Romania continues to strengthen its position on the European startup landscape, recording one of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems in the European Union. At the same time, the latest European reports show that the country's overall innovation performance remains below the EU average, highlighting both encouraging progress and areas where further investment and policy support are needed. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2026, Romania is classified as an Emerging Innovator, performing at 41.8% of the EU average and ranking 27th among EU Member States. Although its overall innovation performance remains below the average for its peer group, the report identifies several positive developments. Digitalisation Continues to Advance One of Romania's strongest areas of progress is digitalisation. Compared to the previous year, the country's performance improved by 6.9 percentage points, driven primarily by stronger digital skills among the population and wider access to high-speed internet. Romania performs particularly well in several indicators at European level, including: • High-tech imports from outside the EU; • High-speed internet access; • Exports of medium- and high-tech products. At the same time, the report highlights important challenges related to the share of the population with tertiary education, innovation adoption among SMEs, and employment in innovative enterprises. Romania's Startup Ecosystem Is Gaining Momentum Positive signals also come from the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2026 published by StartupBlink, where Romania recorded the second-highest growth rate in the European Union, at 32.9%, surpassed only by Cyprus. The country climbed four places in the global ranking to 44th, reversing several years of decline, while moving up to 27th place in Europe. The report identifies several strengths of Romania's startup ecosystem: • Romania ranks 1st in the Balkans in the Funding & Capital category, reflecting a strong level of investment activity; • The country's business environment scores higher than the current performance of its startup ecosystem, indicating significant growth potential; • Six Romanian cities are now included among the world's top startup ecosystems, all recording positive growth; • Software & Data remains Romania's strongest industry, while the country ranks 19th in the EU in Artificial Intelligence. Challenges Remain Despite these encouraging developments, the European Innovation Scoreboard points to several structural challenges that continue to limit Romania's innovation capacity. These include low investment in research and development, limited participation in European research programmes, relatively low tertiary education attainment, and the slow adoption of advanced technologies across the business sector. Furthermore, although Romania records a high rate of new business creation, many companies still face difficulties when it comes to scaling their operations and integrating advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics. A Growing Innovation Ecosystem Beyond the findings of these reports, building a competitive innovation ecosystem requires long-term investment and concrete initiatives that support entrepreneurs and innovative companies. In Romania's North-West Region, ADR Nord-Vest and the INNO Department contribute to strengthening the regional innovation ecosystem through dedicated programmes for startups and innovative SMEs, such as LevelUP, an accelerator supporting startups in the Health & Life Sciences sector, and GreenLeap, a programme designed for startups developing green and sustainable solutions. These initiatives complement the many programmes delivered by ecosystem partners and aim to foster innovation, strengthen entrepreneurial skills, and facilitate access to funding as well as national and international markets. At the same time, the development of the Smart Specialisation Parks provides the infrastructure needed for SMEs to adopt innovative technologies and solutions, while the Regional Investment Fund, managed by Nucleo Ventures, supports startups and innovative companies with high growth potential. Together, these initiatives help transform innovation potential into successful projects, investments and competitive businesses. This article is based on data published in the European Innovation Scoreboard 2026 – Country Profile Romania (European Commission) and the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2026 (StartupBlink).