The West University of Timișoara (UVT) announces its participation as a partner in the project Romanian Artificial Intelligence HUB – HRIA, the largest national initiative dedicated to developing an ecosystem of excellence in research, innovation and technology transfer in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
The official launch event of the project took place on June 25, 2025, starting at 11:00 AM, in the Auditorium of the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest. The event brought together representatives of academia, public authorities, the economic environment and the research and innovation community in Romania, marking a landmark moment for the integration of national efforts in the field of AI and their alignment with European standards.
The HRIA project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the Smart Growth, Digitalisation and Financial Instruments Programme 2021-2027 (PoCIDIF). The overall objective of the project is to create and operationalise the Romanian Artificial Intelligence Hub, by developing a competitive research, development and innovation ecosystem that brings together the resources of the academic and economic environment, in order to generate original cutting-edge scientific research, develop new products and services based on Artificial Intelligence, transfer the results to industry and society, and create a national knowledge core integrated into the European Research Area.
The HRIA project consortium brings together seven universities and eight innovative companies in the field of technology and research: National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest - project leader, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN), West University of Timișoara (UVT), "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iași (TUIASI), Politehnica University of Timișoara (UPT), University of Bucharest (UB), "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca (UBB) and partners from the private sector: BEIA Consult International (BEIA), IT Center for Science and Technology (CITST), GreenSoft (Green), Neural Grader (Neural), Safetech Innovations (SafeTech), SoftTehnica (SoftTeh), Technology Systems and Services International (TSSI), Terrasigna (Terra).
Within the project, the West University of Timișoara contributes its vast experience Artificial Intelligence Research Group from Computer Science Research Center – CeRiCS, recognized nationally and internationally for his work in areas such as: multi-agent systems and intelligent agents, machine learning and knowledge extraction techniques, satellite image processing and computer vision, neuro-symbolic and explainability models, cybersecurity and human-computer interaction.
The UVT team has developed in previous projects intelligent resource allocation strategies in distributed systems, platforms for processing data collected from sensors, as well as AI models applicable to medical imaging, environmental monitoring, advanced human-machine interfaces and heritage conservation.
Through the high-performance computing infrastructure of the Computer Science Research Center -CeRiCSUVT and interdisciplinary approaches, UVT will contribute to the development, testing and validation of innovative Artificial Intelligence prototypes and services in Romania.
During the event, the main research and development directions that HRIA will address were presented: reliable and explainable AI, autonomous and intelligent systems, intelligent human-computer interfaces, low-energy hardware technologies, AI applied in medicine, cybersecurity, smart cities and the environment, and the development of functional prototypes adapted to the needs of the economy and society.
The launch of HRIA confirmed the commitment of all partners to contribute to increasing Romania's innovation capacity and to stimulate economic competitiveness through leading-edge AI solutions. UVT's participation underlined the strategic role that the university holds in the development of knowledge and technology transfer in the field of Artificial Intelligence. By participating in this project, UVT strengthens the connection between research and the training of specialists, capitalizing on the educational bachelor's programs in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, as well as the master's programs dedicated to the leading fields: Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Computing, Big Data, Intelligent Software Robotics, Cybersecurity, Bioinformatics and Software Engineering. Thus, the project contributes to the development of professional skills and the training of future generations of experts capable of supporting technological progress in Romania.
___________________________________________________
For more information about UVT's participation in the HRIA project:
Univ. Prof. Dr. Viorel Negru
UVT Coordinator – HRIA
Email: viorel.negru@e-uvt.ro
Website: https://hria.upb.ro/
