Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

23
Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme
2. Materials technology in Estonia
The Estonian Biotechnology programme is the other of the two cross cutting programmes. The programme
plan identifies key areas of interest in the country. The biotechnology industry sector in Estonia is the youngest
and consists of a large amount of innovative small enterprises. Most of them are not self-sufficient yet but rely
on governmental and investment funding. Due to this fact the programme focuses on helping the enterprises
and researchers understand business models better.
The biotechnology programme has connections to materials technology in the areas of biomaterials and computational
chemistry.
Competence Centres
The competence centres are aimed to be structured, long term RTDI collaborations in strategic important areas
between academia, industry and the public sector. They are meant to bridge the gap between scientific and
economic innovation by providing a collective environment for key stakeholders and creating a sufficient critical
mass for innovation. Currently there are 8 competence centres established in Estonia of which two have larger
relevance for materials technology: Estonian Nanotechnology Competence Centre (ENCC) and Innovative
Manufacturing Engineering Systems Competence Centre (IMECC). The competence centre programme was
initiated in 2004 and current centres are receiving public support at least until 2013. A feasibility study conducted
for the preparation of the competence centres and their mid-term evaluation has also been finished. 14
According to the evaluation, the programme has already been running for a few years and some results have
been created by different partners. Nevertheless, most of the competence centres are working with very science
intensive fields and thus, it will still take time before their real success in increasing innovation can be
assessed.
Estonian Nanotechnology Competence Centre is a consortium of industrial and science partners established
to conduct common research in the field of nanotechnology, results of which will be bases for development
of new products and/or new research of consortium partners 15 . It has currently 6 shareholders and in total 13
partners, including Tartu University Institute of Physics which is a key stakeholder concerning nanotechnology
research in Estonia. The centre has two target research areas: 1) functional nanomaterials for industry use,
where the research findings of Tartu University and the competence centre are being transferred to the industry
and 2) nanosensors, where the aim is to develop new nanostructural sensor materials and layers to enable
higher sensitivity sensors. 16
Objectives of the Innovative Manufacturing Engineering Systems Competence Centre include improving the
competitiveness of Estonian engineering industry and developing cultural, ethical, and social values based on
increasing integrated industrial use of new technologies. The technologies include optimal product life-cycle
management, e- Manufacturing, emerging manufacturing technologies and process automation techniques.
In one program, also new forms of self-organizing systems with online monitoring and diagnostics are tested
to gain a competitive advantage. IMECC aims to ensure economic success in the global economy, to raise the
effective use of knowledge in product engineering and manufacturing planning for small series production
in distributed and networked organizations of Estonian engineering industry. 17 Currently IMECC runs three
programmes. IMECC consists of 14 industrial partners and one university partner. Most of the research is done
at the university. During the time of writing the report IMECC has a focus group of projects in robot welding,
which has some materials technology relevance but the centre has not yet funded any pure materials technology
projects.
Cluster development programme
The cluster development programme is aimed at Estonian company consortia to increase the added value
of cluster companies, their sales and exports as well as to promote cooperation between the stakeholders of the
cluster: companies in the sector, with different sectors and also research establishments. Three of the existing
clusters have been identified as somewhat relevant to materials technology: the timber construction cluster 18 ,
the Estonian ECO Cluster 19 and the Estonian wind power cluster 20 . The programme is in a very early stage of
development and thus there is no clear implication of its impact on creating more value for the economy.
14 http://www.eas.ee/index.php/for-the-entrepreneur/innovation/competence-centre-programme
15 http://encc.ee/about/
16 Estonian Nanotechnology Competence Centre Annual Report 2009-2010
17 www.imecc.ee
18 http://www.estoniantimber.ee/en/facts/timber-construction-cluster
19 http://www.solarbase.ee/index.php?main=1
20 http://www.tuuleenergia.ee/en/wind-power-cluster/