Future of IT centre of excellence to be established in Estonia introduced in Tallinn

One of the most important tasks of the centre of excellence planned in Estonia is to accelerate the development of new ICT technologies and applying them in the industry by including the private and public sector. On 30 May in Tallinn, during the ICT Week, the public sector, enterprises and university representatives discussed the future plans of the ITEE Centre of Excellence in Digital Connected Economy.

The centre of excellence, developed in cooperation of the University of Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology and the University of Edinburgh, will under digital connected economy bring together research in data analysis, security and privacy, business process design and IT law. This research will in turn enable to develop three major fields: digital economy that operates in real time, smart living environments and connected digital health care systems.

“The research done at the centre of excellence focuses on the ICT topics of importance to Estonia to create new secure data-based services, develop smart environments, add value to health data, increase treatment, diagnostics and prevention and patient participation. In addition to research results, which help us create new improved services, another, or the most important, result is doctoral studies with considerably bigger extent and quality with graduates who will head to develop enterprises and state services,” said one of the initiators, Head of UT Institute of Computer Science Professor Jaak Vilo.

The aim of the centre is to follow the example of the University of Edinburgh and train experts of their research field who can accelerate innovation with their research and have a wide variety of skills. Rector of Tallinn University of Technology Jaak Aaviksoo expressed the opinion that for efficient innovative work, the universities, public sector and private sector must cooperate.

In addition to representatives of the universities, the European Commission’s Vice President of the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip, Ain Aaviksoo, Deputy Secretary General on E-services Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and Taavi Kotka, Deputy Secretary General of Communications and State Information Systems, also performed at the event.

The state of Estonia is ready to support the establishment of the centre of excellence on the national level and by Midsummer Day, the universities will submit a joint funding application in the framework of the Horizon 2020 Teaming measure.

See photos from the event. Photos by Sten-Ander Ojakallas.

Additional information: Professor Jaak Vilo, Head of UT Institute of Computer Science, 504 9365, jaak.vilo@ut.ee;
Professor Gert Jervan, Dean of Tallinn University of Technology’s Faculty of Information Technology, 5648 2343, gert.jervan@ttu.ee.