Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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65 Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme 3. Materials technology abroad: co-operation and competition 3 Materials technology abroad: co-operation and competition 3.1 International collaboration 3.1.1 Research collaboration Collaboration with international organisations is essential for the success of a small country like Estonia. Collaboration with international players seems quite common for university research groups as the large majority of research group leaders that responded to the questionnaire reported having collaboration with international partners. From the total of 52 research groups, more than 70% reported international partners and the total number of international partners was 90. Countries with most partners include Finland (18), Sweden (10), Germany (9), USA (6), Switzerland (5), France (4), UK (4) and Poland (4), which makes 2/3 of all partnerships reported. Aalto University (9), Helsinki University (4), Uppsala University (3) and Lund University (3) were the most reported collaboration partners. Estonia is also doing well in the level of international collaboration in materials science publications. According to SCImago Journal rankings, 53% of materials science publications from Estonia have international partners. This number is comparable to Denmark (56%), Sweden (54%) and Norway (52%) and exceeds e.g. Latvia (50%), Finland (47%) and Lithuania (30%). 66 The share of international collaboration in materials science slightly exceeds the average international collaboration in Estonia (49%). 3.1.2 Industrial collaboration Very many of the bigger companies in Estonia are foreign owned and international collaboration comes explicitly from this ownership. The bigger foreign owned companies, especially in the forest industry but also others, bring the newest technology expertise to Estonia through their local production plants. Some of the smaller companies, being sub-contractors, used their international customer network to gain insight into ongoing trends and technology needs. Many of them have long term trusted relationships with one or two big international customers who provide them with specifications of the final product needed and the production in Estonia works out a way to obtain these specifications. This kind of customer-driven technology/production development benefits the Estonian manufacturing industry very much. The small companies should use it even more. Many of the high-tech industry interviewees told that they were involved in some EU-projects: most of them being research for SMEs. In these projects SMEs can use EU money to buy research from a research provider such as a university. The project always has to have at least three industrial partners and two research partners. At the end of the project the company partners own the IPR of the results obtained. These projects are a very good way to gain new contacts in Europe and also probably get some new results for development. Unfortunately, so far, none of the companies have utilised any of the results they have got. The research provider was also in all interviewed cases a foreign partner. Currently it seems that in addition to these projects, Estonian (high-tech) companies should more actively look for real partners for real EU-projects where they can do part of the development also in-house. 3.2 Materials technology research and development internationally 3.2.1 Latvia Latvia has taken a similar approach to Estonia in 2001 with defining a “knowledge-based model” and establishing a set of National Research Programmes. 67 This includes the definition of priority scientific areas that include the following for the period from 2010 to 2013 (along with more detailed definitions of areas related to materials technologies): 66 www.scimagojr.com 67 Science in Latvia – National Research Programmes (http://izm.izm.gov.lv/upload_file/Zinatne/vpp/Zinatne_Latvija_EN.pdf)
66 Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme 3. Materials technology abroad: co-operation and competition Energy and environment (technologies of renewable energy resource extraction and utilisation, technologies diminishing climate change, and biological diversity) Innovative materials and technologies (computer science, information and signal processing technologies, nanostructured multifunctional materials and nanotechnologies) National identity Public health Sustainable use of local resources (mineral deposits, forest, food and transport) – new products and technologies To support materials sciences and other related fields, Latvia is planning to establish National Research Centres for areas including “Technologies of Acquisition and Sustainable Use of Energy and Environmental Resources”, “Information, Communication and Signal Processing Technologies”, “Forest and Water Resources” and most notably “Nanostructured and Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Technologies”. The Latvian research system is divided in two types of scientific support programmes: 1) fundamental and applied research and 2) market-oriented research. The fundamental and applied programme supported in total 166 projects in 2010 and the market-oriented programme had 15 ongoing projects in 2010, of which 4 continue also in 2011. In addition to the above mentioned programmes and areas, Latvia implemented several National Research Programmes within the period from 2005 to 2009. The materials technology programme included the following focus projects: Inorganic materials for photonics and energetic Inorganic materials for optoelectronics and microelectronics and advanced methods in structure research Materials for photonics and nanoelectronics based on new functional low-molecular and high-molecular organic compounds Biomaterials and medical technologies Development of nanoparticles, nanostructural materials and thin-film technologies for creation of functional materials and composites Design of functional materials/nanocomposites, development of technologies and properties thereof Participation in ERA-Net programme MATERA in EU FP6 Functional materials for resistive switching memory Modelling dynamics of adaptive multifunctional materials and structures. The application areas include thin films for optoelectronic and microelectronic devices, li-ion batteries, fuel cells, ceramic membranes for energetics, solar cells, sensor technologies, medical diagnostics and nanocomposites. The programme received in total 5,4M funding for the period from 2005 to 2009. The continuation for materials technology programme for the period from 2010 to 2013 is called “Development of Innovative Multifunctional Materials, Signal Processing and Information Technologies for Competitive Science Intensive Products” 68 and includes the following objectives: Generation of multifunctional materials and their nano-order multilayer coatings and application thereof in energy converter devices Signal registration and processing technologies (including sensor technologies and materials) Self-reinforced multifunctional polymer composites with innovative nanostructured modifiers Innovative solid tissue replacement material Development of an original system meta-modelling method Another programme focus on the “Sustainable Use of Local Resources” includes e.g. utilisation of Latvia clay for development of new products. In conclusion, materials technology focus areas defined by Latvia are very similar to the strong areas of Estonian materials technology. Focus areas such as 1) materials for energy, 2) sensor technology and sensor materials, 3) nanomaterials (especially for electronics), 4) multifunctional polymer composites and 5) biomaterials can be identified. So far, Latvia seems to lag behind Estonia in terms of R&D expenditure (% of GDP), human resources in science and technology, patent applications and doctoral students. 68 http://www.cfi.lu.lv/eng/projects/national-research-programs/national-research-program-of-latvia-in-materialsciences/
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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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