ULBS D-School

What ULBS D-School does

ULBS D-School is the research, development, and innovation support service operating under Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu (ULBS), a public university in Sibiu, Romania. Founded in 2020 and staffed by 5 employees, the unit functions as an institutional backbone for ULBS faculty, researchers, and doctoral students, providing project administration, funding access coordination, scientific publication management, conference organization, and research center infrastructure. Its core technology stack centers on institutional research activity reporting through proprietary platforms GRADIS and SIEPAS, alongside the broader ULBS research portal at cercetare.ulbsibiu.ro.

The unit operates as a non-commercial service funded almost entirely through competitive public grants rather than a pricing model. Revenue mechanics flow from securing awards under European programs such as Horizon Europe and the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) framework administered by EACEA, Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and national funding through UEFISCDI. The active portfolio includes FIT EDIH, ELABCHROM, CORECON, RECODE MLG, FERBOPO, MaMeMoBiA, ECOJUST, NETSIM, SafeHabitus, RoNaQCI, and CerviAssistAI, among others. A multi-year strategic partnership with the Hasso Plattner Institute, active since 2019, supplements grant funding with software licenses, scholarships, and innovation transfer activities.

Go-to-market is structurally internal: services are distributed directly to ULBS researchers and students through the university's research infrastructure, with no external sales motion. The customer base is therefore the university's own academic community, and the unit's growth is tied directly to grant-cycle performance, EU research policy priorities, and the continuity of institutional partnerships rather than commercial market dynamics.

Name

ULBS D-School

Legal name

Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu

Website

https://cercetare.ulbsibiu.ro

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ULBS D-School is the research, development, and innovation support service of Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, providing project administration, funding access, publication management, and conference organization to the university's faculty, researchers, and doctoral students.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research Support Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Research Administration & Grants Management Support (Pre/Post-Award, Compliance) (EDAEALAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Research Administration & Compliance (Sponsored Programs, IRB/REB) (EDADAKAH)

Keywords

• University research support
• Research project management
• Scientific publication services
• Innovation management
• Research infrastructure services

Headquarters

HQ city

Sibiu

HQ country

Romania

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Project Funding: Funding from international and national research projects including Horizon Europe, PNRR, and other European funding programs that support research activities

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

ULBS D-School runs the institutional research support infrastructure of Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, providing research project administration, access to EU and national funding programs, scientific publication management through university journals, coordination of research centers, organization of scientific conferences and events, and management of internal grant competitions for researchers and students. The unit operates the GRADIS and SIEPAS reporting platforms that track research output across the university's faculties.

Product overview

ULBS D-School is part of the Research Support Service of Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, providing a comprehensive portfolio of research support services including project funding access, scientific publication management, conference organization, and research center infrastructure. The service operates through multiple platforms including GRADIS for institutional reporting and SIEPAS for faculty-level activity tracking. Core offerings include research project management, scientific journal publishing, research center coordination, and internal grant competitions for researchers and students.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Research Support Service (Serviciul Suport de Cercetare Dezvoltare Inovare)

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Hasso Plattner InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Multi-year strategic partnership supporting research excellence through grants for excellence, software licenses for educational infrastructure, research publication scholarships, external mobility grants, knowledge transfer activities, study excursions, innovative student projects (ULBS SMART), scientific events, and research recognition programs. Partnership has been active since 2019 with continued funding through 2023.
• UEFISCDIcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational research funding agency providing grants for Romanian researchers including the PN-IV research programs supporting artificial intelligence, digital policy, and multi-level governance research projects.
• EACEA (European Education and Culture Executive Agency)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEU agency funding citizenship, equality, rights and values programs including the CERV-2025-CHAR-LITI initiative supporting projects on social values and inclusion.
• HORIZON Europe ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean research framework program supporting multiple projects including ELABCHROM (cultural heritage), FERBOPO (state-church-body politics), SafeHabitus (farm health and safety), and other international collaborative research initiatives.
• Grassroots Institute (International)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational partner for the Summer Field School on Mountain Ecosystems and Resource Management, co-organizing with 63 universities and institutions from 20 countries.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• University Politehnica of Bucharest: Largest technical university in Romania with extensive Horizon Europe and PNRR participation. Comparable institutional research support function, with similar reliance on EU framework funding and similar public-university governance constraints.
• Babeș-Bolyai University: Romania's largest public university and ULBS's primary domestic peer. Comparable public Romanian university structure, similar EU and national research funding access patterns, and similar institutional research administration requirements.
• Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov: Another major Romanian public university with active research administration and EU project participation. Comparable in mission (public research university in Romania) and in competing for the same national and EU funding pools.

Broad incumbents

• Fraunhofer Society: Germany's leading applied research organization operating applied research institutes closely tied to universities. Comparable in providing research administration, funding intermediation, and industry-academia transfer services, though at much larger scale.
• TU Delft: Major European technical university with deep Horizon Europe participation and a strong design-based research support infrastructure. Comparable as a broad-incumbent research university with established research administration capabilities and design-focused innovation programs.
• Politecnico di Milano: Leading European technical university with a strong design school (School of Design) and extensive EU research participation. Comparable in operating a design-focused school within a research university, and in competing for the same EU design and innovation funding programs.

Direct peers

• Aalto University Design Factory: Finnish university-based innovation and design factory operating within Aalto University. Comparable structure as a university-embedded design and innovation support unit, with similar roles in experiential learning and industry-academia collaboration.
• Stanford d.school (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design): Pioneering university-based design thinking school that the ULBS D-School concept is modeled after (via the HPI partnership). Comparable mission of teaching design thinking and supporting innovation within a research university environment.
• Hasso Plattner Institute: Germany-based digital engineering faculty and operator of the original d.school design-thinking program. Direct strategic partner of ULBS D-School since 2019, with comparable focus on design thinking education, knowledge transfer, and innovation infrastructure within a university setting.

Others

• EACEA (European Education and Culture Executive Agency): EU executive agency that funds and administers programs including CERV and Erasmus+. Listed as a core partner and is the funding source rather than a competitor, but provides institutional context for the regulatory framework within which ULBS D-School operates.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ulbs-d-school

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ULBS D-School