UTCB joins forces with Bucharest Sector 2 City Hall for the NetZeRoCities project
Empowering sustainable development and supporting the green transition is an overarching mission shared by all EU-CONEXUS partners from day one. Be it through academic practices, strategic partnerships or activities aimed at raising awareness in targeted communities, coordinated actions are meant to elevate each other, driving a gradual long-term shift on a European scope. More particularly, EU-CONEXUS has a clear ambition to act as a role-model and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Starting this year, EU-CONEXUS founding member and partner university, the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest (UTCB), is taking part in the “Solutions for the development of Climate Neutral and Smart Cities” (NetZeRoCities) project. This project is set to define the operational, financial, and legal conditions for creating the Romanian Competence Centre on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.
This Centre will support Romanian cities in their mission to achieve Climate Neutrality. The objective is to implement the necessary steps by 2030 in cities selected by the EU Mission, and by 2050 in all Romanian cities. During the first stage, the main focus will fall on the three Romanian cities that won the “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030” competition: Bucharest, Cluj and Suceava.
As the official partner of Bucharest Sector 2 City Hall, in this project the UTBC is responsible for the “Smart and Sustainable Buildings” component project. Therefore, the impact of UTCB will ultimately play a crucial role in achieving climate neutrality in the city of Bucharest by 2030.
The Romanian Competence Centre is a future-proof structure that is being designed to support a sustainable, predictive, and simplified environment for research, development, innovation and business activities – all with a focus on adjustment to climate change and digital transition. In other words, the centre will serve as a hub for innovation, setting consistent transformative standards and supporting cities as they access funding opportunities, reach the EU Climate Mission milestones and key performance indicators.
The role and relevance of the Romanian Competence Center on Climate-Neutral Smart Cities was presented at the 58th edition of the National Conference of the Association of Installation Engineers from Romania – CN AIIR 2023. Behind this presentation was Mihnea Sandu – a UTCB representative and one of the people responsible for this project.
The presentation outlined some of the key objectives of the Romanian Competence Center, including:
• Establishing an operational framework and implementing CDI solutions to help Romanian cities achieve climate neutrality targets in simultaneous alignment with the needs of the community, local businesses and regional and national authorities;
• Promoting city governance models and policies that involve climate action and adapt functional solutions sourced from EU cities to local and regional administrative, economic and social needs;
• Implementing technical solutions that foster collaboration between national and European institutions to achieve climate neutrality based on Big Data and the Internet of Everything with an added focus on continuous monitoring and service support;
• Leaning into digitization to support cities’ technological transition in areas such as green mobility, energy efficiency or ecological urban planning – all centered around climate neutrality;
• Building a hub of innovation and excellence (alternatively referred to as a Smart Campus) that inspires Romanian cities and functions as a source of collective knowledge, ideas and solutions stemming from the Climate Mission;
• Defining the operational, financial and legal aspects of an operational and self-sustainable National Competence Center for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities in Romania.
Learn more about the NetZeRoCities project and ongoing efforts here: https://netzerocities.upb.ro/.
