Education

Education, technology and innovation

BRD's ambition is to actively build a better future by encouraging and supporting people who pave the way for change. We believe that education is essential for development, for creating communities whose cohesion stands out, and for inspiring young people to reach their potential.

In the field of technology and innovation, BRD supports the training of key actors, a new generation of specialists in technology and entrepreneurship, for an evolved, digital society. That is why the projects founded and supported by BRD go in the direction of STEM education: the robotics program for high school students BRD FIRST Tech Challenge Romania, the acceleration programs for tech startups Innovation Labs and Innovators for Children, robotics laboratories within the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, research in the field of artificial intelligence through the partnership with the Applied Data Science Center, the How To Web Conference, GENERATIA TECH – training program for IT specialists. So far these programs have brought together pupils, students, teachers, young entrepreneurs, and experts and have impacted over 50,000 beneficiaries.

BRD, tech fan

The BRD FIRST Tech Challenge Romania flagship project carried out in partnership with the NGO Nație Prin Educație, "translates" into the largest robotics competition for domestic high schools and the third largest robotics program for high schools in the world (after the USA and China) if one takes into account the number of registered and active teams. In 2022, the Romanian team Delta Force won the title of World Champion at the World Robotics Championship, proving its excellence worldwide in fierce competition with 160 other teams.

BRD FTC is active in over 20% of Romanian high schools, over 13,000 high school students participated in the program and over 2,000 teachers and mentors coordinated the teams. The program has partnerships with universities from all over the country for joint actions, including the universities of Bucharest, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, and Iași, where students can enroll based on FTC participation. The diplomas obtained by high school students are recognized by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digitalization, with the possibility for students with exceptional performances to obtain merit scholarships.

Innovation Labs is the longest-running pre-accelerator entrepreneurial education program with a university tradition and national footprint, dedicated to technology startups. The program supports the young generations of new Romanian entrepreneurs by creating an experiential trajectory and a community of mentoring and support in the business environment. Over time, its grassroots approach has led to the identification and launch of a consistent number of early-stage start-ups, recruited from over 3,700 individual participants, and 1,300 teams registered in national hackathons. Innovation Labs boasts a total of 61 successful teams in the market, whose value amounts to almost 200 million euros.

As for Innovators for Children, initiated by Impact Hub, this is an annual accelerator program dedicated to technology solutions that make a positive impact on the well-being of children and adolescents through scalable innovation. Now in its fourth edition, the program translates as follows in numbers: 512 registered, 44 participants, 15 winning and supported projects, a funding of 251,000 euros, and 200 hours of mentoring. The contribution of BRD, which is a partner of Innovators for Children, consists of mentoring start-ups, facilitating networking, and offering business-related consultancy.

The Applied Data Science Center is an R&D center founded with the support of BRD, focused on applied research in the field of artificial intelligence. BRD brings real challenges from the financial environment, which are addressed by research teams, and advanced AI/machine learning solutions will be developed.

Complex Information System Lab @ Universitatea Politehnică din București is a research and development laboratory dedicated to start-ups that develop hardware products, offering mentoring, training, and technical support for projects in a more advanced area.

Conferința How to Web is the event where entrepreneurs, investors, product developers, specialists, and technology enthusiasts attend to discover the latest methods of innovation and connect with other professionals in the technology industry.

For those passionate about technology and science, BRD founded the journalism platform MINDCRAFT STORIES, whose mission is to popularize science and open conversations about technology, with a particular focus on the Romanian scientific landscape. It aims to transform technology from a niche subject to a friendly one, connecting Romanian thinkers, researchers, artists, and entrepreneurs to create valuable projects for our society and economy.

From STEM to an overview of education

The Școala9 platform, founded by BRD in 2018, represents an effort to support the modernization of pre-university education, as well as a space that brings together ideas and launches a dialogue challenge to all actors - the team brings together experienced journalists, parents, and education enthusiasts of all ages, decision-makers, curious, creative professionals and communication people - about the direction in which education in Romania is heading. School9 has so far gathered an audience of approximately one million readers.

In partnership with the Association for Values in Education, we are developing the ALFABETAR program, which aims to eliminate literacy gaps between children, by creating and implementing a methodologically validated tool that analyzes their reading and writing skills, an instrument that deeply intervenes and impacts 16,800 preschool and primary school children.