TARTU'S UNIVERSITIES GIVE RECOGNITION TO INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISES

All Estonian companies that have, with success, recently implemented in their products, services or production processes UT or the Estonian Agricultural University's research results are invited to participate.

The competition aims, in particular, to give recognition to innovative enterprises that have harnessed the universities' research potential in their development activities. The main criterion for assessing the success of a company’s implementation of R&D work consists in examining the implementation’s effect on the economic performance of the company in question. Small and big companies will be assessed separately.

UT Institute of Technology Vice Director Erik Puura hopes that the competition will result in highlighting also the work of those companies whose partnerships with universities have not been the subject of extensive media coverage. After all, the universities have long-standing partnerships with a number of companies active in the fields of IT, foodstuffs, wood and chemical industry as well as plant farming.

"Both companies as well as universities find that there are yet too few points of contact and that our mutually enriching and indispensable collaboration could be much more efficient”, Erik Puura further explained the background of the competition.

The qualifying companies, or their partner units in Tartu's universities, should notify their wish to be considered in the competition on the Institute of Technology home page www.tuit.ut.ee. After an examination of a summary of the results of collaboration, interviews will be conducted with representatives of the company and the relevant university unit to assess the impact of collaboration in both organisations.

The deadline to apply for the competition is 18 February, 2005. Competition results will be announced during the Technology Day to be held on 28 April 2005 in the course of the City of Tartu Enterpreneurship Week.

The competition is organised in cooperation between the University of Tartu, the Estonian Agricultural University and the Foundation Tartu Science Park. The SPINNO 2 project is co-funded by the European Union.

Illari Lään
Head, UT Public Relations and Information Office

Contact person for additional information: Mr Erik Puura, Vice Director, UT Institute of Technology, tel. +372-737-4802