🌱 Community Roots 2025 – Where Innovation Meets Local Impact!

Community Roots 2025: Empowering Innovation Where It Matters Most

Community Roots 2025 — it’s a four-week summer school, where students become change makers in the communities of Cluj County. Organized by UBB TechTransfer, in close collaboration with the EUTOPIA Alliance, this interdisciplinary program unites bright minds from across Europe to co-create real-world solutions with local impact.

Over the course of four transformative weeks, 35-40 students from UBB and EUTOPIA universities work in interdisciplinary teams to tackle pressing challenges identified directly by communities—urban and rural—throughout Cluj County. Guided by experienced mentors and supported by a vibrant network of local stakeholders, students engage in hands-on innovation that blends design thinking, technology transfer, and community entrepreneurship.

From interactive workshops to field visits and co-creation sessions with citizens, entrepreneurs, and public officials, participants gain invaluable experience at the intersection of academia and grassroots impact. The program culminates in a high-energy final pitch event, where teams present their solutions to a panel of experts and community leaders—competing for recognition, support, and the chance to bring their ideas to life.

Why it matters:

• Experience innovation in action, not just in theory.
• Connect across disciplines and borders through the EUTOPIA alliance.
• Co-design scalable solutions to real challenges with real people.

Key Objectives:

• Empower students to co-create practical, community-driven solutions.
• Strengthen collaboration across universities, disciplines, and local ecosystems.
• Inspire a new generation of socially engaged innovators with European reach and local roots.

Provisional schedule:

Week 1 (July 7–11):

• Thematic workshops: problem solving, technology transfer, social innovation, pitching, entrepreneurship.
• Roundtable: The Role of Companies in the Community.

Week 2 (July 14–18):

• Field visits to local town halls and community centers (two per day) to map challenges.
• Challenge consolidation and team assignments.

Week 3 (July 21–25):

• Team-based work on community-sourced challenges.

Week 4 (July 28 – August 1):

• Final solution development and preparation.
• Pitch presentations before a jury and community representatives.

Financial implications

• The Summer School is free of charge!
• However, please note that Babeș-Bolyai University does not cover expenses related to transportation, accommodation, or meals.
• The students have the possibility to access university campus facilities at a lower price.
• No academic (ECTS) credits are awarded for participation in this program!

Registration

Registration must be completed by May 30, 2025, by filling in the following form:

https://forms.gle/JUM5myFXzyFuN7C26

🔗 For details, contact:

Kinga HENING – kinga.szacsvai@ubbcluj.ro

Alina GULICIUC – alina.miron@ubbcluj.ro