On the 6th of May 2022, the NATO HUMINT Centre of Excellence (HCOE) Director, together with an HCOE delegation, visited the Babes-Bolyai University (BBU), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, following the invitation from the University Rector, Professor, Ph.D., Daniel David. This visit marked another step in the institutional cooperation between HCOE and BBU (concluded by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding – MoU, in April 2022), and served as an opportunity to strengthen this partnership and explore new areas with potential for common endeavors.

The BBU Rector briefed the HCOE delegation on the University’s background and history, noting its rich and complex evolution as one of the oldest academic establishments in Europe, that shaped an institution with strongly asserted values, gravitating towards tradition, multiculturalism and excellency.

The HCOE delegation, visited the BBU’s Psychology and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories, where academic staff students and Ph.D candidates presented the current technological capabilities and applications, as well as the ongoing research projects and future development plans. In this context, the HCOE delegation observed with great interest the way that technology can be employed in support of human-centric disciplines such as psychology, by making use of various tools based on Virtual Reality, Holographic and Artificial Intelligence.

Considering the BBU’s high academic achievements and standards, its various partnerships across worldwide academia and industry, noting the willingness of its leadership and staff to collaborate with, and share academic expertise with HCOE through the development of common projects, continuing and expanding the BBU-HCOE cooperation would provide an expertise leap to HCOE, that would definitely reflect on the further development and transformation of the NATO HUMINT capability.