OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2016. The delegation of the International Relations sector of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, will visit Estonia to get information about the circle of industry, research and decision makers in Estonia and establish direct contact for possible accession talks.

In order for Estonian enterprises to be internationally more competitive, they need to produce more high-technology products with high added value. High added value means bigger salaries, bigger investments and bigger profit.

According to Minister of Entrepreneurship Liisa Oviir, one way to achieve this, is to increase the so called institutional export to research centres, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) or CERN, which are known for their demanding and scientific technologically innovative solution orders.

Last year, Estonia became a member of the ESA thanks to which our enterprises have received orders to develop high-technology products and services. Similarly to the ESA, CERN membership would also significantly increase the possibilities for Estonian enterprises to provide quality high-technology products and services all around the world.

“Establishing closer high-level contacts is one prerequisite to better understand potential incomes and costs in a longer perspective. ESA has been a very positive example so far. The next step is to see what the options are to benefit from CERN in the longer perspective,” said Oviir.

“Estonia’s research activity in CERN has gone upwards in recent years. Long-term research in high energy physics has been improved with cooperation to UT research groups in modelling the materials required for new accelerators and contributing to the development of high speed scintillators in medical technology. Participation in CERN programmes promotes the cooperation between Estonian enterprises and researchers and increases their capacity in research and development and innovation,” explained UT Vice Rector for Research Marco Kirm.