The Centre’s Core Consortium includes strategic partners directly connected to Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Suceava, and others.
The structure of the consortium fosters a nucleus of excellence focused on helping cities reach Net Zero through governance and technology. Geographically, partners are well connected with the three cities selected by 100 EU Cities (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava), and to other cities.
National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest (UNSTPB), the Coordinator, is the largest technical university in Romania. Scientific research is an essential activity of UPB, the value of the results obtained at national and international levels being recognized and strategically oriented towards high development areas (e.g., information and communication technology, innovative products and processes). In FP7 and HORIZON 2020 EU programs, UPB was the most successful Romanian research entity, with over 60 international grants in last 3 years. Based on the Research-Development-Innovation strategy of the University, UPB was granted the Diploma of Excellence for Human Resource Research – “HR Excellence in Research Award” by implementing the Human Resources Strategy for researchers and fully supporting the 40 principles of the European Charter for Researchers. As technology leader in the market, UPB promotes scientific excellence and Open Science, and for this is affiliated to the CAESAR and LERU networks and is a member of EOSC, being a strong promoter of the Open Sharing and FAIR data principles. Besides being the Hosting partner for the Competence Center, UPB will also lead the development of the Digital Twin and data platform, as well as will be one of the Smart Campus piloting site and leader for Specific RDI Project no. 5.
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI) was set up in 1970 and is currently the largest RDI institute in informatics and communication technology (ICT) in Romania. The main thematic areas of RDI activity include models and algorithms for complex problems of science, engineering, economy and society; artificial intelligence (machine learning, deep learning); cybersecurity of IT systems and networks; critical infrastructure protection; modelling and analysis of large data (big data, data spaces); Internet of Things and Future Internet technologies; new IT technologies (blockchain) etc. ICI is running the Cloud infrastructure ICIPRO. Also, ICI is co-founder of the National Initiative for Open Science Cloud – RO-NOSCI and mandated national organization in the EOSC Association. In the European scientific collaboration ICI has participated in more than 30 R&I projects and has fulfilled the role of ICT National Contact point during the FP7, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes. ICI is editing four scientific journals including two ISI-indexed ones. Within this complex project ICI will construct the Governance in the project (leader for Specific RDI 1) and will help with the digitalisation.
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN), an “Advanced Research and Education” awarded university (by Order of the Ministry of National Education no 5262/September 5th, 2011), is today a tertiary education institution having a long-standing tradition as well as national and international recognition, comprising twelve faculties in the two academic centers – Cluj-Napoca and Baia Mare, and extensions in Alba-Iulia, Bistrita, Satu Mare and Zalău. Regarding the field of Smart Cities, in partnership with the Cluj IT Cluster, TUCN has a training program also run by the DECIDFR department, in which lecturers are involved in pillars of the smart city, starting with e-governance /e-administration as well as energy and environmental efficiency, up to intelligent utilities, intelligent buildings, digitized and innovative education/medicine/culture, intelligent business environment, intelligent traffic & parking, public security, cyber security of digitalized smart city systems, etc. Based on the expertise both in the domain of Energy Transition (Renewable Energy and Ecology) and in the domain of the Information and Communications Technology – already involved in large-scale Smart City projects and training in the field of Smart Cities, the role of TUCN as Partner P2 will be mainly in leading the Component Project no. 2 – Sustainable Energy and Environment, which will be developed in close connection with the other four Component Projects of the consortium.
Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest (UTCB) is part of the European University for the Smart Sustainable Development of Urban Coastal Areas (EU-CONEXUS), which is a transnational institution of higher education and research. EU-CONEXUS is one of the 17 “European University” projects that have been selected by the European Commission from the 54 proposals submitted for funding. Within this framework, a joint program of the partner universities will be developed, with a European Doctorate, with the general specialization “Sustainable development of urban coastal areas”. The research team from UTCB has a strong experience in the field of environmental quality for all range of inhabited enclosures or outdoor. One of the traditional research directions is related to improving environmental comfort and reducing energy costs. Energy efficiency and IEQ are highly represented among research axis and directions. Urban pollution and air quality monitoring has become an important domain in the last 10 years with different research projects related. UTCB has high expertise on low carbon building, renewable energies and urban environment evaluation considering the indoor and outdoor pollutants and impact on occupants’ health and wellbeing. The main areas of relevant research performed in the University are as follows: seismic hazard, fragility and risk analysis; seismic protection of structures; retrofitting of buildings; devising new building materials; building services systems (HVAC & R, mechanical and electrical installations) and energy supply, energy efficiency of building services systems and related equipment, control systems and BMS, geotechnical problems in special soil conditions; ecology and environmental protection; hydraulics &hydraulic structures; water supply, water sewage and regeneration; bridges and transportation networks; geodesy, photogrammetry and remote sensing etc. UTCB is the main research partner for Bucharest District 2 Municipality in their application to Mission for 100 climate neutral and smart Cities by 2030. UTCB has the necessary expertise and infrastructure for built environment research for developing new technologies which lead to carbon neutral buildings. UTCB is leader of RDI Project 3 ”Smart and Sustainable Buildings”.
“Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava (USV) is a comprehensive public higher education institution providing more than 100 programs to more than 10.000 students. The first university in Romania in terms of patents and patent requests over the last decade (see OSIM) and ranked by main world university rankings in Top 10 Romanian universities (see THE / QS WUR 2023), USV plays a key role in the regional development at cross border between Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. The USV research team has a world-class expertise in the project area leading the RDI efforts for Suceava City, which was selected for the EU Mission for 100 climate neutral and smart Cities by 2030.
HOLISUN SRL is a software company with 21 years of experience in R&D and software development. Our expertise encompasses Optimization of the waste collection chain (minimum routes); optimization of waste collection (sensors on the bins, which announce when they are full); Predictions of collection times; the use of urban waste (leaves, branches) and horeca (vegetables from shops and restaurants) for the growth of mushrooms. HOLISUN has been involved in more than 10 research projects at European and national level (e.g. Horizon 2020, CHIST-ERA, Eurostars, ICT-AGRI-FOOD). HOLISUN will be involved in projects PR01 and PR02, to which they will contribute in terms of applicative research output on data mining, time predictions and software development. We will complement the fundamental research of universities as well the industrial skills of the companies in the consortium.
DATACOR SRL, is a Romanian company, with 20 years of experience in innovative communications solutions, security and electrical solutions, operating in the office, retail and industrial segments. From 2002 until now, the company has grown continuously, reaching a team of 100 people and a turnover of 9 million euros. DATACOR is an integrator of innovative communications, security and electrical solutions, operating in different segments, such as: office, retail, industrial, residential. The main products and services are in the domains of: optical fibers, structured cabling, copper communication, network cabinets, solar panels, upc, datacenters, security systems, climatization. In 20 years, DATACOM became one of the main providers of communications and security infrastructure solutions in the country. Continuously investing in the development of human resources, the digitalization of the company and in the automation of business processes, DATACOR seek to continuously gain new skills and we make sure our team is trained and qualified for all the activities we undertake. Throughout the 20 years of activity, DATACOR gained multiple certifications that guarantee the quality of the products and services. In the buildings security sector, DATACOR is authorized by IGSU for the design, execution and maintenance of fire alarm systems, and is also authorized by IGPR for anti-burglary systems, video surveillance and access control systems.
Inteligent Convergent Solutions SRL (ICOR), was founded in 2003 in Bucharest with the scope to contribute to the digitalization of the private enterprise customers and public sector in Romania. The company continuously transformed and develop, following latest technology innovations, consulting customers and implementing state of the art projects. Since 2015 the company has been working with EU Funded investments to develop competences in areas of Smart City, Energy Efficiency, intelligent infrastructures for decarbonization of transports. ICOS implemented the first LED factory in the south region in Romania, for producing smart street lighting lamps. More than 50 cities and communities in Romania are using the energy efficient street lighting produced by ICOS. A second key business priority if the company is the implementation and management of Solar Energy power plants for medium size companies and industry. One of the technical specializations is also in design and execution of mobile platforms and panels with LED modules with variable messages like VMS and ITS components and maintenance for these systems. Next to commercial and technical departments, the department for research and innovation is actively developing innovations in Smart infrastructures, Smart Transports, innovative management mechanisms for Smart Energy, scaling research from hardware innovation to AI software and Big Data analytics. The company operates compliant to quality standards: OHSAS 27001:2007, OHSAS 18001:2007, EN ISO 9001:2015, EN ISO 14001:2015, ANRE Certified. Within the project consortium ICOS will actively contribute with multidisciplinary specializations to the research, innovation prototyping and real case scenario testing activities.
BEIA CERCETARE SRL, is an R&D performing SME with focus on time critical Artificial Internet of Things (AIoT) and a team with experience in R&D service innovation (AI, blockchain, cloud, big data, quantum security), hardware (sensors, actuators, IoT), information technologies (data analytics, back end, interfaces, front end), integration (software/hardware), communication technologies (speech processing, ASR/TTS, NLP/NLU, sentiment analysis, emotional computing), communication/ dissemination/marketing, project management. BEIA’s team has experience in over 60 R&D projects, including HORIZON EUROPE MISSION.
Building Technology Group R SRL (BTGR) was founded in 2013 in Iasi, by a team of IT specialists from Iasi and Belgium, who aimed to create a company producing software for Building Management Systems. Over the years, BTG Romania has become a regional leader in the field of BMS, having implemented the largest intelligent building projects in the Moldova area. BTGR owns an R&D laboratory, where it develops it’s own technology, software and hardware equipment. Between 2020 and 2022, we collaborated with University „Ștefan cel Mare” in Suceava in a research project, for developing a set of intelligent wireless equipments for measuring utilities meters by using Lora technology. We continue to collaborate with USM in another research project (oct.2022 – apr.2023) for developing a smart switch for intelligent light management within a building. Within the complex project, BTGR will be involved in 4 specific projects, namely PR02, PR03, PR04 and PR05, by offering expertise in strategic areas such as: lighting management and interoperability, efficient management of smart charging stations, Building Management Systems and Digital Twin.
Orange Romania SA (ORO) is the mobile telecommunications market leader in Romania with over 11 million customers and over 2700 employees. ORO is part of the Orange Group, one of the largest multi-national corporations in the world with a strong leadership in innovation and over 272 million customers over 5 continents. ORO has invested >2.5 billion since 1997 and is constantly investing in the network development, new technologies, products, and services. ORO launched Orange 5G in Romania since 2020. ORO 5G network offers maximum download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps and average speeds of 600 Mbps. Positioning itself as a leader in Research, Development and high-tech telecommunications, ORO features a technical department, managing existing and new technologies, products and services and piloting their techno-economical assessment and integration in the network: VoLTE services, migration towards a future proof multi-VAS platform, Network Function Virtualization, Software-Defined Networking use cases testing and cloud native applications. ORO combines the scientific potential of academic personnel with the skills of its engineers in market-oriented and creativity of students (the most demanding and technologically aware community) to create an environment designed for innovative testing and new services development. ORO offers its clients, individuals and companies, a complete range of communication solutions, from basic services up to integrated solutions for voice and mobile and fixed data. In addition, the Development & Innovation team is coordinating Orange Educational Program, Orange Fab Romania accelerator, Innovation Labs pre-accelerator and several H2020 research and innovation projects on various topics such 5G-PPP technologies and systems, next generation emergency services and critical infrastructure security. ORO, as the telecom leader in Romania, is a very active operator in innovation and development of new services, is expecting to exploit the new 6G technological concepts and business strategy for future 6G networks capabilities, mainly for the MNO perspective for an efficient and novel operational framework. Based on the 6G technical achievements, ORO is expecting to define new efficient services approach and implement new business plans.
With this PNRR call we plan to engage in 3 out of 5 projects from our Consortium, P2-Sustainable energy & environments, P4-Smart mobility and infrastructure and P5-Smart Campus & Digital Twins. During the project we want to build, configure, operate and maintain a 5G Radio Infrastructure in the UPB and USV Campuses.
Robert Bosch SRL (BOSCH) is part of the Bosch Group that has been present in Romania for 28 years and has around 8,800 employees in six entities. In 2021, Bosch generated consolidated sales of 494 million euros on the Romanian market. Total net sales, including sales of non-consolidated companies and internal deliveries to affiliated companies, reached 1.7 billion euros. In addition to the research and development center in Cluj and Bucharest and its Mobility Solutions production units in Cluj and Blaj, Bosch also operates an Industrial Technology production unit, also located in Blaj, as well as a center of business process outsourcing (BPO) services in Timisoara. In Bucharest, Bosch operates a sales office for the products of the Mobility Solutions, Consumer Goods and Construction and Energy Technology sectors. In addition, a subsidiary of BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, active in the home appliance market, is also based in the country’s capital.
The Bosch Engineering Center Cluj was established in 2013 in Cluj as an integral part of the Bosch global engineering network. The center has offices in the heart of Cluj-Napoca, in the premises of the Bosch Cluj Factory in Jucu and in Bucharest. Automated driving, electric and connected mobility, the Internet of Things, digital transformation, are just a few examples from the current portfolio of the Bosch Engineering Center. We work in close collaboration with other Bosch engineering and development centers and with the Bosch factory in Cluj. We specialize in software engineering, hardware and mechanical engineering, reliability and quality engineering, but also in mobility sales planning, thus providing our internal and external customers with unique products and AIoT solutions globally.
UPB and UTCN are the biggest two technical universities in Romania, both with a large experience in RDI projects on the topics. UTCB is the university forming specialists in Smart Building and Environments. USV is the university forming specialists for solving Societal needs, while ICI is the RDI national institute for Digitalization and Cybersecurity in Romania. UPB has worked previously with ICI, UTCN, BEIA, ICOR, ORO in many Smart City projects, UTCN the same with DATACOR, HOLISUN, BOSCH (as part of Cluster IT), USV with UTCN and BTGR. Companies work on sustainable energy/lighting, others on green buildings, smart mobility, circular economy, and are all top actors on Smart Cities tech., willing to extend their portfolio with a dedicated Climate Neutrality technology focus. All (SME and large) companies in Consortium have previously implemented Smart City projects in Romania. ORO implemented the Smart Cities solutions in Alba-Iulia (then declared the top city in terms of digitalization in Romania), and BOSCH with a large history of Smart City projects (from smart traffic lights to smart lightning and autonomous vehicles). The Cluj IT cluster (DATACOR) is part of the consortium. We have companies with a large expertise in IoT and environmental monitoring (BEIA runs projects for the Ministry of Environment for carbon emission estimation), in Governance and Technology (HOLISUN), smart mobility (ICOS runs the Smart Hub), or smart buildings (BTGR).