Research institutes must focus on producing market-relevant and commercially viable technologies, as the gap between laboratories and industry has historically been too wide, according to Victor Vevera, General Director of ICI Bucharest.
Speaking at the Innovation Forum 2026, organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest, Vevera said research institutions must align their work more closely with real market demand and state needs.
“Research institutes must produce results, and those results must be marketable. For a long time, the distance between the laboratory and the market has been very large. We managed to bridge that gap by focusing on areas where there is real demand in the market and where we can truly support the state,” he said.
Vevera noted that ICI Bucharest operates under government coordination but is fully self-financed, which places it in a similar position to private sector companies.
“We are coordinated by the Government of Romania, but we are self-financed. That means we are in the same situation as the companies here today. If you are self-financed, you must perform to generate the revenues needed to cover salaries and operational costs,” he said.
He highlighted the institute’s strategic positioning in fast-growing technological fields, including blockchain and artificial intelligence.
“We have been fortunate to operate in a rapidly expanding sector. We were early adopters of distributed technologies, blockchain and artificial intelligence,” he said.
Vevera emphasized that AI did not begin with ChatGPT but has deep historical and technological roots.
“Artificial intelligence did not start with ChatGPT. It started in 1954, with large models, databases and big data systems. What ChatGPT did was make AI commercial and accessible to everyone,” he said.
He also presented the RO AI Factory initiative, described as Romania’s first national project dedicated to AI infrastructure and development.
“What we are building is RO AI Factory, the first national infrastructure for data processing, storage and AI application development. It is an AI-dedicated platform currently under construction,” he said.
The project is developed within a large consortium, with ICI Bucharest acting as hosting entity alongside partners such as the Politehnica University of Bucharest, the National Council of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, the Institute of Bioresources and the Transylvania IT Cluster.
“RO AI Factory creates a bridge between infrastructure, research, specialists and market needs. This is where the real added value lies,” Vevera said.
He noted that collaboration between academia and industry is essential, even in competitive areas such as AI, semiconductors and fundamental research.
“We have daily meetings with private companies, Romanian and international. We are competitors in some areas, but also partners. Without constant dialogue, we cannot understand the pulse of the market,” he said.
Vevera explained that RO AI Factory builds on Romania’s previous work in high-performance computing, including the country’s first national competence center in hypercomputing.
“This project comes after almost five years and three iterations in hypercomputing. We started with supercomputing, moved to hypercomputing, and now we are transitioning toward AI,” he said.
He added that ICI Bucharest is also active in quantum technologies, distributed systems, blockchain and cybersecurity, with a focus on dual-use technologies relevant to national security.
“You cannot simply buy technology without having internal expertise to evaluate it. You need the ability to understand whether what you are buying is correct, necessary and safe,” he said.
Vevera concluded that artificial intelligence is already reshaping industries and cannot be ignored.
“AI is a game changer. It is already part of our lives and devices. We cannot turn back. The question now is how we use it and how we create value from it, especially for SMEs,” he said.