Estonia and the United States have signed a science and technology agreement that will support future partnerships in research and innovation.
The United States’ undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, Keith Krach, and the Estonian foreign minister, Urmas Reinsalu, signed the agreement in Tallinn on 19 October.
“Estonia’s digital economy is the envy of the world. Its entrepreneurial spirit and high-tech DNA make Estonia the perfect partner for the United States in the area of science and technology, especially during this time of rapid change,” Krach said in a statement.
“Today’s agreement will be crucial to solving not only the pandemic, but the myriad economic and national security challenges. We appreciate Estonia’s leadership in becoming an early member of the Clean Network and the Blue Dot Network. I am confident that for the United States and E-stonia, the best is yet to come.”
According to Reinsalu, Estonia highly esteems America’s willingness to advance scientific and technological cooperation with it.
“Such cooperation between Estonia and the USA has great potential, but has not yet been fully untapped in our bilateral relations,” Reinsalu asserted. “Adding digital world topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, financial technologies, and digital governance to our agreed areas of collaboration will allow us to boost mutual activities.”
Partnerships between researchers, research institutions and industry
The US embassy in Tallinn pointed out that the US and Estonia have a strong partnership to “build shared prosperity through cooperation in security, science and technology and trade”.
“This new agreement will continue to support partnerships between top researchers, public and private research institutions and industry. It will bolster collaboration on common goals in research and innovation, including environmental protection, health security and digital governance, as well as enhance intellectual property protection in both countries.”
Estonia and the US already have ongoing collaboration, one of the examples of it is a climate change research in the Baltics through a partnership between Illinois University, Triton College, Waubonsee Community College and Tallinn University, funded by a USD300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering.
The two countries are also engaged in a 2020-2024 collaboration between the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Tartu, funded by the National Institutes of Health grant of USD10,000 to research the genome-wide analyses of health and wellbeing phenotypes.
“With this agreement, the United States and Estonia will continue to develop innovations and solutions to confront our common challenges and contribute to a more prosperous and secure world,” the US embassy in Tallinn added.
Cover: The “e-Estonia” showroom in Tallinn. The image is illustrative.
