchers from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies to determine their awareness about various funding options available for them, their experience when approaching a Horizon 2020 research grant and their future intentions in terms of research. The main finding of this research approach relates to Horizon 2020 grants low attractiveness among Romanian researchers determined by researchers’ lack of experience, self-confidence and institutional management support. This also shows that there is still room for improvement and growth in terms of knowledge, awareness and courage to obtain a Horizon 2020 grant that can be beneficial for researchers, universities, industries, countries and society as a whole.