ITEE Digital Connected Economy is a new Centre of Excellence to be
established in Estonia. The aim of the Centre is to support knowledge transfer
between universities and the private sector and to accelerate research and
development to create new technologies. The center is a joint venture between University of
Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology and the University of Edinburgh.
The Centre of Excellence will develop the critical mass, sustainability and international competitiveness of
Estonian ICT research develop new solutions for several streams of challenges. Besides fundamental and applied research and development, the center will create better opportunities for
cooperation with companies and to build a suitable environment for new global
business ideas. Today’s digitally connected economy requires new data driven e-services,
smart environments, big data driven healthcare solutions, as well as cybersecurity and trust of the information society. Working with datasets and artificial intelligence in
the widest sense will build a strong base for developing other areas. The work that
will be done in the Centre of Excellence will contribute towards promoting
Estonian economy through the key area of smart specialization.
In order to establish the Centre of Excellence we are working on a Horizon2020 proposal, more specifically the business plan and second round proposal. If successful, Estonia will acquire necessary funds from the European Commission. Additionally, success also requires support from the government to achieve a sufficient sustainable budget.
ITEE proposal was chosen in a
Europe-wide competition from 169 applications into the next round where 9
successful candidates will be picked from the 31 finalists. The deadline for the
business plan is May 2016 and in June the final proposal will be submitted.