UBB Researchers' experience at EUTOPIA Innovation Challenges for Researchers held in Ljubljana

“The ‘Innovation Challenges for Researchers’ program, part of the EUTOPIA MORE project, took place in Ljubljana between 14-17 October 2024. I was selected to participate in this program from Babes-Bolyai University from Cluj Napoca and I was really looking forward to it as a learning experience and as a great possibility for networking. The event started with a challenge solving workshop where we had to work in teams to find solutions for some presented problems. Also, in the first day we had a communication training led by Blaz Zupan, which I found very interesting and entertaining.

The second day started with a visit to the site of Hidria factory and most importantly a visit to Oljarna Lisjak in the Primorska region, which is an olive oil factory, which presented great interest to me, due to my expertise in oil waste valorification. When we arrived at the factory, we were welcomed by the owner Matej Lisjak. After the presentations we were invited to a meeting with the owner for discussing our ideas to use his factory’s wastes in various applications. After this meeting I was able to make some connections with three other participants, mainly Christopher Scope (from Dresden), Carlos Moreira and Mario de Simeone (both from Lisbon), with which I share some mutual research goals and ideas. We decided to form a consortium and work together to propose some solutions to bring value to Mr. Lisjak’s company’s waste. To this day, we still regularly meet on Zoom meetings to discuss proceedings, and hopefully, after receiving some samples and characterizations are performed, we can write a project to access European funding.

Through the visit, we met up and networked between almost all participants, all of them being really friendly and open. I will also like to thank Simona Rataj for the, in my honest opinion, impeccable treatment of the guests. All in all, I hope that in the future I will be able to participate in more EUTOPIA programs, maybe also be involved in organization of future EUTOPIA meetings in Romania.” – highlighted Adrian-Ioan Dudu, a researcher from the Department of Biochemistry and Biochemical Engineering at Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca

Meanwhile Raluca Anca Mereu, a lecturer at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering of UBB said: “I am excited to share my wonderful experience at the Innovation Challenges for Researchers organized by Ljubljana University. I had the opportunity to connect with a team of multidisciplinary young researchers from various universities within the EUTOPIA alliance.

The week was filled with exciting talks, reunions, and workshops focused on innovation. We tackled real business challenges, and through brainstorming, we developed new ideas and found solutions to the problems posed by three industry companies.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all my colleagues, our mentor, and the organizers for this incredible experience.” 

This article was originally published on UBB website.