Bioeconomy Reading time 2 min
France–Romania: INRAE and USAMV sign their first partnership agreement
PRESS RELEASE - On 25 February 2023, on the occasion of the Paris International Agricultural Show, Philippe Mauguin, Chair and CEO of INRAE, and Cornel Cătoi, Rector of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), signed their first partnership agreement for a period of five years. The two institutions are looking to strengthen their cooperation in the fields of veterinary and plant sciences and the bioeconomy.
Published on 25 February 2023

With more than 5,500 students and 360 teacher-researchers, USAMV in Cluj-Napoca (north-western Romania) is one of the leading institutions in Romania in the agricultural and veterinary sciences. INRAE and USAMV Cluj-Napoca have been collaborating for many years and have submitted more than 40 co-authored scientific publications since 2012. USAMV Cluj-Napoca is INRAE’s main Romanian partner, and INRAE is the main European partner of USAMV Cluj-Napoca. The two institutions are also jointly involved in seven European collaborative projects: six projects funded through Horizon Europe and one project within a COST Action[1]coordinated by INRAE to promote innovation in fermented foods (PIMENTO).
This first partnership agreement aims to guide and reinforce the cooperation between INRAE and USAMV Cluj-Napoca in the fields of bioeconomy, food, plant and animal sciences, the environment, and economic and social sciences. More specifically, this cooperation will facilitate scientific exchange and joint responses to future calls under Horizon Europe.
Finally, an important part of the cooperation agreement concerns the development of technical assistance projects. This component should soon take shape as INRAE begins providing technical assistance and scientific support to establish a bioeconomy resource centre in Cluj (the “BioMountains–Apuseni” project) as part of a broader project to support territorial development through the bioeconomy.

[1]A COST Action is an interdisciplinary network, open to all fields of science and technology, that brings together researchers and innovators for a four-year period in an inclusive, synergistic and stimulating pan-European environment.