Between October 13 and 15 this year in Cluj-Napoca, the 5th edition of the Cluj Innovation Camp took place, within the “2023 Cluj Innovation Year” project, organized by the Transilvania IT Cluster.
The goal of Cluj Innovation Camp is to be an important milestone in the development of the regional ecosystem of Cluj-Napoca, and during the 5th edition, more than 70 representatives of the NGO sector, business, administration, civil organizations and the startup community from 11 countries in Europe took part.
The event was structured around four main challenges, consisting of teams of 10-15 professionals and experts:
– Challenge 1: Accelerate digital innovation using Data Spaces.
– Challenge 2: Smart and sustainable living locally.
– Challenge 3: Designing structural interregional cooperation related to Industry 4.0, Green Energy and Clean Technologies.
– Challenge 4: Digital competences and skills for digital innovation and transformation.
The topics were closely related to digital skills, interregional innovation cooperation and the green transition, which are key areas of focus and which have the potential to shape Europe’s future.
The BOOST project was the owner of Challenge 3 and involved representatives from the founding partners and also stakeholders of each ecosystem. The Challenge was separated into 6 group sessions and a final presentation infront of all guests during the camp on the last day.
The sessions produced many fruitful discussions of how to foster and further build the connections between relevant stakeholders among the ecosystems.
One of the main points around which the experts and the partners from the BOOST consortium agreed was to use networking as a service to create sustainable bridges of trust for collaboration. Another important aspect during the 3-day camp was the exchange of information, resources, contacts and data and the creation of prototypes for testing potential interregional projects.
The next steps for the BOOST partners are to create tools and mechanisms for engagement and cooperation and alongside to create an action and financial plan to boost the interregional collaboration between the stakeholders.