Romanian partners FreshBlood HealthTech and Babeș-Bolyai University join forces under BRITE-EU collaboration.
Europe’s future in digital health depends on its people, their skills, opportunities, and ability to thrive where they are most needed.
With this vision at its core, the BRITE-EU (Boosting R&I Talent Interoperability and Employability in Europe) project has entered a new phase of local collaboration in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Today, representatives from FreshBlood HealthTech (part of Asociația INIT) visited Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) to synchronise their specific project tasks and strengthen research and innovation (R&I) capacity across the Romanian ecosystem.
Funded by the Horizon Europe programme, BRITE-EU is a four-year project (2026–2029) focusing on the Digital Health sector to address persistent challenges such as skills disparities, limited cross-sector mobility, and the ongoing loss of talent from Widening countries.
Our mission
Despite strong academic foundations and growing innovation potential, Romania continues to face structural barriers that limit career opportunities for researchers and innovators. Talented professionals often leave in search of better prospects.
The collaboration between FreshBlood and UBB responds to these challenges with a holistic approach: strengthening individual skills and employability while supporting institutional capacity and cross-sector collaboration.
By connecting academic excellence with industry innovation directly in Cluj-Napoca, the partners aim to create a more inclusive, dynamic, and attractive R&I ecosystem built on a collaborative quadruple-helix model.
Digital health as a catalyst for innovation
Digital Health stands at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and society, offering significant potential for innovation and impact. Driving this educational transformation, UBB is taking the lead on the project’s Training Programmes. Leveraging robust academic frameworks—such as the university’s ongoing courses in digital health and innovation in public health—UBB is designing and delivering targeted curricula to enhance research skills, knowledge transfer, and career development tailored to specific stakeholder needs.
Ensuring quality and engaging the community
FreshBlood HealthTech complements this academic rigour by bridging medicine, technology, and business. Within the consortium, FreshBlood is heading Stakeholder Engagement actively connecting with researchers, industry partners, and policymakers through public events, workshops, seminars, and strategic communication.
Furthermore, to ensure the project maintains the highest standards of execution, FreshBlood is overseeing Risk Management and Quality Assurance. This involves the deployment of specific peer-review quality control procedures and the ongoing management of the project’s Quality and Risk Management Plans.
Visit at UBB marked the start of joint local action alignment
Today’s working visit at UBB—taking place in the fifth month of the 48-month project—served to translate these tasks into concrete local action. The meeting provided an opportunity to:
- Align the activities of UBB and FreshBlood within BRITE-EU.
- Discuss upcoming stakeholder engagement events to better integrate the local quadruple-helix ecosystem.
Over the coming months, this partnership will continue to engage with stakeholders across sectors to build a competitive HealthTech environment in Romania. Updates, opportunities, and results will be shared regularly through the project website and communication channels.
Stay connected and follow BRITE-EU as it works to empower researchers, strengthen institutions, and shape the future of digital health R&I in Europe.
