Small universities are overturning big research – an interview about Romanian academic networks with Adrian Hatos

After finishing my conversation with Adrian Hatos, I sent at least five messages to arrange for some coffee. And I had some good reasons. Sociologist and former president of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee of the Romanian Senate, Adrian Hatos studies collaboration in the Romanian academic system through the lens of network analysis. I talked to him about a study that overturned some of my ideas about what I thought academic influence meant in Romania. It is not just money or historical prestige that matters, but also the position in a network of relationships that Adrian Hatos and Smaranda Liana Cioban-Kudelca made visible in their book „"Centrality and influence in research in Romania: What does network analysis say about the participation and success of research entities in the "Centers of Excellence" competition?"«.

„"Regardless of the calculation method, four institutions are at the core, the most influential in this whole story," says Prof. Dr. Adrian Hatos. Four universities form the core of Romanian research participating in the national "Centers of Excellence" competition in 2024: Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, University of Bucharest, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and Transilvania University of Brasov.

The two researchers analyzed the structure and dynamics of scientific collaboration networks, measuring how connected institutions are to each other and what are the factors that determine success in obtaining funding. But there are some major surprises in this ranking: does at least one name surprise you? Me too! But what about a few absences?

Suceava and Transylvania: "It is the result of management"„

"Transilvania University Brasov is at the core of the network by all algorithms – a medium-sized university without huge funding, but with diversified participation in several fields. So is University of Suceava. "The two are punching well above their weight, being three times smaller than other higher-rated institutions." Adrian Hatos also mentions University of Craiova, which ranks fourth in national influence and leads in brokerage, the ability to connect others with each other.

How do we explain this? Adrian Hatos has a theory: "These are comprehensive universities, they have medical specialties and engineering specialties, basically they are universities that also have engineering faculties, so they participate in various, much more diverse partnerships. You also enter with engineers, you also enter with doctors." While the large traditional universities, Babes-Bolyai for example, "I'm going to cover a few main areas.".

But the stronger argument may be another: "In Suceava it is clearly the result of a management that manages to produce more intense participation," says Hatos. "I don't think it's luck. I think it's also a specific policy of some universities to promote, to stimulate quality research and research partnerships."„

How Romanian research was mapped

The study started from a seemingly simple question: what does collaboration in Romanian research look like when you look at it as a map? Hatos and her colleague analyzed 109 projects submitted within the "Centers of Excellence" competition, a program with a budget of approximately 1.6 billion lei (over 320 million euros), carried out in six different fields, from Health and Digitalization to Food, Bioeconomy and Civil Security.

Prof. dr. habil. Adrian Hatos and ass. univ. Smaranda Liana Cioban-Kudelca looked at the competition through a lens borrowed from network science. Each participating institution is a node, and if two institutions participate together in a project, a connection is created. The two studied how connected the nodes are to each other, which ones are at the core of the research, which nodes collaborate most intensely on multiple dimensions, which nodes bridge different parts of the network that would otherwise not collaborate with each other.

Several important actors take the cream

Not all of the study’s findings are surprising. First, the Romanian research ecosystem is centralized and hierarchical. Second, it is controlled by large public universities, which coordinate 62% of project proposals. National research institutes participate, but rarely lead. „We have a clear distinction between organizations that dominate the research landscape and those that remain on the periphery,” explains Adrian Hatos. „Romania’s situation is one of very strong centralization: a few nodes take the cream of all the relationships, and the rest are connected to each other through these central nodes. If you want to participate, you have to connect to an important one.” Public universities and national institutes are the dominant actors, while NGOs, private companies and museums remain marginal. No private university, NGO, SRL or museum holds the role of coordinator in this competition.

At the national level, according to the Eigenvector Centrality indicator that measures the quality of connections (not just who you are connected to, but how well connected your friends are as well), Bucharest Polytechnic is the absolute leader with the maximum score of 1.00, followed by University of Bucharest (0.94) and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (0.85). The surprise comes from the University of Craiova, placed in fourth place with the same score of 0.85, which becomes the leader in the brokerage chapter. Babeș-Bolyai University occupies fifth place (0.84), being a stable central actor in all fields.

At the same budget, connections offer an advantage

What the two authors found is that, for the same institutional size measured by budget, centrality makes the difference. In other words, between two institutions that are equally well funded, the one that is better connected will win. Statistical regressions show that universities should have been more successful if size were the only factor, but centrality mediates the impact of size. Money does not win funding.

Money helps you build connections, but ultimately it's the connections that matter when funding partnerships. Oradea and Brasov They're about the same size, the same faculties, similar budgets. One is in the core, the other is not.

Institutions with high betweenness centrality, that is, those that bridge otherwise separate groups, are 17 times more likely to coordinate a funded project than isolated ones. „The most effective strategy for increasing the chances of success is intense and diverse participation in consortium networks,” Hatos emphasizes.

Bucharest concentrates resources, but it is not Silicon Valley

„"52% of the participants are from Bucharest-Ilfov. With this concentration of resources, we should have a Romanian Silicon Valley, but it doesn't. Something is wrong there." Adrian Hatos points out that half of the national research happens within a thirty-kilometer circle around the Palace of Parliament, but without synergy. In contrast, the universities in the province that manage to break the isolation, Braşov, Craiova, Suceava, Constant, are the ones who understood that in a network it matters to be connected with everyone, not just those like you.

And even though they dominate the research landscape, universities are missing something essential. "Universities should be the place where various partners meet - INCDs, companies, hospitals. They should organize conferences, living labs, be a creative effervescence. Apart from courses and laboratories, practically nothing is done."„

Projects don't start with a contract, but with a coffee

Although the discussion was about advanced mathematical analysis, Adrian Hatos was careful to emphasize from the beginning that what the graphs and coefficients show are not abstract entities, but people. "Institutions do not always collaborate with each other. Behind institutional partnerships are human relationships. These partnerships are not formed randomly, but are the result of affinities, a history of collaboration."„

Network analysis shows us the map. But maps don't tell us how the roads were built, for that we have to remember the people and the coffees.