The Northwest Regional Development Agency, through the Northern Transylvania Direct Europe Center, develops and promotes both direct financing opportunities (Regional Operational Program 2014-2020) and complex support tools for the private sector, financed by European funds.
Mrs. Sanda Cătană, general director of ADR Northwest, believes that one of the most important directions of action of the Agency and the ED Center is the development of projects for the purpose of developing business networks and support for innovation, as well as promotion campaigns, to facilitate the access of companies from Northern Transylvania to information, alternative financing, new markets.
Our most important project for the regional business environment is Enterprise Europe Network, financed through COSME, which offers services dedicated to supporting SMEs to develop their innovation potential and identify potential foreign business partners. The BISNet Transylvania network, part of the Enterprise Europe Network, coordinated by ADR North-West, offers services to SMEs in the North-West and Central regions, over 14,000 companies already benefiting from this project.
The Northern Transilvania ED Center will also promote The Investment Plan for Europe (Junker Plan), aimed at stimulating investments and increasing long-term competitiveness in the EU. The plan is based on the establishment of the European fund for strategic investments (EFSI), managed by the European Investment Bank. FEIS supports the investments of companies of all sizes in the European Union through particularly advantageous guarantee instruments. The ED Center will promote FEIS through a communication project at the regional level, for a period of 6 months.
In order to strengthen the innovation capacity of companies in the region, the project InnoCap Transylvania is funded by the European Horizon 2020 program and offers support by carrying out innovation audits assisted by certified experts.
I developed the project SME Organics, which is financed from INTERREG EUROPE 2014-2020 and aims to improve support policies for SMEs in the value chain of ecological products.
The project NEPTUNE – Accelerator of Innovative Solutions for Blue Industries, funded from Horizon 2020, aims to support cross-border collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship between different regions in Europe on the Blue Industries value chain, by stimulating related sectors, mainly: ITC, energy, environment, agriculture, water, aerospace. The project offers a mix of support and financial measures intended to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation, such as voucher scheme for entrepreneurship and innovation, mentoring and coaching support services, innovation clubs.
Regional Alliance of Creative Industries, financed through the Interreg Europe Program, aims to develop the competitive advantages of SMEs in the creative and cultural industries by increasing their capacity for innovation, through the interaction between them and the exchange of good practices between partner regions and by improving the policies and programs that have impact on this sector.