TalTech in my opinion is unique among other things because we are a university located in a small country on the one hand, but in a big city on the other hand. This provides us with numerous opportunities for collaborating with different partners, be it businesses or the city itself. On the other hand, the relationship with these partners is close and productive.
The small and large scale make for an interesting combination. This leads to us having a range of research projects, student projects starting from student formula cars and self-driving buses where collaboration and problem solving will quite quickly take us onto the market or into mainstream use.
This is something that more easily eludes other universities. We are sandwiched between the science park Tehnopol, where the university, the city and the state work together on a daily basis to develop the innovation eco-system and where on the other side we are located now, Tallinn and the Smart City initiative.
The university should even take some pride in Tallinn becoming a green capital. Without the university Tallinn would probably not become a green capital: let us think about the smart city professorships, smart city projects that we have launched – these are important and give a good indication of our ability to contribute to societal development.
If we look inside the university, I find TalTech to be quite a flexible organisation. We have managed to put together intriguing research cooperation teams that combine members from several faculties, from diverse disciplines. People speaking different languages coming together in order to solve a common problem, a shared challenge.
The launching and implementation of such projects require a good organizational culture. But if we are successful in our endeavours – then we must have it!