University of Tartu Delta Centre to be opened in Tartu City Centre

The University of Tartu Delta Centre, one of the most modern centre for digital technology, analytics and economic ideas in the Nordic countries, will open its doors on Wednesday, 29 January at 12:00. The Delta Centre comprises an academic and a research building and an entrepreneurship building and will bring together more than 3000 students, lecturers, researchers and development employees from companies.

The opening of the Delta Centre will give new life to both the university’s academic work and research and the whole of Tartu’s business scene. “As a building, the Delta Centre is already one of the landmarks of Tartu. Its contents will certainly make it a hub of innovative ideas that will bring the Estonian economy to a new level of development using a research-based approach,” said Professor Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu, adding that the upcoming long-term development strategy for Estonia includes R&D and the development of research fields important for Estonian entrepreneurship as the main precondition for the growth of smart entrepreneurship.

“The Delta Centre brings together the best knowledge, so that businesses can keep up with the rapid advancement of technology with the help of the university and ensure a new generation of workers,” said Toomas Asser. “During the construction of the centre, we received a clear signal that entrepreneurs like this kind of form of cooperation between students, researchers and entrepreneurs and that Tartu needs at least one more IT entrepreneurship centre in the immediate vicinity of the university.

The academic and research building will accommodate the UT Institute of Computer Sciences, the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and some laboratories of the Institute of Technology.

According to Jaak Vilo, Head of the Institute of Computer Sciences, the Delta Centre will become a unique cooperation environment for the specialties of information technology, economy, mathematics, statistics and computer technology and different types of companies to conduct academic work and research and implement development and innovation projects. “People with such competence have a very important role in the development of companies and the state,” said Vilo. According to Vilo, it is also important that the Institute of Computer Sciences can now work in the same building and on the same floor again.

The entrepreneurship building is to be opened in April and will bring research-based entrepreneurship linked with academic work and research to the immediate vicinity of the university in order to offer varied cooperation opportunities. The building will become a home to Cybernetica AS, Swedbank AS, Statistics Estonia, machine learning and data science competence centre STACC OÜ, AS SEB Pank innovation centre, the Business Incubation Centre of the European Space Agency and Tartu Science Park. 

The Delta Centre was designed by Illimar Truverk, Sander Aas, Sander Paljak, Kristjan Lind and Joanna Kordemets from Arhitekt11 OÜ. The centre was built by AS Ehitusfirma Rand and Tuulberg and AS Ehitustrust.

The total area of the four-storey academic and research building is approximately 17,500 m2 plus a 4,600 m2 underground car park. The total area of the five-storey entrepreneurship building is around 4,700 m2. The academic and research building cost a total of 28,425,600 euros and the entrepreneurship building 6,580,433 euros plus VAT. The construction of the Delta Centre was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Republic of Estonia and the University of Tartu.

Read more from the Delta Centre website.

The opening of the Delta Centre will be broadcast live via UTTV.

In cooperation with the University of Tartu and aside from the opening of the Delta Building,Tartu will host Startup Day, the largest business festival in the Baltic States, which takes place from 29 to 31 January and brings together more than 120 world-class performers and nearly 4000 participants in the university’s Sports Hall. In the evening of 30 January, the Delta Centre car park will host the Startup Day party.

For further information, please contact:
Erik Puura, Vice Rector for Development, University of Tartu, 506 9882, erik.puura@ut.ee
Ott Pärna, Head of Marketing of University of Tartu Delta Centre, 517 8111, ott.parna@ut.ee