ABOUT THE FORUM

Developing multilateral economic relations in the context of sustainable development

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: International cooperation to achieve the global goals of sustainable development is a necessity. European countries have shown their interest and capacity on this, through numerous examples of good practice and results.

MAIN TOPIC: The conference aims to enhance international intersectoral knowledge transfer and cooperation between South East European regions in order to strengthen the ecosystem of actors and launch a knowledge hub in order to overcome specific challenges that some regions are facing.

SECOND TOPIC: Bringing together policy makers, representatives of academia, businesses and NGOs involved in sustainable development by their daily basis activity can generate significant impact on the growth of regions in a sustainable manner.

The Forum represents an excellent opportunity for shared experience between several international cooperation projects. The final conference of the DTP DanubePeerChains will take place in the frame of the conference, organized in collaboration with the European Clusters Alliance and the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. Other partner projects contributing to the content of the Forum: GoDanuBio, Inno Industry, Medic Nest.

The Forum is divided to the following parts:

  • panel discussions – learning and getting inspired,
  • efficient networking – strengthening relations,
  • round tables & workshops – generating know-how and best practices.

Where & When? The Forum is a multidisciplinary and complex event taking place in the city Iasi, Romania between 18-19 October 2022 in the City Hall of Iasi and Braunstein Palace.

Who can participate? The event is addressed for representatives of entities interested in cooperation projects across Europe. Sustainable development is a very complex topic; however, the Forum will focus on the following aspects: bioeconomy, circular economy, green energy, sustainable tourism and health, sustainable business models.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required.

PROGRAMME

DAY 0: Tuesday, October 17

17:30 – 18:30 EEST Clusters and Industrial Policy

Moderator: Daniel Cosnita, president, Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO

Closed session upon invitation only

Hotel Unirea, Sala Clio

18:30 EEST City Pedestrian Tour (Union Square, Al. I. Cuza Statue)
DAY 1: Tuesday, October 18
09:30 – 10:00 EEST Conference Registration - City Hall Iasi

10:00 – 10:30 EEST Welcome & Introduction

Moderator: Mátyus Enikő, Association of Business Incubators Romania

Opening Remarks and Host Perspective

  • Mihai Chirica, Mayor of Iași City, Romania
  • László Borbély, State Councilor and SDG Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Department of Sustainable Development, Romania
  • Terente Ciui, State Secretary, Ministry of Economy Romania
  • Marius Sorin Dangă, vice-president of Iasi County Council
  • Vasile Asandei, General Director, North-East Regional Development Agency

10:30 – 12:10 EEST Plenary Session – Sustainable Growth & Economic Competitiveness: European perspectives for the next 7 years

Moderator: Mátyus Enikő

  • Orientation and Overview of Conference Day 1
  • Ulla Engelmann, Head of Unit – European Commission DG GROW Industrial Forum, Alliances & Clusters
  • Arslan Umut Ergezer, SEE 2030 Coordinator and Senior Economic Policy Analyst, Regional Cooperation Council
  • Barna Kovacs, Secretary General BioEast Initiative, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU
  • Ionuț Purică, Professor, Hyperion University of Bucharest, member of the Consultative Council for Sustainable Development
  • Anca Podrumaru, senior advisor at the Ministry of Economy
  • Conclusions of the plenary session

12:10 – 12:30 EEST Coffee Break

12:30 – 14:00 EEST Policy Round Table

Moderator: Daniel Coșniță, president, Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO

The aim of the session is to present national and regional policies enhancing sustainable transition of economic actors, detailing the capacity of these measures to be extended on an international level. Within this interactive session the audience will have the opportunity to address questions for the speakers.

Speakers of the session:

  • Ileana Luminița Bălălău, Director, Directorate of sustainable development strategies, programs and projects, Government of Romania
  • Rauf Alp Denktaș, Deputy Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  • Marko Savkovic, Senior Advisor, Department for Foreign Economic Relations, Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism of Montenegro
  • Gisela Kemmer, Cluster Agency Baden-Wurttemberg
  • Simion Berzoi, Investment Attraction Officer – EU4Moldova – Focal Region Programme
  • Ovidiu Savu, Head of External Cooperation Office, North-East Regional Development Agency, Romania

14:00 – 14:10 EEST Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony (MOU) between Arhipelago and Regional Development Agency of Tirana

14:10 – 14:50 EEST Lunch Break

15:00 – 17:00 EEST Best Practice Exchange Session

Awareness raising, research and capacity building projects among Europe for green growth and bioeconomy development

Moderator: Nikolia Papadopoulou, Corporate Governance Institute and Sustainability CORP UAIC

  • Bioenergy Villages – creating prosumers through clusterization – learned lessons of GoDanuBio
    Tihamér Sebestyen, scientific researcher, Green Energy Innovative Biomass Cluster
  • Fintech & Sustainability – How blockchain technology can contribute to social inclusion and implicitly to sustainability
    Peter Barta, CIO/COO – Co-Fondator Enfineo
  • Sustainable Islands: Chalki, the first “GR-eco” island and Astypalea, the first smart and sustainable Mediterranean island
    Pantelis Giannoulis – First Counsellor for Economic & Commercial Affairs, Embassy of Greece in Bucharest
  • Integrated capacity building to enter innovative transnational value chains as peer-level collaboration partners
    Brigitte Hatvan, Conplusultra, Austria
  • Contributing to the health sustainable development goal by promoting digital technologies for new precision medicine ecosystems. The case of the MEDIC-NEST project
    Carmen Mihai, cluster manager Imago-Mol Cluster Romania
  • BioNEst Cluster’s greenhouse system – from farm to fork and social to profit
    Marcel Ionescu, Agricloud SRL founder and manager (an IoT specialized company for 4.0 agricultural solutions)
  • Startuppers training in Circular Economy using SEEDS m-learning solution
    Doru Cantemir, Director, Ludor Engineering
  • Diversify the energy generation source in Albania, increase the sustainability and efficiency of its usage
    Edmond Sheshi, Founder & Executive Director of NetRDA NGO in Albania
  • Agrotourism in focus for a sustainable development in Albania
    Ilir Rembeci, Director – Regional Development Agency of Tirana
  • Q&A session

17:00 – 18:00 EEST Role of Business Incubators in sustainable transition

Moderator: Matyus Eniko, coordinator of iNNoHUB Incubator

Topic: Most of the incubators are operating with a traditional business model, providing mainly financial, legal, management, advocacy and housing services. However, incubators can become important enablers of sustainable transition by integrating customized services for start-ups. The session aims to brainstorm sustainability business model related tools and instruments which can be used by the management of a Business Incubator.

Participants: Business Incubator operators.

17:00 – 18:00 EEST ENTERPRISE EUROPE NETWORK Brokerage Event

The main objective of the international brokerage event is to gather all the relevant participants intending to go international, establish partnerships and/or apply for funding in order to implement joint projects for sustainable development.

DAY 2: Wednesday, October 19
09:30 – 10:00 EEST Registration – Braunstein Palace Iasi

10:00 – 12:00 EEST Towards green, digital and resilient bio-economy value chains. The Labour Force Perspective

Hybrid event // link upon registration

Role of clusters as drivers of industrial ecosystems; bio-economy as a solution for value chain disruptions; skilling, up-skilling and re-skilling challenges; perspectives of the Danube Region

Moderator: Daniel Cosnita

  • Antonio Novo, president, European Cluster Alliance
  • Daniela Pasnicu, National R&D Labour Institute
  • Alojzij Kokalj, head of Business to business training center at School center Škofja Loka
  • Carmen Boiciuc, Projects Coordinator of Astrico Nord–Est Textile Cluster
  • Heiko Bartschat, head of the Cluster Mechatronics & Automation at Bayern Innovativ, Germany

Based on the results of DanubePeerChains project

1st Floor, Room 1

10:00 – 12:00 EEST Sustainable Communities - workshop

Moderators:

Vajda Lajos – president Business Incubator Association/Green Energy Cluster
Aurel Borșan – president Amfiteatru Foundation
Veaceslav Guțuțui – UNDP Moldova representative
Vasilica Racariu – president Sustainable Village Association

Taking into consideration the present challenges on the energy market, this interactive session will present opportunities for clean energy generation addressed to rural communities through small-scaled biomass heating systems. Within the workshop, the team of Green Energy Cluster Romania will assess the biomass potential and energy demand of participant settlements analyzing different data. Language of the session: Romanian.

1st floor, Room 3

10:00 – 17:00 EEST Medic - Nest workshop - strategic analysis of the innovation potential of life-sciences – ITC cross-sector

Moderator: Alfonso Garcia Canamaque, Leon Research

Starting from the European Value Chain in the area of precision medicine and the disruptions identified through the analysis performed by European Cluster Cooperation Platform, the MEDIC-NEST clusters – Imago-Mol (Romania), Medvia (Belgia), Hellenic BioCluster (Greece) and Biotecyl (Spain), will define its position in the value chain, will seek for opportunities from the cross-sectorial point of view and will address their upskilling and reskilling needs at the level of their ecosystems.

2nd floor, Room 1

12:30 EEST Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony (MOU) between ICONIC Cluster and Faculty of Natural Sciences from Tirana

12:30 - 14: 30 EEST Sustainable business development – SEE Europe

Business People Meeting. Topics: go-to-market strategies for green products, green technologies, available financial instruments, financial sustainability, resilience, Enterprise Europe Network.

Moderator: Marius Alexa, Corporate Governance Institute and Sustainability CORP UAIC

  • Caterina Ailiesei, Founder and CEO of Katty Fashion
  • Ilir Rembeci, Director – Regional Development Agency of Tirana
  • Doru Cantemir, Director, Ludor Engineering
  • Tudor Jijie, Director of Centre for Balkan Studies –University Alexandru Ioan Cuza IAȘI
  • Maria Gabriela Coman, Enterprise Europe Network Local Coordinator
  • Edmond Sheshi, Founder & Executive Director of NetRDA NGO in Albania

1st floor, Room 1

12:30 - 14: 30 Sustainability in Agriculture - from conventional to ecological

Moderator: Catalin Maxim – bioNEst Clustet manager

Presentations:

  • Sustainable Agriculture, from concept to indicators – Catalin Maxim, BioNEst Cluster manager
  • Conservative Agriculture – Conf. dr. Dennis Topa – dean USAMV Iasi
  • Future is ECO – dr.ing Dan Ioan Avasiloaie, SLCD Bacau
  • BioNEst Cluster’s greenhouse system – from farm to fork and social to profit – Marcel Ionescu, manager Agricloud SRL
  • Circular Agricultural – Cristian Gheorghe, vermicompost specialist

1st floor, Room 3

13:00 - 14:30 EEST Workshop Afaceri.ro

Exclusively for Afaceri.ro Club members

Trainer: Radu Nechita

Room 5

SPEAKERS

László Borbély

State Counselor, Coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development

László BORBÉLY held the position of Minister of the Environment, was Minister of Regional Development Public, Works and Housing, state secretary at Ministry of Public Works and Territorial Planning, Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Transport as well as Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies.

Ulla Engelmann

Head of Unit for Industrial Forum, Alliances and Clusters within DG GROW

Ulla Engelmann is the Head of Unit for Industrial Forum, Alliances and Clusters within DG GROW, the Directorate General being responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, at the European Commission.

Antonio Novo

President of the European Clusters Alliance

Managing Director of the Spanish Cluster IDiA. He is member of the EU Industrial Forum, the expert group on Interregional Innovation Investments and the one focused on Clusters at the European Commission.

Barna Kovacs

Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU, S.G. BIOEAST Initiative, FACCE-JPI Governing Board Vice-Chair

SCAR member on behalf of Hungary. His responsibilities covers the follow up of the Council discussion with regard to the research and innovation in the field of bioeconomy.

Lajos Vajda

President – Business Incubator Association Romania

Clusterization expert, promoter of the Global Sustainable Development Goals. President of Green Energy Cluster, Romania

Daniela Pasnicu

scientific researcher at INCSMPS, professor of economics

over 25 years of experience in scientific research in the socio-economic field and in higher education.

Ph.D Tihamér Sebestyen

Researcher – Green Energy Cluster

Expert în green technologies, renewable energies and regional development

Daniel Coșniță

President at Romanian Cluster Association

20 years in the fields of technology transfer and innovation, regional economic development, and clusters

Caterina Ailiesei

Founder and CEO of Katty Fashion

Founder and CEO of Reginnova NE. Member and expert to several T&C ecosystems as TCBL, ETP Regiotex , EIT Manufacturing and recently to EFFRA

Doru Cantemir

Founder of Ludor Engineering

PhD in Engineering from the University of Pisa (Italy). Expert in 3D printing, drones, robotics and other technologies that are revolutionising the world we live in.

Marcel Ionescu

Agricloud SRL founder and manager

An IoT specialized company for 4.0 agricultural solutions

Alojzij Kokalj

Head of Business to business training center at School center Škofja Loka

Supporting innovative forms of cooperation with companies and the prompt introduction of new technologies into the educational processes

Ovidiu Savu

Head of External Cooperation Office, North-East Regional Development Agency, Romania

Specialized in external cooperation field dealing mostly with identification of funding programmes, development, implementation and management of intra-, inter-regional and transnational development projects

Tudor Jijie

Director of Centre for Balkan Studies –University Alexandru Ioan Cuza IAȘI

PhD in Econometrics. Founder of Eastern Marketing Insights LTD. Member of the Regional Consortium for Innovation in the North-East Region of Romania

Ilir Rembeci

Director of Tirana Regional Development Agency

Senior economist with over 27 years of project development experience in Albania and neighbor countries

Nikolia Papadopoulou

CORP Institute

Graduate of business administration, master’s student of strategic human resource management in Europe at FEAA UAIC

Gisela Kemmner

ClusterAgentur Baden-Württemberg

Gisela Kemmner has been working for almost 2 years as a scientific consultant at ClusterAgentur Baden-Württemberg. She is involved in the assessment of funding programs in the field of Bioeconomy and is a project partner of the Interreg Project GoDanuBio.

Carmen Boiciuc

Projects Coordinator of Astrico Nord–Est Textile Cluster

The first textile cluster in Romania, being responsible for project management, implementing activities on national and European projects, communication and dissemination activities.

Brigitte Hatvan

Head of public consulting / innovation team, partner of ConPlusUltra Ltd., Austria

Expert on regional strategy and roadmapping processes, programme development in the field of innovation support and environmental policies.

Anca Podrumaru

Senior advisor at the Ministry of Economy

Over 20 experience in development of industrial and competitiveness policy.

Carmen Mihai

Cluster manager of IMAGO-MOL Cluster

20+ years’ experience in project management, certified trainer, and project manager.

Berzoi Simion

Investment Attraction Officer – EU4Moldova – Focal Region Programme

Over 15 years of private and public sector experience in investment promotion, innovative finance, stakeholder engagement, feasibility study development, pipeline project evaluation and development, and private sector engagement. Experienced in identifying and piloting pipelines of energy efficiency projects, renewable energy use, and low carbon mobility.

Vasile Asandei

General Director of the North-East Regional Development Agency

A lawyer by training and a people-enthusiast by occupation, Vasile Asandei has been an involved promoter of regional development in the North-Eastern area of Romania, for 23 years.

Maria Gabriela Coman

Project Manager for Entreprise Europe Network

Experienced in business consultacy, European fund, intellectual property, international brokerage.

Marius Alexa

Corporate Governance Institute and Sustainability CORP UAIC

Romanian entrepreneur with expertise in communication, events and business education with deep involvement in civic movements for local development.

Terente Ciui

Secretary of State in the Romanian Ministry of Economy

Terente Ciui has so far held the position of Deputy Executive Director of the Bistrița-Năsăud County Pension House. Between April 2016 and July 2017, Terente Ciui was Deputy Prefect of Bistrița-Năsăud County.

Peter Barta

CIO/COO – Co-Fondator Enfineo

Antreprenor în serie, mentor și investitor în afaceri. Licențiat în Economie, a absolvit un MC în Executive Leadership, la Cornell University (USA), precum și programele de Executive Education ale renumitelor INSEAD, MIT și Harvard University.

Ionut Purica

Professor and researcher

Professor at Hyperion University of Bucharest, member of the Consultative Council for Sustainable Development, member of the Energy Consultative Group with the EU Commission and member of the study group of energy scenarios for 2050 and 2060 with the World Energy Council.

Arslan Umut Ergezer

SEE2030 Coordinator

Senior Economic Policy Analyst and coordinator of the South-East Europe Strategy 2030 (SEE2030) within the Regional Cooperation Council Secretariat.

Edmond Sheshi

Founder & Executive Director of NetRDA NGO in Albania

Heiko Bartschat

Head of the Cluster Mechatronics & Automation at Bayern Innovativ, Germany

WHY ATTEND

The Forum is bringing together tens of international experts and local actors who will provide cooperation project ideas and information regarding framework programmes for the next 10 years. The thematic of the Forum is in-line with the strategic dimensions of SOUTH EAST EUROPE 2030 STRATEGY published by the Regional Cooperation Council: Prosperity, People & Partnerships.

Greater visibility

of good practice examples from target countries in the context of sustainable development

New cooperations

to achieve the global goals of sustainable development

Strengthened relations

between the organizations participating in the event

Strengthened international

collaboration network

ORGANIZERS & PARTNERS

The Forum is initiated by the Association of Business Incubators in Romania and organized with the support of the Department for Sustainable Development Romania.

Co-organizers and Partners: Primăria Municipiului Iași, National Cluster Associations of Romania – CLUSTERO, Regional Development Agency North-East Romania, Arhipelago Interactive, Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability CORP, IMAGO-MOL Cluster, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași

Register your participation in “SUSTAINABILITY FORUM 2022” today!

hubromania@gmail.com