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RESEARCH STRATEGY OF THE FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE 2024-2029

The research strategy of the Faculty of Agriculture is a component of the Research Strategy of the University of Life Sciences "King Mihai I" Timișoara, which aligns with the National Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2024-2029, with the main objective of increasing research performance, stimulating innovation, and transferring research results to the socio-economic environment.

Within the Faculty of Agriculture, research is conducted in two research centers:

  • Research Center Sustainable Agriculture
  • Research Center Bioresources, Environment and Geospatial Data

On the National Research Infrastructure Platform ERRTIS, whose main purpose is to increase the usage rate of research infrastructure by promoting them both nationally and globally, the Faculty of Agriculture is represented by seven research laboratories:

  • Research Laboratory: Seed and Plant Material Quality Testing
  • Research Laboratory: Geomatics Research Laboratory
  • Research Laboratory: Invasive Species Monitoring Unit
  • Research Laboratory: Hydrobiology
  • Research Laboratory: Diagnosis Laboratory and Phytosanitary Expertise
  • Research Laboratory: Physical-Chemical Analyses "OSPA – USAMVBT"
  • Research Laboratory: Laboratory of Physical-Chemical Analyses for Plant-Soil-Fertilizers

The Physical-Chemical Analyses "OSPA – USAMVBT" laboratory within the Faculty of Agriculture is RENAR accredited in accordance with SR ISO EN 17025: 2005, being the only laboratory specialized in soil and fertilizer analyses accredited in the western part of the country.

In the research, innovation, and technology transfer activity of the Faculty of Agriculture, the following objectives are defined:

  • increasing the visibility of the faculty by achieving outstanding scientific results, consolidating its position in the national research top, as well as achieving internationally recognized scientific excellence;
  • stimulating innovation and the transfer of research results (products, specific technologies, etc.) to the economic environment, demonstrating dynamism and flexibility in solving current acute problems of Romanian agriculture, with significant impact at the economic and social level;
  • ensuring a high-performance research infrastructure and specialized human resources, capable of conducting world-class research, favorable to competitiveness, creativity, and attractiveness necessary for expanding collaboration in international projects and programs;
  • ensuring the international competitiveness of research through participation in institutional partnerships, joint chairs, collaborations at the level of innovation clusters or other international instruments in the field of research, development, and innovation.
  1. Development of complex projects with impact on performance in agriculture, biology, environmental engineering, geodetic and mechanical engineering
  2. research and innovation to meet the concrete needs of the economic environment and the public sector, especially those of improving the quality of services offered (such as health or citizen security), providing innovative solutions to increase the competitiveness of the public and private sectors in related fields;
  3. support offered to central administration in decision-making, by providing scientific support, and to local administrations in formulating rural development strategies;
  4. involving as many faculty members as possible in common strategies/projects for rural development at the European level;
  5. orienting the faculty's research activity towards the priority areas of the National Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027;
  6. concluding collaboration/partnership/protocol agreements with the academic, scientific, and economic environment, facilitating participation in joint projects, conducting internships, as well as exchanging information.

  1. Increasing the quality, competitiveness, and relevance in research

Establishing research performance indicators that align with international standards:

  1. publishing full articles in journals indexed in Clarivate Analytics – Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, etc;
  2. publishing books/book chapters indexed in Clarivate Analytics through Book Citation Index or in international publishers;
  3. utilizing opportunities offered by the online environment, by publishing popularization articles;
  4. promoting and developing the Multidisciplinary Conference on Sustainable Development, section Trends in European Agriculture Development;
  5. promoting the Research Journal of Agriculture Science among editors and reviewers from Western Europe and the USA for higher indexing;
  6. transferring research results through patenting/approving research results;


  1. Establishing strategic research areas

The Faculty of Agriculture directs its research-innovation strategy towards those research activities that offer results with economic relevance. The priority research areas are those included in the National Research, Development, Innovation Strategy, namely:

a) Bioeconomy, with priority subdomains: development of the agricultural sector, utilization of biomass and biofuels.

b) Energy, Environment, and Climate Change. Research in the energy field supports reducing energy dependence, by superior utilization of fossil fuels, diversifying renewable, clean energy sources. Environmental conservation is a priority of all current policies, with research focused on new depollution and recycling techniques, on managing water resources and wetlands.

c) Eco-nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials. The field belongs to the essential generic technologies (EGT), prioritized at the European level, which intensively use RDI. This domain includes the agricultural equipment industry, as well as research for obtaining fuels, new and/or recycled materials that can boost RDI activities dedicated to eco-technologies and that preserve the properties of water, air, and soil;

d) Information and Communication Technology, Space and Security. Research will focus on developing technologies, products, research capacities, and systems for local and regional security, to increase competitiveness in economic and social activities.

The priority subdomains will be:

- smart agriculture: applying IT technologies in data collection (climatic conditions, soil, nutritional status, etc.) and using them to increase the quality, quantity, sustainability, and economic efficiency of agricultural production;

- smart technologies: transmitting GPS data, elements of investment monitoring in the field;

- management of critical infrastructure elements: water networks, water source treatment, production, and distribution of agro-food products;

- emergency management, by developing directions to combat bioterrorism, biohazard, as well as identifying other food security and safety elements.

To the four priority areas, three complementary areas with direct public relevance are added:

a). Health. In this field, research and experimental development will focus on food safety, rational management of environmental resources, and organic agriculture;

b). Heritage and Cultural Identity. The field targets a wide range of scientific research topics, such as:

- conservation of material heritage, materialized by identifying and inventorying immovable assets (land with/without constructions) from a technical and legal perspective, by encouraging systematic registration procedures within the National Cadastre and Land Book Program, by completing real estate advertising procedures;

- innovative methods for preserving traditional (culinary) products and crafts;

- development of innovative eco-bio-strategies between Science, Education, and Culture (ethnography, folklore);

- development of the education system.

c). New and Emerging Technologies. Research involves the development and adoption of new technologies that also have an open component, aimed at solving specific problems of the public sector


  1. Orientation towards scientific research programs of euroregional and international importance
  2. Development of scientific research programs in priority areas: Bioeconomy, Biosecurity and Food Safety, Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Eco-nanotechnologies and Advanced Materials, Smart Agriculture, Smart Technologies, Management of Critical Infrastructure Elements, Emergency Management, by developing directions to combat bioterrorism, biohazard.
  3. application of projects within the Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary and Romania – Republic of Serbia IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme
  4. application of projects within the H2020, Interreg Europe, EEA&Norway grants, ERA-NET programs, as well as other competitions disseminated on the UEFISCDI website;


  1. Ensuring specialized human resources, capable of conducting world-class research, whether it belongs to fundamental or applied research

a) training researchers in project management;

b) ensuring unlimited online access to specialized scientific literature;

c) encouraging the publication of research results in high-impact journals;

d) specializing research personnel in international research institutions;

e) increasing internal and international mobility of researchers.

  1. Ensuring a high-performance research infrastructure at the national and international level

a) appropriate use of available infrastructure;

b) attracting projects for the maintenance and development of research infrastructure;

c) establishing partnerships/clusters with other research institutions/infrastructures to create a market for scientific and technical services that will contribute to the international visibility of research results and the economic sustainability of equipment usage;

d) implementing SREN ISO 17025:2005 within research laboratories for accreditation/authorization.

  1. Innovation for the public and private sector

The Faculty of Agriculture has as a strategic objective the stimulation of innovation and the transfer of research results to the socio-economic environment, as a service provider and will be involved in:

  1. Establishing partnerships with the private and public sector to apply for projects through the Operational Competitiveness Program - Priority Axis 24 Research, Technological Development and Innovation for business support and competitiveness;
  2. Developing new technologies oriented towards solving specific problems of the public and private sector.
  3. Transferring to the economic environment the invention patents/products and approved technologies

Operational Research Plan 2023 PDF(276.24 KB)opens in a new tab

Annex 1: Research Topics 2024 DOC(684.5 KB)opens in a new tab