The Research Strategy for 2024 - 2029

Mission

At the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, we are committed to advancing the frontiers of knowledge and actively contributing to societal development through excellence in education and innovative research. We are dedicated to training future generations of professionals and researchers by offering a rigorous curriculum in a dynamic and interdisciplinary learning environment.
We value experiential education and promote dual training, ensuring that our students are prepared to face the challenges of the contemporary world. Additionally, we are committed to supporting training programs that directly connect students with the economic sector, encouraging innovations and practical solutions that can be implemented on a large scale.
We strive to cultivate innovation, creativity, and international collaboration, and to be leaders in the development of emerging and sustainable technologies. This involves a continuous commitment to academic integrity, social responsibility, and preparing leaders ready to address both immediate needs and long-term environmental challenges.
In this spirit, we support an inclusive and accessible university ecosystem, where every member of the community is motivated to reach their full potential. Through these efforts, we aim to continue our path of innovation and excellence, ensuring that UTCN remains a recognized leader in technical education and applied research, with broad international recognition.

Vision
In an era marked by rapid transformations and global challenges, our role as educators and innovators has never been more important. The education and research we promote at UTCN have the power to inspire and guide the necessary changes for a sustainable future.
Our vision is to transform UTCN into a platform of innovation and excellence in education and research with international recognition. We aim to develop leaders and innovators who, equipped with interdisciplinary knowledge and a deep understanding of emerging technologies, will make significant contributions at a global level. These leaders will not only be top specialists but also responsible citizens, ready to address the complex challenges of contemporary society.
Our university will continue to invest in advanced technologies and explore new fields of knowledge. We are committed to fostering a culture of open innovation, knowledge transfer, and international collaboration, turning UTCN into a vital hub for education, research, and development.
Membership in the European University of Technology (EUT+) will significantly strengthen our academic and research excellence, enhance professional training, and intensify knowledge transfer, expanding our capacity to develop new advanced technological solutions. This will increase UTCN’s visibility and attractiveness, opening new opportunities for global collaborations.

Values
The proposed vision can only become a reality through the full involvement and contribution of each one of us, in a concerted and focused effort toward the university's strategic goals. This is essential for enhancing academic, scientific, and managerial performance, as well as supporting our own ideas and projects.
Excellence, collaboration, honesty, and responsibility are the values we believe in—values that can transform today's vision into tomorrow's reality.

Action Directions in the Field of Research

• Maintaining the "HR Excellence in Research" status granted by the European Commission under the "Human Resources Strategy for Researchers - HRS4R" program by implementing institutional operational procedures.
• Increasing the visibility of results obtained from research, innovation, and artistic creation activities, as well as enhancing the capacity to attract new major and impactful projects with national/international funding.
• Developing mechanisms to encourage, support, and assist in the recruitment and involvement of high-performing students in interdisciplinary research teams to help them acquire advanced research skills and competencies, with a view toward a potential future academic career.Increasing collaboration and integration with similar research structures from partner universities like ARUST, EUt+, etc.
• Creating an internal regulatory framework to develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem, facilitating the establishment and support of start-ups among students and recent graduates.

The Research Strategy for 2020 - 2024

Mission

“Our mission is to develop value in people, processes and products. In this sense, we will pursue the achievement at a high level of quality of advanced scientific education and research, in specific fields, in national and international context, responding to the needs of intellectual, professional and social development of the individual and the progress of Romanian society.” (Carta Universitatii Tehnice din Cluj-Napoca)

The mission assumed by the entire academic body of UTCN, is focused on:

• Reshaping and adapting education, scientific research, innovation and artistic creation to the needs and expectations of society;

 

• Cultivating the values, skills and abilities necessary for full integration into the European area of excellence in education, artistic creation, research and innovation;

 

• the digitization of educational and administrative processes to improve quality and institutional performance;

 

• the expansion of the international dimension in order to guarantee access to the category of world-class universities according to the criteria of the QS STARS RATING SYSTEM or other relevant rankings.

Vision

The vision of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is an ambitious one, and that is to become a university strongly anchored in the European area of education, research, innovation and digitization by promoting and supporting performance and excellence in all areas of activity in order to ensure substantial progress regarding quality, performance, attractiveness and international competitiveness.

Strengthening the position of a top-class research university by supporting, promoting and securing investments in the fields of research, technology transfer and artistic creation with performance potential and great effects on the prestige, reputation and international visibility of the UTCN is a major desideratum for the next Period.

Values

The proposed vision can become a reality only and only through the full involvement and contribution of each of us in a joint and focused effort to achieve the University's strategic goals, such as play an essential role in increasing academic, scientific and management performance, in supporting our own ideas and projects.

Directions of action in the field of research

• Achievement of the university status "HR Excellence in Research", which is granted by the EC to the institutions that implements and applies the principles of the Code & Book(Carta), as defined in the program "The Human Resource Strategy for Researchers - HRS4R ", as an institutional commitment to ensure the framework for the development and promotion of highly qualified human resources in research;

 

• The establishment of a multidisciplinary research institute for the purpose of multiplication, expansion and Leveraging best practices, expertise and academic achievements acquired in strategic areas and ensuring the international reputation and visibility of the university;

 

• Support for teams participating in and / or applying for major projects in priority areas under the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 and / or Horizon Europe 2021-2027 or other major projects with national and / or international funding;

 

• Developing, supporting and promoting the directions of research, technology transfer and innovation that can generate a competitive advantage for the university at local, national or international level;

 

• Improving the institutional framework to improve quality and performance indicators scientific, relevant in the CNFIS reports to obtain additional funding and / or in respected international rankings;

 

• Development of incentive, support and promotion mechanisms for co-opting and participation Students in high performing research teams with national and / or international visibility to develop research and project management skills and competencies;

 

• Establish the internal regulatory framework for the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to facilitate the creation and support of business start-ups among undergraduate and graduate students

The Research Strategy for 2016 - 2020

The Mission of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is conducted in the following directions:

• human resources education through bachelor, master, doctoral programs and continuing education based on the paradigm “education through research and for research”;
• relevant knowledge generated through research, innovation and artistic creation, pursuing results that bring prestige and visibility to the university and are also transferable to products, technologies and solutions;
• commitment to society, assumed on the institutional level the role of "active citizen" in the local, regional and national community;
• connecting the academic community to the European and global one, facilitating the access of the local and regional community to the globalized flow of knowledge and values.

The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca aims to integrate in the components of its mission the strategic European, national and regional approaches. These create a real potential for the competitive positioning of the university in the national and international academic area and a potential for convergence with the intelligent economic development directions.

The Vision of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is ambitious but realistic, without imposing revolutionary leaps, but steering the university firmly towards an approach that combines commitment for excellence with assumed responsibility both by the members of the academic community and by its leaders for their contribution to progress through:

• academic excellence acknowledged by national and international community;
• participation in the social prosperity and economic development of the region and in the international exchange of values;
• practice of a powerful entrepreneurial behavior connected with responsibility in resource management;
• development of a strong academic community through promoted values, motivated by performance and responsibility for its own benefit;
• fostering of an institutional environment that combines attractiveness and responsibility for university students and ensures equal chances for access to opportunities.

The proposed vision reflects the Technical University’s commitment to follow the educational trends that lead to excellence in scientific research. In addition, this view reflects maturity, institutional strength and stability which the university upholds.

The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca builds its activity and institutional relations on a set of fundamental values regarding the external environment, work, and the relations established among the members of the community. This set of values includes:

• public responsibility and openness to the needs and demands of the society, and respect for the community and the environment;
• competence and creativity in assignments, honesty and integrity relating to the institution and individual work, performance and assumed responsibilities for the quality of own activities;
• original initiative and active entrepreneurship as facilitators of organizational development, leadership, fairness and equality in access to opportunities, and objective recognition of the contribution of each member of the community;
• transparency in actions and decisions to provide a general climate of objectivity and reliability;
• knowledge and mutual respect, consideration for the rules of conduct in the community, collaboration, solidarity and academic collegiality.

These values come to complete the vision and mission of the university, being the foundations of all ethical, professional and educational activities.

Research Objectives and Strategy for 2016-2020

The main objective of the university is to maintain its position gained as top research-oriented educational institution, both nationally and internationally. In addition to this major objective, there are other objectives that contribute to its strengthening, as follows:

• development of excellence in scientific research and innovation
• development of human resources involved in the research activities;
• growth of research and innovative infrastructure;
• stimulation of a dynamic relationship with the socio-economic environment for technology transfer, consulting and implementation of joint scientific research projects;
• increase of its national and international visibility.

In terms of strategy, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca has implemented several converging strategies, among which the most important are:

• the development of a strategy for scientific research, innovation and technology transfer;
• the strategy to promote excellence in scientific research;
• the strategy for socio-economic cooperation with local, national and international environment.

Directions of Intervention in Research for 2016-2020

The specific objectives associated with the new strategic cycle are implemented in a number of areas of intervention in academic and research activity. Their role, as a whole, is to structure the university’s innovation system and to outline a path of transformation and evolution of key performance indicators. These lines of action for research, inovation and technology transfer are:

• increasing autonomy and development of research
• setting up and upgrading high-impact research laboratories;
• setting up an interdisciplinary research institute affiliated to the university;
• recruiting, developing and keeping the highly skilled human resources;
• supporting high performance in scientific research;
• supporting the publication of research results in prestigious journals and in scientific conferences;
• supporting the organization of international conferences with high visibility;
• developing the university’s capacity and qualifications for technological transfer.

The intervention directions mentioned above are a part of an integrated combination of measures covering key dimensions of the Technical University’s policy on education, research, innovation and technological transfer.

The Research Strategy for 2012 - 2016

The Mission of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca between 2012 and 2016

In a society based on knowledge, a fact that characterizes  the European and international space, The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca sets itself the objective of  becoming an important player at national and international level and would like to contribute to the growth of the welfare of the citizens in the social and economic environment generating and transferring knowledge through education, scientific research and innovation, as well as creating an added value in the international context, by means of  a smart specialization which could bring complementarity elements and niche approaches to the international space of education and scientific research.
The accent at the level of its mission will need to be set on the following aspects along the four years to come:

- advanced, internationally visible, scientific research
- innovation in cooperating with the economic agents,
- a more accented orientation of the process of education - graduate, masters, doctorate degrees – towards the needs of the Romanian society, as well as those of the international one,
- opening new forms of education at post graduate level, including the development of on-line education and that based on occupational standards. 

The vision of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (against the temporal horizon of April 2016)

The intentional objective at the end of the strategic plan (April 2016) for the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is reflected by the following elements of progress:

- a consolidated position as a university of advanced research and education,
- the existence of a creative, dynamic, and stimulating environment for the professional and personal development of the students, researchers, and its professors
- all the specialization domains belonging to the upper category (A or B),
- becoming an important pawn in the national and even international context,
- getting recognition as a pole of excellence in a minimum of two  or three domains of scientific research with a social and economical impact on the local, national, and even international community,
- The Northern University Centre of Baia Mare is fully integrated into the Technical University.

Main policies in the domain of scientific research, of innovation, and technological transfer

In the present day context, the quantity and quality of scientific research that is carried out have a primary role in classifying these at international level. Hence, the necessity of sustaining and consolidating the activity of the structures of scientific research. The scientific research constitutes an important source of income and of image both for the university globally, and for each and every researcher, a reason on the ground of which  there should be an ongoing support for the process of creating new research structures, and especially for the merging and collaboration process of the research structures into larger units characterized by inter and multi-disciplinarity (research platforms, research  institutes), a necessity clearly demonstrated  by the setting up of  excellence poles within major impact domains for the social and economic environments. Our university has to gain national and international visibility in several major domains of scientific research and technological innovation. To that aim, concrete managerial actions have to be taken in order to define the major interdisciplinary domains and to create the necessary research structures.

Directions of interventions in the domain of the 2012-2016 research

- Increasing the autonomy and development of the research structures,
- Setting up and modernizing of the high impact research laboratories,
- Establishing an interdisciplinary research institute affiliated to the university,
- Attracting, developing, and maintaining the highly qualified human resource,

- Supporting the publication of the results of research in prestigious journals and conference proceedings,
- Supporting the international conferences with a large visibility, organized by the university,
- Supporting the high performance scientific research,
- Developing the capacity and competence of the university within the technological transfer activity.

Priority research domains in the TUCN

The research teams enjoy the freedom of choosing their topics. However, institutionally, in order to sustain the vision of the Technical University of Cluj Napoca, that of becoming a pole of international excellence in several domains of research, the following multidisciplinary domains of research are supported, domains reflected by the worldwide, European and national tendencies (Horizon 2020):

- Information and communication technology
- Advanced materials
- Advanced products and processes
- Green energy

The development of the high priority research domains will be achieved through the efficient turn to good account of the human, material as well as the financial resources coming from the budget, self financing and institutional development.