Mission/Objectives of the cluster organisation
Wallachia eHub is a consortium created by five non-governmental organisations, especially clusters, comprising universities and companies active in several sectors like: geographical information systems, design, IT&C, furniture, green energy, organic farming, oil and gas, and research and educational services. Wallachia eHub is a non-profit organization with a managerial unit located in Ploiesti, at the headquarters of a founding member, Danube Engineering Hub. Wallachia eHub helps companies to become more competitive with regard to their business using digital technologies.
Wallachia eHub mission is to provide digital services to private sector companies, especially to SMEs, but also to public sector. Our vision is to contribute to the accelerated adoption of new digital technologies in the South-Muntenia region and to ensure through specialized services digital transformation of the SMEs in the region. In our vision South-Muntenia will become a vibrant region dedicated to digital transformation in the Danube area.
Wallachia eHub founding members are:
Danube Engineering Hub Cluster (https://clusterdeh.ro/) aims to harmonize and represent the interests of businesses, research, administration and catalyst entities in order to increase economic competitiveness and create skills, sustainable and sustainable development, internationalization of members, professional development of managers and employees, management of a common database, participation in national and European networks, increasing the innovation potential of enterprises.
The most relevant features of Danube Engineering Hub are:
Participants of the cluster are involved in the decision making and strategic orientation of the cluster organisation. DEH has a strong system of cluster governance in place. The cluster manager and/or the cluster organisation staff possess international work experience, foreign language skills and a professional international network;
Regularly and well-maintained personal contacts between the cluster management team and the cluster participants are key elements for management excellence of DEH;
Financial sustainability of cluster organisations is secured in the long term;
Already R&D or business collaboration.
For its activity DEH Cluster has received the Silver Label from ESCA (The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis) since 2017. DEH is member of the Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO.
CERMAND Cluster (Cluster for renewable energies on the Black Sea and the Danube - https://www.cermand.eu/) aims to ensure the sustainable microgeneration of energy at Regional level with national, macro-regional and European impact. The use of own resources will be considered, with the central objective of ensuring environmental protection and reducing losses and pollution by integrating innovative concepts of energy transition in local development policies and aiming to support SMEs in the renewable energy sector. Its main objectives are:
Development of innovative distributed microgeneration solutions for electricity and heat from RES;
Development of the innovative circuit production-use energy based on microgeneration from RES at the place of consumption;
Developing strategies to increase productivity and competitiveness for cluster members;
Development of integrated solutions to reduce energy losses;
Development of bioeconomic business models in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
Danube Furniture Cluster (http://adf-dfc.ro/en/home/) was created at the initiative of a group of companies, start-ups and a university entrepreneurial center in order to become a center of excellence in the furniture industry and an attraction for companies in the region that want to develop on the domestic and international value chain, in a combined effort, within a cluster-like structure
Danube Furniture Cluster promotes innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and collaboration based on mutual trust for developing and increasing the competitiveness of the companies that compose it.
The vision and mission of the Danube Furniture Cluster is to develop as much value chain as possible on national and international links in the field of the furniture industry, to identify as easily as possible the resources needed for the whole process, through RDI activities, and technological transfer and specific knowledge of the domain.
Bio Concept Valea Prahovei Cluster (https://www.bioconceptvaleaprahovei.ro/) was established in order to promote excellence in the field of marketing certified organic products, increase competitiveness in this field, harmonization, representation and defence of members' interests at national and international level. The activity of the cluster is supported by youth groups, community groups as well as by the local administration which is involved in sustainable development actions, environmental protection and ecology thus contributing to maintaining a natural, clean and healthy environment.
University Entrepreneurial Center USH Pro Business (http://www.ushprobusiness.ro/en) is a dedicated center for entrepreneurial activities, designed to support companies and provide solutions to sustain competitiveness throughout the business life cycle.
The center offers specialized services and assistance through projects and programes that resulted from out previous discussions with the companies and with the business environment. USH Pro Business Center brings value to the services existing on the market through the understanding regarding our partner's needs and connecting them with the university environment.
Objectives
Digital education of the managers and working force;
Creation of new skills based on digital technologies;
Development of smart specialization platform based on digital technologies;
Develop and promote on the market products and services based on digital technologies;
Develop relations with other regional hubs in Europe especially in the EUSDR countries.
Through Wallachia eHub we act as a catalyst for a better entrepreneurial smart specialization process in the region, digitally driven. Pursuing an assessment and selection process in the strategy, main sectors of smart specialization that have the highest potential for innovation and development have been identified:
Agriculture and food industry: with emphasis on ecological products where we will support precision and digital processes;
Tourism: for areas in the northern part of the region (mountains and hills Valea Prahovei, Curtea de Argeş, Câmpulung, Rucăr, Dâmboviţa, Bran Bridge etc) and Danube River areas in the southern part. Main focus will be digitalization for healthy and ecological tourism, cycling routes, cultural tourism;
Smart Cities: Information management and management technology, computing and imaging; Production of solar panels; Urban Mobility Plans; Waste management plans;
Wood Processing & Furniture: Production& Implementation of assistive technologies for production processes, quality & design;
Green energy;
Heritage conservation and development.
For these areas the center has developed ability to offer services to the region in engineering, GIS application, engineering in precision agriculture, industry 4.0 in furniture manufacturing and other industries and green energies, engineering in logistic digitalization.
We are able also to offer the best expertise and skills in technologies needed for digital transformation, such as: data processing, IoT, Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, laser technologies, blockchain, systems of spatial or geographical information and others.
Targets and services for regional clients
Our hub is well connected to the Danube region and is an active partner in the macro-regional context of the Danube Strategy. Therefore, we will harmonize our services and targets not only in the national or European context, but also in the macro-regional context, South-Muntenia region being bordered at the south by the Danube River.
DIH will focus on:
SMEs in the South Muntenia region - South Muntenia region has a low density of SMEs and even a smaller number of innovative ones. Therefore, we target both start-ups and start-ups services which can focus on innovative digitalization and SMEs able to scaleup their business in smart specialisation already mentioned above. At the same group are targeted cluster managers which can act as brokers to reach the companies inside their clusters.
Researchers and innovators, including individuals, young PhD students, academics, students, Start-uppers, SMEs, and industry players actively engaged in research and innovation initiatives that are of direct relevance to define, strengthen and shape the R&D agenda for the DIH and grow the DIH ecosystem.
Local authorities, Public Administration bodies, Policymakers: the various public and private authorities and policymakers committed to the DIH by supporting the development of its initiatives, fostering research, development and innovation that shall have a positive impact for the regional/ national society.
Regional, national and EU representatives and entities, involved in DIHs assessment and evaluation – to be further identified and defined this segment.
For these groups we will design packages of services adapted to each of them which will include the following
Training, awareness and transfer of knowledge regarding digital transformation and digital technologies. We will bring together digital social innovators, universities and civil society including the broad media, citizens, students, researchers, social entrepreneurs, NGOs and smart cities representatives that could benefit from an open R&D&I ecosystem creating opportunities for individuals a
