North-East Regional Development Agency is a generator of economic and social development in the North-East Region of Romania. NE RDA develops strategies, attracts resources, identifies and implements financing programmes and offers services for stimulating sustainable economic development, partnerships and entrepreneurial spirit.
North East Region is a modest innovator according to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019, but North East RDA is committed to increase the regional innovation capacity and will use the pilot PPI in order to promote and boost innovation in our region, focusing on smart buildings and innovative energy saving solutions.
For achieving this, North East RDA has started to build its institutional capacity in PPI within the framework of PRONTO Project, as there is no previous experience. After that, they will implement innovative solutions within the premises of NE RDA and will promote the showcase in order to change the attitude of the local public administration, the universities and the RDI organizations towards PPI. Finally, RDA intends to boost the usage of PPI in connection with the implementation of the Regional Operational Programme 2021-2027.
The focus of the PPI will be on Rubik Hub that is a NE RDA structure set up in order to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem in North East Region by connecting, educating and supporting the communities of startup founders, mentors and investors. The building where it is based Rubik Hub is energy inefficient, especially due to the glass walls. During the summer, inside the building is extremely hot, which leads to a high consumption of electricity, while during the winter, there is extremely cold, so there is a high consumption of gas.
In order to solve this problem, RDA is looking for customized innovative solutions and products that can increase the energy efficiency of the building (hoping without changing the glass walls), develop an innovative integrated intelligent building energy management system via IoT, AI, sensors, based on the space utilization and transforming the roof into a solar or green one.
In addition to this, RDA would like to set up a Career Exploration & Skill Development Youth Center by rehabilitating an annex space situated on the rooftop. The aim of the Career Exploration & Skill Development Youth Center is to support young people to discover and explore their passions in the tech and nontech areas using the center’s infrastructure in order to experiment and test their innovative ideas. The center is intended to be energy self-sufficient based on innovative technologies.
By implementing the pilot PPI, North East RDA would like to have the following impact: the reduction of energy consumption by 25%, an increased level of comfort and satisfaction of the user, the promotion of innovative solutions in the field of building energy efficiency.