Different perspectives of a Digital Innovator

Innovation is the only way the EU can maintain a strong, sustainable, and competitive economy. However, at present, there are large imbalances between the degrees of innovation of EU countries. One solution to mitigate this drawback consists of the development of collaborative networks that replicate the best models of innovation from advanced countries and adapt them to underdeveloped countries in Europe. Such a collaboration exists between Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, OMiLAB community, and local industrial partners. This lecture emphasizes both the importance of innovation, challenges involved, especially in modest innovator countries of the EU, and different perspectives of a Digital Innovator, starting from environment, target domains and specific activities, human resources, and education curricula. Finally, there are presented some practical examples from ULBS, pilot projects targeting industry or agriculture cases aiming to boost regional innovation.