RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

New perspectives in developing the relationship between the university and the business… 403
Apart from complex research and development areas covered by thematic sectors, Horizon
2020 program also has the most important financial component in the EU, over 80 billion
Euro being allotted for 2014-2020 (in conformity with the program’s official site:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/).
At the same time, the major instruments of the program show that Horizon 2020 is not
only the main instrument of applying research and development policies at European level,
but also a crucial landmark in ensuring stability in the area of Europe’ global competitiveness.
Horizon 2020’s objectives focus on societal changes and their challenges in the fields of
research and development, scientific excellence, and industrial leadership (ibidem). The program’s
constitutive documents include a variety of thematic sections (ranging from nanotechnologies
to special engineering). The interest of our study represents the “Societal Challenges”
(with a sub area: Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflexive societies)
and Spreading Excellence.
In short, this Societal Challenge of the Horizon 2020 programme aims at fostering a greater
understanding of Europe, by providing solutions and support inclusive, innovative and reflective
European societies with an innovative public sector in a context of unprecedented transformations
and growing global interdependencies (at http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2
020/en/h2020-sections).
The research we present here will follow how academia and specialists in higher education
in Romania, on the one hand, and private companies’ managers, on the other, see the
application of the provisions of Horizon 2020 in the academic field and the business environment
in Romania, respectively.
Research methodology – Qualitative research
In order to evaluate to what degree national educational policies are correlated to European
policies in the field (as they appear in Horizon 2020), to identify how far university curricula
are synchronized with educational policies, as well as the requests of the Romanian
workforce market, and to identify the employees’ and academia’ viewpoint on young graduates,
we conducted qualitative research focused on semi-structured interviews.
Research objectives
The qualitative sociological research was based on a set of 20 interviews with 10 highprofile
academics and 10 representatives of the business environment. Two interview guides
were produced for the two publics: the managers of private employing organisations and professors
or decision-makers in universities, respectively. In our analysis we wish to highlight
the joint viewpoints but also the differences among the two groups on the themes presented
above. The interview guide was projected to last for approximately 30-40 minutes. The discussions
were audio recorded and were then transcribed.
Results’ validity and fidelity
The research fulfils validity criteria from the perspective of group structure (selection criteria
– 10 high-profile academics and 10 representatives of the business environment), ensur-