DISCOVER NE ROMANIA
Development of an Innovative Strategy Continuously Oriented to
Valorisation of the Economic Resources in North East Romania
Executive summary
Situated at the border with Ukraine and Republic of Moldavia, the North-East Region is the
biggest region in Romania, with a population of 3.7 millions.
The existence of a developed academic environment (with 3 centres of higher education, 16
universities with approx.76.000 students) and highly qualified personnel in researchdevelopment organizations and a network of institutions which supports the development of
the business environment, represents some strong arguments in favour of initiating and
developing a Regional Innovation Strategy.
Even with this important potential, the North-East Region has problems concerning the low
level of foreign investment, the low number of companies per 1000 inhabitants, the high level
of emigration and the high level of unemployment.
The main objective of the project DISCOVER NE ROMANIA is to develop and implement a
Regional Innovation Strategy in North-East Region Romania that will increase its economic
potential, based on an innovation support system, in order to effect a significant change in
the concept itself of innovation and development of innovative business though the
promotion of competitiveness in all sectors.
One of the first results to be achieved with the elaboration of this strategy is the setting up of
a regional partnership in the innovation sector, with the possibility of creating databases and
achieving the common access to and usage of existing information.
Another objective is to set up effective relations/connections between the research,
academic and business sectors, to identify their needs and resources and to make a link
between them.
The partners involved in the implementation of project stage 0 are:
NORTH-EAST Regional Development Agency (NE RDA) – Romania as initiator of the
project and coordinator (Project Manager: Mrs.Gabriela Macoveiu – Director for
Investments and Marketing, NE RDA, phone: 0040 233 224 168, fax: 0040 233 218 072,
e-mail: [email protected] );
METRON SRL - Italy (Mr. Ercole Cauti – Director, phone: 0039 0861 771077, fax: 0039
0861 7710207, [email protected] );
For project implementation, the following coordination and management structure were
created:
Management Unit (MU) consists of 7 of the RDA’s staff and the International Process
Consultant, with the objective of coordinating and implementing project activities, events
organisation and producing intermediate and final reports.
Steering Committee (SC) consists of the Director General North-East RDA and
representatives of the most appropriate institutions at national and regional level. Its role
is report approval, initial strategy proposals and, finally, the prioritised proposals for
project financial allocations as identified at regional level
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Reference Panel (RP) consists of those with technical expertise from representative
sectors at regional level and representatives of foreign partners. Its role is technical and
will contribute to identifying objectives, measures and the future recommendations that
will be included in the Regional Innovation Strategy.
The activities carried out for project dissemination during stage 0 are:
1. Create project visual identity – the purpose was to achieve a significant impact on the
target groups. The logo was designed by the project team and the project partners;
2. Realise specific promotional materials –folders and posters were produced and used
on major events organised during the project implementation.
3. Organise Launching Conference – The Launching Conference was held in Iasi on 6th
of October 2005. There were 60 participants from relevant organizations at national and
regional level, including representatives of Metron SRL Italy, the International Process
Consultant – Mr.Jaime del Castillo and Ms. Renate WEISSENHORN, Head of Unit for
Innovation within DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission.
A press conference was held which underlined the importance of implementing an
innovative project in our region.
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Registering participants
Conference Images
Conference Images
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4. After the conference, the Partnership Agreement was signed.
Management Unit
5. “Information Seminar”, Slanic Moldova – On 16th of December 2005, the first seminar
dedicated to project dissemination was organised. It was designed to let all the staff of
the North-East Regional Development Agency knows about the objectives, activities,
expected results and achievements of the RIS project and its impact on the future
development of our region.
6. Seminar „Perspectives of innovation in North-East Region”, Bacau – On 10th of
February 2006, a seminar for disseminating information about the project was organised
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in Bacau. The target group consisted of representatives from centres of higher education
and research, as well as the business community.
Seminar Images
7. “Information Seminar”, Suceava – On 4th of April 2006, an information seminar was
organised in Suceava. This seminar was focused particularly at the business sector
because this target group is difficult to involve in project implementation.
Suceava – 4th April 2006
8. Seminar „Innovation as an opportunity for the economic development of the NorthEast Region”, Iasi – On 18th of May 2006, a seminar was organised in the “Institute of
Macromolecular Chemistry Petru Poni” Iasi. Its purpose was to disseminate information
about the project and to define a framework for identifying business development
innovation needs involving universities and research institutes.
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Seminar Images
9. The first meetings of the Steering Committee and Reference Panel were held in
Piatra Neamt on the 8th of February 2006. The main objectives of these two meetings
were to establish the role of each structure and working procedures. A press notice was
published in the regional media.
February 2006
10. The second meetings of the two management structures (Steering Committee and
Reference Panel) were held on 19th June 2006. The meetings discussed the SocioEconomic and the SWOT Analyses related to innovation in the North-East Region.
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June 2006
11. The project was promoted in the Region through articles published in our periodical
newsletter “INFO NORD-EST”. Starting from July 2005, each of the last four
newsletters has contained a page dedicated to this subject. The newsletter is published
quarterly, with a print run of 2000, and it is distributed to all partner organizations at local,
regional and national level.
Periodical newsletter INFO NORD-EST no.7
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