Last week our tech community hit an important milestone for our regional innovation ecosystem: the first chapter of The European Digital Innovation Hub in Transilvania has officially reached its conclusion, while a new and exciting phase is about to begin! The Digital Horizons: TEDIHT 1.0 Closing Conference, took place on May 7 at the exquisite venue of MINA – Museum of Immersive New Art in Cluj-Napoca.
We were delighted to see TEDIHT continue to stand among Europe’s 256 innovation hubs and contribute actively to shaping the continent’s digital transformation landscape.
The event perfectly illustrated how innovation can connect seemingly different domains — from technology and research to manufacturing and creative industries.
About the European Digital Innovation Hubs Network
The EDIH Network was established with the clear purpose of being the driving force behind the digitalization of European businesses and communities. They act as a one-stop-shop in their regions. In the last five years, the network has played a major role in supporting SMEs and PSOs to adopt AI technologies and solutions.
Each European digital innovation hub enrolls proximal entities in their programmes providing tools and training to help them increase their competitiveness, upgrade their current infrastructure, and boost their overall digital capacities. They may focus on particular technologies, according to the local specialization but they have all included Artificial Intelligence as a central pillar for the next stage of European technology alignment.
The Transilvania Digital Innovation Hub – The Romanian Star in the European Constellation
The European Digital Innovation Hub in Transilvania has a long history, going back in 2017 when the Open Innovation 2.0 Conference and Summit took place in Cluj-Napoca. It was a time of unexpected synergies, strategies and encounters when many of the current project ideas found their implementation teams.
Next, Transilvania IT cluster, together with other regional stakeholders and under the coordination of ADRNV, was selected to participate in the European training program “Smart Factories in the New EU Member States,” by the European Commission.
After becoming the first fully operation Digital Innovation Hub in Romania in 2019, the hub was shortlisted for the Digital Innovation Hub Champion Challenge in Madrid. By 2021, The Transilvania IT Cluster and the Transilvania Digital Innovation Hub are cited as examples of best practices in the recommendations report issued by the European Commission’s European Expert Group on Clusters. Thus, in 2022 TDIH is selected for financing within the European Digital Innovation Hubs and it becomes officially a European Digital Innovation Hub.
Sarting with 2023, The European Digital Innovation Hub in Transilvania starts to deliver high-competency services financed by the European Union Funds to local beneficiaries.
In 2026, the first milestone is reached and celebrated during the Digital Horizons event at Mina Cluj in the presence of distinguished guests.
The Impact in Our Community
Through insightful expert panels, participants at Digital Horizons explored one of the ecosystem’s most challenging questions: how do we truly measure the impact generated by innovation hubs and digital transformation initiatives?
The numbers still speak by themselves for The European Digital Innovation Hub in Transylvania: over 100 organizations from the SMEs and public institutions sectors were delivered 700 services and the activities counted 3,500 event attendees and over 400 people trained.
The event itself was designed to emphasize the end of the first chapter: The European Digital Innovation Hub in Transylvania (TEDIHT 1.0). On top of that it intended to highlight the real impact of digitalization, focusing on the beneficiaries who have received the services from the five partners: Transilvania IT Cluster, Hygia Consulting, the National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies – INCDTIM Cluj, Babeș-Bolyai University and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
The beneficiaries who accepted the role model pressure and were on stage to share their experience with us were:
- Maximilian Chocolat – chocolate manufacturer
- AVA Research – end-to-end AI support for organizations that want real AI applicability
- River Company – industrial space cleaning services
- Renergia – Intelligent energy management with real-time monitoring and automated optimization for businesses and communities.
There are key performance indicators that are being currently followed for both the TEDIHT and the beneficiary entities and representatives, but overall it is visible, by far, that the model was functional and it will be further upgraded.
Congratulations to the TEDIHT team for recognizing the strategic importance of AI early on and for continuously supporting SMEs and public institutions through the “test before invest” approach.
About MINA – The Museum of Immersive New Art in Cluj-Napoca
MINA Cluj, is the largest immersive art center in Europe. The choice of organizing Digital Horizons Conference at MINA Cluj, reflects the cross-disciplinary, cross-sectorial and creative approach of the digital innovation hub. We saluted the idea and enjoyed the installations and exhibition.
For the reference, this immersive space features a variety of multimedia shows that allow the public to explore the worlds of classical and contemporary artists, as well as educational experiences that take us to distant and hard-to-reach places, such as the mysteries of the Universe. If you are a fan of new art, electronic arts installations and imaginary worlds, this is a place to visit!
SOFTECH – An Active Promoter of Innovation and Emergent Technologies
As a well-established member of Transilvania IT Cluster, SOFTECH specializes in AI-augmented human-led industrial-grade software development. That is why we have appreciated the TEDIHT initiative as a vector of education and as liaison between the industries and the tech services providers. We consider that those founders, investors and managers that understood the complexities and implications of integrating AI technologies in their business processes, are now ready to make the necessary steps in the collaboration with specialized software teams.
With this in mind, we encourage you to contact SOFTECH engineers for the following services and solution configuration: AI & Intelligent systems development, Industrial grade software development, cloud native & platform engineering, mobile application development, data engineering & advanced analytics, industrial IoT & edge solutions, DevOps & cloud operations.
If it happens that you pass by Cluj, our headquarters and TEDIHT office are on the same street, one building away! We will be more than happy to welcome you and present our competencies and portofolio.