Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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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