CAMERA DE COMERT INDUSTRIE SI AGRICULTURA BACAU ASOCIATIE

Their core work

CCI Bacau is the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for the Bacau region of eastern Romania. Within H2020, it serves as a regional node in the Eastern Romanian Business Support Network (ERBSN), delivering innovation management services and coaching to SMEs seeking EU funding through the SME Instrument and EIC Pilot programmes. Their practical work involves acting as Key Account Managers for innovative SMEs — scouting, assessing, and guiding companies through the application and capacity-building process. They bridge the gap between local businesses and EU innovation support mechanisms in a less-connected region of Romania.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015-2018), CCI Bacau operated as a broad innovation services provider — keywords like technology transfer, innovation experts, and competitiveness suggest a generalist advisory role aimed at connecting SMEs to the SME Instrument. By 2019-2021, the focus narrowed and professionalized around Key Account Management and structured innovation management, reflecting the EU's own shift from the SME Instrument to the EIC Pilot. The vocabulary became more specific and operational, suggesting the organization matured from general awareness-raising to hands-on SME coaching.

CCI Bacau is deepening its role as a structured SME innovation coach under the EIC framework, making it increasingly useful as a regional access point for eastern Romania.

How they like to work

CCI Bacau has never coordinated a project — it participates as a regional partner within a consistent Romanian network (ERBSN) across all four projects. With only 5 unique partners, all within Romania, this is a loyal, repeat-collaboration model rather than a wide networking approach. Working with them means engaging a stable, locally embedded partner that knows its region well but does not bring a broad European consortium network.

Very small, domestically focused network: 5 unique partners, all Romanian. This is a tight regional cluster of eastern Romanian business support organizations operating together across multiple programme cycles.

What sets them apart

CCI Bacau's value lies in its deep roots in eastern Romania — a region underrepresented in EU innovation programmes. As a chamber of commerce, it has direct relationships with local businesses that most EU project consortia cannot easily reach. For any project needing SME engagement, awareness, or pilot testing in Romania's less-connected northeast, CCI Bacau is a practical gateway.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ERBSN 4 H2020
  A continuously renewed support network (4 consecutive editions from 2015-2021) demonstrating sustained EU commitment to eastern Romanian SME innovation capacity — rare continuity for a CSA.
• ERBSN 4 H2020 (2020-2021)
  Final edition aligned with the EIC Pilot transition, showing the network's adaptation to the EU's new innovation support architecture.