Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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63 Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme 2. Materials technology in Estonia 2.6 Education and Human resources Higher level materials science and technology education is carried out at all the universities in Estonia. More details about the universities can be found in section 2.2.1. The relevant education for each industry sector is mentioned under the industry sector reports in section 2.4. This section gives an overview of where the educated people go to work. The amount of employees working in research and development in industry has steadily risen since 2007 despite the economic downturn. The R&D personnel count in total in Estonia between 2007 and 2009 was: 2686 (2007), 3023 (2008) and 3122 (2009). The effect of the economic downturn can be seen in manufacturing industries where the size of R&D personnel dropped from 854 in 2007 to 663 in 2009. However, during the same period the amount of R&D personnel in companies doing scientific research and development more than doubled from 304 in 2007 to 643 in 2009. This is due to the increase of scientific research and development focused companies as the share of doctoral degrees in R&D positions is 25% in these companies (see Table 6). In the manufacturing industry, less than 5% of R&D positions are fulfilled with doctors. The figures are similar when considering people with master’s degrees. 15% of R&D personnel in the manufacturing industry possess a Master’s degree whereas the figure is 34% in scientific research and development. Table 6 reveals that the current capabilities of implementing very high technology solutions in Estonian manufacturing industries are very limited due to the low number of highly educated workforce (Doctor’s or Master’s). Table 6. The share and amount of highly educated workforce in different industry sectors in 2009 Total Doctor's Master's Other Total 3122 274 688 2160 Manufacturing total 663 32 101 530 Food 56 0 8 48 Textiles 23 0 3 20 Forest 26 0 6 20 Chemicals 76 4 7 65 Plastics 22 0 0 22 Fabricated metal products 20 0 5 15 Electronic and electrical 244 20 45 179 Machinery and transportation equipment 95 3 12 80 Furniture 12 0 0 12 Scientific R&D 643 161 221 261 To be able to do any kind of technology transfer there has to be educated people to apply the new technology in a company. Human resources are especially a challenge in materials technology as it is very research intensive and understanding and applying it requires a basic knowledge of the technology. Only after understanding the technology can it be further developed – either alone in the company or together with the university. Unfortunately, even on European scale the number of students studying materials technology is decreasing and efforts have to be done to keep it competitive with the other more modern subjects. Universities in Estonia are also facing the problem of having too many drop-out students. The current solution to the problem is a decrease in the yearly intake of students. Another possible solution could be to make the education more relevant to current and future industry needs and increase the information exchange between universities and the industry. In all but two of the interviewed cases most of the PhDs were employed by universities, this was especially true with the more traditional fields of materials science such as metals and machinery. To benefit the society and companies at least a small portion of PhD studies should be done in cooperation with companies or based on company needs. Interviews also suggest that it is difficult to find university students with business sense, one thing that could be added to the curricula or obtained from internships in companies.
64 Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme 2. Materials technology in Estonia Some small efforts are underway to tackle these problems. At Tallinn University of Technology, the Department of Materials Science has taken in two industry PhD students and the research is being done together with Crystalsol OÜ. Similarly, the Department of Materials Engineering has taken in at least one industry PhD student and the work is being done together with Norma. The government provides separate support for this. In 2010, a two year specialisation in nanotechnology under the physics Master’s Programme was made available at Tartu University together with the Nanotechnology competence centre. It works in collaboration with approximately seven industry partners, all partners in the competence centre. Efforts have been put into advertising this program, however many companies beyond the partners had not heard of it yet. At this stage it is difficult to comment on the success of these programs as they are so young. University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology also have a joint Graduate School of Materials Technology. International graduates were thought as another problem. Compared to Western Europe salaries in Estonia are rather low and it is difficult to attract foreign students and researchers. Currently, most of the Master’s teaching is also conducted in Estonian. Nonetheless, the Department of Materials Science at the Tallinn University of Technology, together with the Tartu University has opened a new international Master curricula in “Processes and materials for sustainable energetics“. The education by the curricula is focused on the science and technology of different energy materials. At the moment students from 11 countries are taking courses from the curricula. Related to materials technology, the Institute of Chemistry at Tallinn University of Technology has also started the first international study program on combining chemistry and biology. Currently this is the only program in Europe teaching the subject. Other western competitors can be found in U.S. On European scale, an analysis of specialisation for high-growth disciplines indicates that chemistry, physics and most branches of engineering have shown a relative decline in researchers specialising in keys areas directly impacting nano- and materials technology and processing technologies ability to deliver new products, processes and manufacturing jobs 65 . It seems that despite the efforts of the EU to seek to increase its investment in cooperative translational research in manufacturing, there appears to be insufficient support to Europe’s higher education sector to train young researchers in the key technical disciplines to deliver the results. The report believes that new measures are needed within the European NMP framework programme to increase the gene pool of early stage researches engaged in translational cooperative research with industrial researchers. To bridge the gap between education and especially the traditional industry co-operation is extremely important. Most of the industrial interviews conducted suggested that the education and thus graduate students at universities do not fit their needs. Theoretical knowledge of students is good but they lacked the skills and experience to work in the industry. In general it is not wise for any university to provide students for the need of just one company. However, a joint effort in e.g. practical works and thesis works would benefit both. Companies should either give ideas to practical works or hire students for the duration of the work. The government could support this kind of activity more actively. There is at least one Technology platform in Estonia trying to bridge the gap: the manufuture Estonian Platform. The initiative is coordinated by Mechatronics Association in partnership with Tallinn University of Technology, Innovative Manufacturing Engineering Systems Competence Centre (IMECC), and Federation of Estonian Engineering Industry. The mission of the Manufuture Estonia platform (being in line with the European Manufuture Platform) is to propose a strategy for the industry, based on research and innovation, for: speeding up the rate of industrial transformation; securing high added value employment; winning a major share of world manufacturing output in the future knowledge driven economy. 65 NMP EXPERT ADVISORY GROUP (EAG), POSITION PAPER ON FUTURE RTD ACTIVITIES OF NMP FOR THE PERIOD 2010 – 2015
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Innovation studies 15 2011 Feasibil
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Authors: Commissioned by Technology
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Table of Contents Executive summary
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Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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