The Estonian ICT Cluster is a collaboration platform for enterprises, created to boost the development of new products and solutions and foster their export to the international market. The aim is to help countries and organisations achieve world-class digital societies, boost companies’ global competitiveness and bolster the skills and qualifications of their staff. By helping to export groundbreaking e-solutions developed in Estonia, the cluster contributes to the establishment of efficient services that favour economic growth and enhance quality of life.
- 16 January 2020
The Estonian ICT Cluster is the most important strategic partner helping us to enter global markets. Without the cluster, we could not have made a breakthrough in several African markets.
Through the cluster, users gain access to a network of Estonian ICT companies, have the chance to exchange knowledge and experience with developers of innovative digital solutions and find the right business partners.
The cluster can support firms and organisations along the entire digitalisation path: it offers strategy consultation, capacity building for digitalisation, change management, IT development and implementation of new technologies.
E-governance, e-industry and intelligent transport
The first cluster in Estonia to obtain the silver label of the internationally recognised European Cluster Excellence Initiative, the Estonian ICT Cluster’s main areas of focus include e-governance, e-industry and intelligent transport systems.
Partners have played key roles in formulating Estonian e-governance solutions and share their experience of creating effective lines of communication between government, business and citizens. In the e-industry field, they build complex digital systems to enable factories to operate in real time as single, integrated units. For intelligent transport, the cluster has set up a cooperation network – ITS Estonia, which is also part of the international ITS cooperation platform.
Thanks to the creation of the cluster, partners’ R&D activities are now worth some EUR 16.25 million. A total of 28 enterprises working in growth areas of smart specialisation have received grants, while the same number have been involved in innovation-related cooperation, including with universities and other higher education institutions.
On average, partners have derived over EUR 2.5 million in sales revenue (or 27 % of their total sales revenue) from products and services created or significantly altered as part of the cluster’s activity. In addition, the cluster has added value of more than EUR 46 000 per employee for its partners.
Good practice example: smart workwear
A notable example of the cluster’s work is the Ragnarok 2.0 cooperation project, which created smart workwear to improve safety and working conditions for people exposed to high-risk environments, as well as providing management with accurate data quickly to reduce the administrative burden.
The clothing has sensors that detect when a wearer slips. It notifies colleagues and also provides real-time information on temperature. GPS tracking enables supervisors to see who is where, when. It is fitted with a safety light with embedded cabling for greater visibility and a facility to record speech and save it as voice clips or text for conditions where computer use is difficult or impossible.
Ragnarok 2.0 shows how combining know-how from different sectors – in this case textiles, ICT, electronics and academia – can create smart products with the potential to transform even the most traditional industries.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Estonian ICT Cluster” is EUR 850 000, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 425 000 through the “Cohesion Policy Funding” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “TO3 - SMEs competitiveness”.