FUNDATIA DAS - PENTRU O MOLDOVA BAZATA PE CUNOASTERE

Their core work

DAS Foundation is a Moldovan NGO whose H2020 activity is entirely focused on building and governing METROFOOD-RI — a European distributed research infrastructure dedicated to metrology in food and nutrition. In practice, the foundation serves as Moldova's national node within this infrastructure, anchoring the country's food science measurement capacity to a pan-European network. Their contributions centre on governance design, legal entity structuring, financial planning, and defining services for end users — the institutional scaffolding that allows a distributed RI to function across borders. As a knowledge-transfer NGO, they bridge Moldovan national institutions and the EU research space rather than conducting laboratory research themselves.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the earlier project (PRO-METROFOOD, 2017), the focus was on the feasibility and design phase of constructing METROFOOD-RI — a foundational, conceptual stage with no granular keyword record in the data. By the preparatory phase project (METROFOOD-PP, 2019–2022), the work had shifted concretely to operational readiness: governance frameworks, legal entity formation, financial modelling, and defining user services and national node structure. The trajectory is from infrastructure conception to institution-building — the organisation moved from asking "can this RI exist?" to answering "how will it actually run?"

The foundation is on a path toward operational involvement in METROFOOD-RI once it reaches full implementation — making them a natural partner for any consortium that needs a Moldovan national node or access point for food metrology services in the Eastern Partnership region.

How they like to work

DAS Foundation has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, across both projects — consistent with a national node role rather than a project driver. Both projects are part of the same large METROFOOD-RI initiative, which brings together 49 partners across 17 countries; this is not a broad network built by the organisation independently, but rather the natural footprint of one large infrastructure consortium. Working with them means engaging a small, mission-driven NGO that contributes national representation and institutional anchoring rather than laboratory capacity or technical leadership.

Their 49 partners across 17 countries derive entirely from the METROFOOD-RI consortium — a European-scale initiative that naturally spans multiple member states and associated countries. Moldova's inclusion positions DAS Foundation as the Eastern Partnership bridge point within that network.

What sets them apart

DAS Foundation appears to be the only Moldovan organisation embedded in the METROFOOD-RI research infrastructure, giving them a unique position as the national gateway for food metrology services and collaboration in Moldova. For consortia building projects that touch the Eastern Partnership countries or require non-EU national nodes, they offer an established institutional presence and existing relationships with the METROFOOD network. Their NGO structure and knowledge-economy mandate make them a credible partner for dissemination, national policy liaison, and user engagement in a context where most METROFOOD nodes are research institutes or NMIs.

Highlights from their portfolio

• METROFOOD-PP
  The larger and longer of the two projects (EUR 73,750, 2019–2022), this preparatory phase project is where the foundation took on substantive institutional work — governance design, legal entity setup, and financial planning for a full European RI.
• PRO-METROFOOD
  The foundation's first H2020 entry (2017), joining the initial design stage of what would become METROFOOD-RI and establishing their position in this infrastructure from the ground up.