Romania is taking a new step in the development of artificial intelligence as RO AI Factory project begins on September 1, hosted by the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI) and expected to become operational by the end of 2027.

'The official launch of the RO AI Factory project comes after a period in which we had already begun building a community around this initiative, bringing together organisations interested in the development and use of artificial intelligence. We want RO AI Factory to become a meeting point for research, academia, companies and the public sector and, above all, a framework in which infrastructure, expertise and collaboration lead to concrete projects and solutions,' said Adrian-Victor Vevera, Director General of ICI Bucharest.

According to ICI, the implementation of the 'Romanian EuroHPC AI Factory at ICI Bucharest'- RO AI Factory project officially begins, under Grant Agreement No. 101314645, funded by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) through the HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2025-AI call.

Under this project, Romania will have its own infrastructure for the development, training, testing and validation of artificial intelligence models and applications, available to research, the business sector and the public sector.

ICI Bucharest plays an important role in implementing the initiative, serving as the Hosting Entity for RO AI Factory.

ICI Bucharest will host the high-performance computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence and will provide the technical and operational support required for its installation, integration and operation. The implementation and development of the RO AI Factory service portfolio will be carried out in close cooperation with the project's co-coordinator, the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, and the other consortium members, drawing on the partners' complementary expertise to provide advanced artificial intelligence services.

Its status as Hosting Entity strengthens ICI Bucharest's position within the European EuroHPC ecosystem, highlighting the Institute's responsibilities in promoting advanced digital infrastructures.

With the launch of the project, Romania enters a new stage in the development of advanced artificial intelligence infrastructures, connecting national research, innovation and technology transfer capacities to the European EuroHPC ecosystem.

RO AI Factory will provide high-performance computing infrastructure, together with an integrated ecosystem of resources, services, expertise and skills in artificial intelligence, designed to support research, innovation and the large-scale adoption of AI.

The project envisages the development of an extensive portfolio of services that will include access to HPC resources, support for the development and training of AI models, data infrastructures and services, algorithm libraries, and tools dedicated to the development of responsible and trustworthy artificial intelligence.

According to ICI, a central objective of RO AI Factory is to democratise access to advanced artificial intelligence and supercomputing resources. The services developed will be aimed at a broad community of users, ranging from universities and research organisations to start-ups, SMEs, technology companies, industry and public institutions.

Particular attention will be given to start-ups and SMEs, with RO AI Factory seeking to support their transition from being mere users of technology to becoming active developers and innovators in the field of AI. Access to infrastructure will be rounded up by technical expertise, training programmes, mentoring and support for the development, testing and validation of new artificial intelligence-based products and services.

Through this approach, the project aims to reduce the technological and skills-related barriers that currently limit access to large-scale AI infrastructures and to create favourable conditions for transforming research results into solutions with economic and societal applications.

Alongside ICI Bucharest and the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, the RO AI Factory consortium brings together the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN), the National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences (INCDSB), Transilvania IT Association (ATIT), the Mihai Draganescu Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (ICIA), the National Council of Romania's Private Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (CNIPMMR), and the Romanian Digital Innovation Hubs Association (RoDIH).

The complementary expertise of the partners makes it possible to connect HPC and AI infrastructure with academic and research expertise, skills development, application development, and direct engagement with start-ups, SMEs and regional innovation ecosystems.

RO AI Factory will operate as part of the European network of AI Factories developed under the coordination of EuroHPC JU, contributing to the European Union's objective of building a competitive, secure and sustainable ecosystem for the development of artificial intelligence.

Integration with this network will enable Romania to participate directly in the European exchange of resources, data, expertise and best practices and will create new opportunities for cross-border collaboration between researchers, universities, companies and public administrations.

According to the implementation schedule for the infrastructure, the first stages will focus on preparing the hosting capacities and installing the hardware systems, followed by the integration of services and connection to national and European infrastructures.

RO AI Factory is expected to become operational by the end of 2027, with the services and ecosystem to be progressively developed and expanded. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Mariana Nica; EN - editing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)