University of Tartu at sTARTUp Day

The sTARTUp Day business festival takes place at the Estonian National Museum from 25 to 27 August. More than 150 inspiring speakers get on stage in the three-day programme, and over 100 business ideas will be presented to entrepreneurs and investors. For the third time, the University of Tartu is leading the "Science to Business" programme. The university's research-based spin-offs and success stories of business cooperation are introduced in the demo area.

In the demo area located next to the entrance of the Estonian National Museum, it is possible to see examples of cutting-edge technology created by researchers of the University of Tartu. This year's focus is on transport and smart city solutions. The exhibits include a rescue robot developed in cooperation with Milrem Robotics, a test platform for a self-driving car developed together with Bolt and a hydrogen vehicle developed jointly with AuVe Tech. The Institute of Chemistry offers coffee from a hydrogen-powered machine.

25 August is the day of the festival's side events, and at 14, a panel discussion "Science to Business" led by the University of Tartu is held at Lydia Hotel. It focuses on establishing and developing research-based business. This year's panel includes Jari Strandman, CEO of Helsinki Innovation Services from Finland, Olga Tšubrik, a board member of TBD-Biodiscovery, a spin-off of the University of Tartu, and Sille Pettai, head and board member of SmartCap from Estonia. The panellists discuss the possibilities of attracting investors when setting up research-based companies, and the discussion is led by Jakob Johnson, the founder of Innovosource, from the US.

On 26 August at 13:45 at the Festival Studio, Tõnu Esko, Professor of Human Genomics at the University of Tartu, speaks about the use of genetic data and new business models emerging from it.

On 27 August at 12:30, at the Pitching Stage, the international competition of universities' spin-offs "Nordic Pitch Match" is held, where Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and German companies pitch their ideas. At 14 students from the University of Tartu pitch their business ideas at the same place. The best ideas were chosen among the participants in entrepreneurship courses organised by the Chair of Entrepreneurship of the University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration. In 2020, the chair organised more than 25 courses attended by more than 1,000 students.

sTARTUp Day is the biggest business festival in the Baltics, taking place for the fifth time this year. The organisers of the festival are partners in the Tartu start-up business ecosystem. The author of the idea of the festival is Andres Kuusik, Associate Professor in Marketing of the University of Tartu. 

Further information: Aitel Käpp, Head of Marketing and Communications of the UT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 508 6478, aitel.kapp@ut.ee