The role of the research and development and the number of patents, in the increase of GDP performance in the European Union for the period 2005-2014

Over time, the research has played a key role in the economic development reflected by the GDP growth, the increase of the patents' number, the volume of exports, the economic competitiveness of countries which have invested in research and development.The aim of this paper is to make a study at the level of the European Union's countries of the way that the size of the expenditures with the Research and Development and the number of patents reported at 1 million inhabitants, influences the Gross Domestic Product. In that respect, the research wants to verify the possibility of Romania to achieve the objective written in the Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2014 to "reaching until year 2020 the critical mass of researchers needed to turn R&D a factor of economic growth through the provision of rapid and sustainable development, numerical and qualitative human resources in research, development and innovation" (R&D Strategy, 2014).