Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme
Executive summary
International comparison
As the field of materials technology is very vast, it is difficult to give an exact assessment about the international
competitiveness of Estonian research and development in specific fields. All technologies identified in
Figure 1 may very well turn out to be commercial successes and the deciding factor is most likely something
other than pure technological excellence.
Estonian researchers at universities as well as many companies have good international connections. The largest
area that needs to be developed is international technology transfer and scouting, meaning in practice
communicating about Estonian innovations more effectively abroad as well as searching more actively for the
best available technologies from foreign countries to be implemented in the Estonian industry.
As the connections of top Estonian researchers to top researchers internationally in countries such as the USA
and Germany are already very good, this study includes a brief overview of national materials technology
programmes and other activities in the Baltic Sea area and the rest of Europe. Based on the findings, all Nordic
and Baltic countries have already established a “programme” or similar actions in materials technology and
the focus areas are very similar between different countries. Therefore, Estonia should at first focus on increasing
collaboration with the neighboring countries and other European partners (by e.g. FP7 projects) in order to
benefit from similar research initiatives being already done.
Conclusions
In summary, the study maps the field of Estonian materials technologies including key players among universities,
financiers, industrial companies etc. A notable share of Estonian university research and development
work in physics, chemistry and materials sciences is related to materials technologies applicable in various
industries. The most relevant industries identified by this study are metals and machinery, forest, chemical,
plastics, construction materials and textiles industries.
Based on the findings in the study, the following conclusions and recommendations can be made:
There is a good set of materials technologies in Estonia in all phases of the commercialization pipeline.
The different phases face very different challenges and thus need very different support actions
Technologies in mature markets need a more educated workforce in companies and more risk taking
attitude in starting R&D projects and increasing the added value of products
Technologies close to market entry need public or private funding for establishing production as well
as business knowledge to enter the global market
Technologies in R&D phase, typically at universities, need to be developed in collaboration with industrial
players to guarantee practical relevance and future commercialization capabilities
In most cases, there is a large gap between industry needs and university research and education
Universities should listen to industry more when planning research and education
Students should be encouraged more to take practical training in the industry during their studies
(B.Sc., M.Sc. and D.Sc/Ph.D.)
Industry should hire more educated workforce, increase the amount of R&D and start doing more risky
research projects in collaboration with universities
All in all, target-oriented collaboration needs to be increased on all levels both nationally and internationally
Companies & companies
Universities & universities (including development centres)
Companies & universities with EU and international projects
Different kind of materials technology programmes and support actions that could best support the competitiveness
and economic growth in Estonia are discussed
There are already many initiatives ongoing in Estonia: 1) technology programmes in energy technologies
and biotechnology, 2) competence centres, especially the Estonian Nanotechnology Competence
Centre, 3) the cluster development programme
All of the abovementioned work in highly intersecting areas is also related to materials technologies