HESS Introductory meeting in North East Romania

On 7^th June, with the support of the North-East Romania Regional Development Agency, a meeting was organised to introduce the HESS project to local universities and to start a self-evaluation discussion.

The self-evaluation represents, in itself, the first step of the HESS project and will be the basis upon which the IPTS and the RDA will decide how to shape the action-research planned for autumn 2016.

During the meeting, following the introductory presentations of the local RIS3, the RIS3 in Lagging Regions project and HESS itself, participants were split into two working-groups to discuss the self-evaluation questionnaire, which will be completed by autumn.

The exercise revealed a strong interest for the topic and for the HESS project. Universities were unanimous in highlighting that their main source of support to the RIS3 lied in their teaching activities. These, especially for STEM and IT faculties, were very much aligned with the strategic needs of the region. The IT sector emerged as particularly important and well organised in terms of interaction with industry for training purposes and certainly appears as interesting case to explore in more depth.

In terms of technology transfer and outreach activities, local universities appear less engaged, not least because the legal framework does not favour third mission activities.

The event represented an excellent start for the HESS project in North-East Romania.