Academy today

The Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences Gheorghe Ionescu-Şişeşti is a specialized, autonomous public institution of academic consecration and scientific coordination, with legal personality, which operates according to its own statute, under the coordination of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and collaborates with the Ministry of National Education (MEN) .

ASAS represents the Romanian state in international scientific relations in its fields of activity and participates in its own name in national and international technical-scientific cooperation programs.
In order to achieve the research-development objectives arising from the National Research-Development Plan, ASAS subordinates a number of 4 national institutes, 13 branch institutes and 45 agricultural research-development stations located throughout the country. ASAS also has 3 private research institutes and formations in scientific coordination.

The research and development units are financed from extra-budgetary revenues obtained through research and development contracts, royalties from biological creations, services, as well as from the capitalization of agricultural products (seeds, planting material from higher biological categories and purebred animals) obtained in the development sectors .

In order to increase managerial efficiency in scientific activity, ASAS organized regional branches in the cities of: Bucharest, Brașov, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iași and Timișoara.
ASAS, together with the network of research and development units, represents a set of structures that allow a systemic approach from an organizational, scientific, technical and socio-economic point of view, which ensures the integration of research in the realization of the development strategy of the national economy.

The scientific research and technological development activity in the ASAS units is carried out by over 800 specialists with higher education, of which 512 are certified researchers.
The research and development units have a logistical base consisting of analysis laboratories, complex investigations such as phytotron, zootron, apitron, greenhouses and vegetation chambers, runoff and erosion plots, genetic and data resource banks, experimental fields of long duration and other facilities. For the research activity, as well as for the production of seeds and planting material and breeding animals, the units have a heritage consisting of over 30,000 ha of agricultural land and livestock.

Special attention is also given to the provision of important quantities of seeds from recently created crop plant varieties and animal breeds and numerous specific consultancy actions.

ASAS and the network of cd units collaborate with the Universities of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV), located in the main cities of the country and with other local bodies in order to achieve the timely transfer of information and valuable results obtained in the research activity to their users .

Objectives of the activity A.S.A.S.

• Increasing the contribution of scientific research to the complex, harmonious and sustainable development of agriculture, forestry and the Romanian countryside, in order to fulfill the major national objective of achieving food security and safety.
• Elaboration of short, medium and long-term strategies regarding the development of science and agricultural production, as well as supporting documentation for administrative bodies in the implementation of agricultural policies.
• Promoting advanced scientific research to obtain results with reliable perspectives of capitalization for the benefit of knowledge development and obtaining results with high practical applicability.
• Promoting multidisciplinary scientific research for the complex solution of the problems determined by the current major challenges, especially regarding global climate change and the degradation of environmental resources indispensable for the sustainable development of agriculture: soil, water, atmosphere, energy.
• Stimulating the study of different types of agriculture (conventional, ecological, with reduced inputs, conservative) in order to establish the most advantageous types, according to pedo-climatic conditions, available financial capital and the profile of human resources.
• Conservation and capitalization of the local gene pool to increase and improve the quality of plant and animal production.
• Promoting technological progress to increase and ensure the stability of productions and obtain products with superior and diversified qualities.
• Stimulation and coordination of research aimed at ensuring the protection of the health of plants, animals and the environment.
• Increasing the competitiveness and contribution of Romanian agricultural science to the international fund of knowledge and scientific creation.
• Supporting the integration process of Romanian agricultural research in the European Research Area.
• The development of cooperation and collaboration relations with foreign partners in order to support the progress of agricultural research.
• Extension, consulting, technology transfer and information activities for users in agriculture and the food industry.