REGIONAL INNOVATION IN ROMANIA – THE CASE OF BUCHAREST-ILFOV REGION

Regional innovation systems are solid enablers to ensure economic growth and sustainability development across locations. The Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) analyzes the innovation performance of European regions and proposes a set of indicators to measure the development of innovative endeavors across years. Using the data from the RIS for a period of seven years, between 2014 and 2021, the current paper evaluates the achievements of Romanian regions in terms of innovation. We have used a case study approach and selected the Bucharest-Ilfov region, the only Romanian region that overall scores as Moderate innovator. By adopting the benchmarking technique, we compare the performance of Bucharest-Ilfov region with the other seven Romanian regions in the attempt to understand how regional strengths can be applied for continuous progress. The findings suggest that an increased focus should be placed on local and regional public policies and governmental funding to increase collaboration between all entities involved in the innovation process and contribute to more innovative regions.