BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT GROUP SRL

Their core work

BDG is a Romanian consultancy specializing in business development, market uptake strategies, and exploitation planning for EU-funded research projects. They help technical consortia translate research outputs into viable business models, handle dissemination activities, and bridge the gap between R&D results and commercial deployment. Their work spans the water, energy, and environment sectors, with a strong recent focus on circular water systems, digital water management, and water-energy-food nexus policy support.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

BDG's early H2020 work (2015–2018) centered on energy efficiency in buildings — training construction workers, promoting NZEB standards, and building knowledge hubs. From 2018 onward, they pivoted decisively toward the water sector, participating in four consecutive water-focused projects covering circular water reuse, digital water management, and AI-driven water policy. This shift suggests a deliberate strategic move from energy-in-buildings consulting toward becoming a water sector business development specialist with growing digital and AI capabilities.

BDG is clearly moving toward the intersection of water management, digital technologies, and AI-driven policy tools — expect them to seek roles in future water-digital and nexus projects.

How they like to work

BDG operates exclusively as a consortium participant, never leading projects — consistent with a consultancy role providing business development, dissemination, and exploitation services to technically-led consortia. They work comfortably in large consortia (117 unique partners across 6 projects, averaging ~20 partners per project). Their broad partner network suggests they are flexible and easy to integrate rather than locked into a fixed cluster of repeat collaborators.

BDG has built a wide European network of 117 unique consortium partners across 25 countries through just 6 projects. This breadth indicates they are embedded in large, multi-country consortia typical of Innovation Actions and RIAs in the water-environment domain.

What sets them apart

BDG fills a specific niche that many technical consortia need but struggle to find: a business-minded SME that understands both the commercial and policy dimensions of water and environmental technologies. Their track record across Innovation Actions and CSAs shows they can handle exploitation planning, business model development, and knowledge dissemination — the non-technical work packages that reviewers scrutinize. For a consortium builder, BDG offers a Romanian SME slot with genuine business development capability in the water-energy-environment space.

Highlights from their portfolio

• AquaSPICE
  Their largest project by funding (EUR 204,400), focused on digital twins and real-time monitoring for industrial water sustainability — marks their entry into digital water technology.
• NEXOGENESIS
  Most technically ambitious project, applying reinforcement learning and AI to transboundary water-energy-food policy — signals BDG's move into AI-driven environmental governance.
• NextGen
  Bridges their early energy recovery expertise with their water sector pivot, covering circular water systems, reuse, and business model development at large-scale demonstration sites.