Join Us in Shaping Europe’s Digital Future – Highlights from the Sibiu Innovation Days 2025

From 6–7 November 2025, the Sibiu Innovation Days (SID 2025) brought together an inspiring mix of academic institutions, industry partners and students – all united by a shared ambition to drive digital transformation and innovation across Europe. The event, organised by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ULBS) in Romania in collaboration with partners across Europe, offered a dynamic programme combining conference inputs, workshops, student hackathons and innovation showcases.

The programme featured an invited talk on D4B – Insights and Opportunities from European Projects, presented by Univ.-Prof. Dr Julia von Thienen. This session introduced the Digital4Business (D4B) initiative – a European collaboration dedicated to advancing high-quality education in digital technologies for business – and aligned strongly with the event’s themes of collaboration, skills development and digital transformation.

Key Points from the Session

• Students were encouraged to apply, with particular emphasis on the unique opportunity for the cohort starting in January 2026 to study with no registration or tuition fees.
• Higher Education Institutions, SMEs and other organisations were invited to explore joining D4B as academic or industry partners, contributing to the implementation and expansion of the programme’s vision across Europe.

The talk extended beyond a traditional presentation, concluding with a design-thinking brainstorming session, accompanied by soft background music. During this interactive phase, participants explored the digital4business website, generated ideas, and sketched potential avenues for collaboration. Several academic and industry representatives registered their interest on the spot in becoming D4B partners. Follow-up conversations are now underway to explore concrete opportunities for involvement, taking into account each partner’s specific interests, opportunities and constraints, and seeking the optimal “sweet spots” for different models of collaboration.

Interested in Joining the D4B Community?

If you are reading this and resonate with the D4B vision – particularly as a member of an academic institution or as an industry professional interested in becoming involved – you are warmly invited to reach out.

For partnership enquiries, follow-up conversations or invitations to upcoming collaborative events, please contact Julia.vonThienen (at) German-UDS (dot) de.