Estonia places itself amongst the frontrunners in terms of digitalization and e-government. However, the Baltic country lacks coordination between the public and the private sector. A delegation of 30 Estonian public administration leaders are staying in Eindhoven – as part of a governmental training program – to learn more about digital transformation models. The focus is specifically on collaboration with the aim of fostering innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a visit to the University of Amsterdam<\/a>, the Estonian group arrived in Eindhoven. During their time in the city, a 3-day program will teach them more about the Brainport Region and present examples of successful private-public collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an initiative is taking place a month after Andres Sutt, the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT, visited the city. Estonia and the Eindhoven region are strengthening their bond. Two more delegations will visit the region in the upcoming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe overall aim of our training program is to train all Estonian top-level civil servants – around 100 people – to get to grips with digital strategy and digital transformation. Each of those civil servants will go through four sessions in Estonia, and one session is taking place abroad\u201d, explains Linnar Viik, head of the delegation and chair of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology – EIT<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne aspect where we are not so strong in is something that the Netherlands is particularly good in, that is establishing partnerships between different authorities and defining problems in a collaborative way\u201d, Viik adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The triple helix model<\/a> of innovation was originally invented in the early 1990s by Loet Leydesdorff and Henry Etzkowitz. In a nutshell, the model is based on interaction that stems from interactions between three different actors: academia, enterprise<\/em>, and government<\/em>. Such a model is also being applied in Eindhoven, where different local parties interact in an effort to foster innovation and the well-being of the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEstonia is really good at software development, while its societal development is not as advanced. What they can learn from the city is the role it has in bringing everybody to the table under equal terms\u201d, underlines Peter Kentie. He has recently been appointed as the Honorary Consul of Estonia for Eindhoven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat is really interesting about Estonia is that everyone is somehow connected. Yet, people don\u2019t work together that much. They can benefit from the openness of the Eindhoven region\u201d says Kentie. <\/p>\n\n\n Some of the highest ranking officials from different Estonian ministries are part of the delegation. Kaupo Heinma is the Deputy Secretary-General at the Estonian Ministry of Environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDespite the high level of e-government services, we lack cooperation between different parties. We need innovation, and if different parties don’t work together, then that doesn’t yield as much as it would if they do work together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In preparing the path for innovation – and making life easier for start-ups and innovators – the patent office\u2019s role is key. Where this is concerned, the Estonian Patent Office<\/a> is trying to be as open as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt present, it\u2019s still quite complicated for companies in Estonia to submit a patent. However, thanks to e-government services, it\u2019s now possible to do all the necessary steps online. In addition to that, we published several tutorials to explain all the procedures\u201d explains Margus Viher, director-general of the Estonian patent office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More broadly speaking, Viher points out that sometimes local political issues act as a constraint on cooperation. \u201cDuring these days we are being inspired by the practices here, and hopefully we\u2019ll succeed in fostering innovation in Estonia too,\u201d says Viher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Estonia was the first country to establish a paperless government. As of today, all public services are available digitally. Linnart Viik worked on making this happen, and this represented one of the main innovation processes that the country has undertaken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Viik: \u201cWhen you do something which nobody has done before, it\u2019s really difficult to visualize what will happen next. There are a lot of expectations. Many people think that innovation happens overnight, but it isn’t like that, you have to be prepared. Innovation needs to take place every day, you need to build things step by step. It\u2019s like running a marathon, you need to train for it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Estonian expertise in e-government is something the Netherlands could leverage on. \u201cIn Estonia, people pay for e-government like the same amount they pay for a Spotify account. In most countries, it is ten times more per capita. We understood how to make public services twice as fast and ten times cheaper\u201d Viik concludes.\u00a0We understand how to make public services twice as fast and ten times cheaper\u201d, Viik sums up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the picture, one of the sessions held in Eindhoven<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Estonia places itself amongst the frontrunners in terms of digitalization and e-government. However, the Baltic country lacks coordination between the public and the private sector. A delegation of 30 Estonian public administration leaders are staying in Eindhoven – as part of a governmental training program – to learn more about digital transformation models. The focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":516109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8553],"tags":[58220,28908,3938,4329,7056,7082],"location":[6763],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-371984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-brainport-region","tag-digitalisering","tag-eindhoven365-en","tag-eit","tag-estland","tag-estonia","location-netherlands","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Despite being a frontrunner in digitalization, the Baltic country lacks fruitful coordination between different - public and private - actors.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mauro Mereu","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/mauro-mereu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220504_114818-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Digital<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Digital<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Brainport region<\/a>","digitalisering<\/a>","Eindhoven365<\/a>","EIT<\/a>","Estland<\/a>","Estonia<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Brainport region<\/span>","digitalisering<\/span>","Eindhoven365<\/span>","EIT<\/span>","Estland<\/span>","Estonia<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 5, 2022","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 5, 2022 10:00 am","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2022 10:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=371984"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=371984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Eindhoven, a place where the triple helix model<\/strong> is applied <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cooperation is beneficial<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Paving the way for start-ups <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Innovation doesn\u2019t happen overnight <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n