The National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM) features facilities and infrastructure raising up to global standards. INCDTIM offers a favorable environment for young people who aspire to a research career in mass spectrometry, chromatography and ion physics, physics of nano-structured systems, molecular and biomolecular physics and technology of stable isotopes.
Adrian Bot, PhD Eng., General Manager of INCDTIM Cluj-Napoca, Vice-President of The Council of National Institutes for Research and Development, President of Transylvania Energy Cluster – TREC
Running the institute with military insight and precision due to his long experience working for nuclear and military plants, Mr. Adrian Bot, PhD and General Manager, encourages his staff to cooperate with entrepreneurs and deal with real life situations instead of being isolated and communicating only through academic papers. A unique competitive advantage is the fact that INCDTIM’s researchers have total freedom of thinking and movement, compared to other similar institutions: “Other companies don’t leave room for the researchers’ ideas, leaving them with the sole role of executing orders and hence not participating in the creative process. I do the exact opposite of that. I integrate the staff into the brainstorming and then encourage them to implement their ideas, therefore allowing them to have a greater sense of fulfilment”, explains Mr. Bot.
BREAKING NEW GROUNDS IN NITROGEN ISOTOPE RESEARCH
The institute can boast with its 67 years of continuous work, especially in heavy water technologies, to be used by Romanian national heavy water producer, Romag. . In the 1960s, the institute began its work on technologies for other light stable isotopes, like Nitrogen-15. Dr Adrian Bot is proud of their groundbreaking results: “We were the only plant that achieved a level of separation of 99.6% purity. We were able to produce Nitrogen-15 for nuclear fuel, for Plutonium Nitrite and Uranium Nitrite for the European ASGARD project. We have patented NINA 15-99, which is Nitrogen Isotope 15 for nuclear applications with minimum 99% purity.”
STATE OF THE ART INFRASTRUCTURE – CERN PARTNER
In 2015, ITIM was recognized as an official and individual partner of CERN and is part of a Romanian consortium that will design and manufacture components for CERN.
In 2013, INCDTIM decided to orient their research towards green energy. Mr. Adrian Bot explains: “We set up a team and within only 19 months designed and built a laboratory in a new building using EU funds. The project is called CETATEA – an acronym that stands for the Research and Advanced Technologies Center for Renewable Energy. The word “cetatea” means fortress in Romanian and has a metaphorical meaning for the researchers, easy to remember and a good brand for the project”. All these were achieved thanks to INCDTIM’s managers’ skills at writing projects and handling the complicated application and selection process for accessing European funds, acknowledged by Romanian Ministry of EU Funds.
Mr. Adrian Bot, concludes: “We invite everyone to come and see our work, we are very open and transparent. All the equipment is state of the art, the best in the world due to the fact that the financing was recently achieved. Any researcher working here can prove their background, experience and knowledge in the field.”
National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies
67-103, Donath St., 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Phone: +40 264 584 037; itim@itim-cj.ro; www.itim-cj.ro
