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ERR - A two-day Nordic and Baltic conference, Latitude 59 will bring together venture capitalists and startup companies from across the world to the Tallinn University of Technology on June 7.

Key speakers of the event will be Toby Ferenczi, one of the founders of the major solar energy systems developer Engensa, and US investor Ravi Belani, who is also a lecturer at Stanford University.

The focus of the annual conference is broader than just startups operating in the web and mobile communications sectors, drawing attention to other areas of technology such as biotech, the organizers said in a statement. In addition, the conference aims to provide a great platform for innovators and startup entrepreneurs to meet investors, lawyers and potential partners.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/economy/af10a389-70c7-4917-bcb6-5214ac939ad6

ERR - The Tallinn-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence will be carrying out a multinational exercise from March 26 to 28 designed to train IT experts and other specialists in the practical aspects of fending off cyber attacks.

The exercise, Locked Shields 2012, involves a Red Team made up mainly of volunteers from Estonia and Finland attacking nine separate Blue Teams located in countries throughout Europe. There will be Blue Teams from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy and Slovakia as well as a combined German-Austrian team, a Danish-Norwegian team and a NATO team, the center said in a statement.

Each Blue Team, which is made up of specialists from governmental organizations, military units, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and private sector companies, will take part in a simulation where they have to defend a small telecommunications company's network. No real organizations will play their actual role in the fictional scenario.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/sci-tech/1b722b80-f711-49d3-aacd-c045c6135533

ERR - The Forensic Science Institute (EFSI) has been given ISO certification for investigating cyber crimes.

"Two years ago cooperation was launched with colleagues from the FBI Cyber Division and this month the Forensic Institute's IT analysis department became one of the first in Europe accredited with the ISO 17025 standard for evidence gathering in cyber crimes,“ said Justice Minister Kristen Michal.

EFSI also became the second such body in Europe after a forensics centre in Denmark to receive ISO certification in forensic medical examinations.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/sci-tech/a5cf097c-da91-4c20-96eb-1da44d34654b

BBN - More and more foreign companies are discovering Estonia as a provider of share services functions, writes Äripäev.

So far foreign companies have transferred to Estonia mainly production jobs because of cheaper prices, but now also whitecollar jobs are moving to Estonia, with one IT company going to to move its backoffice operations to Estonia later this year.

When choosing a location for its financial centre for shared services, Estonia was on top of the list for the Finnish manufacturer of lifting equipment Konecranes.

„We found that Konecranes as a Finnish company and Estonians were culturally a match,” explained Peter Klingebiel, head of the company’s financial support service centre.

„Estonians are well qualified and there is potential for cost-saving,” he added.

Read more: http://bbn.ee/article/2012/3/13/foreign-companies-move-their-backoffices-to-estonia

ERR - The new Reuters Web of Science list of the world's most influential research institutions has placed the University of Tartu in the top 1 percent in the fields of molecular biology and genetics.

“The University of Tartu has systematically developed its molecular biology department since the 1970s [...] Development has been robust and successful,“ said Toivo Maimets, director of the university's molecular and cell biology institute.

To compile its rankings, known as Essential Science Indicators, Thomson Reuters considers the number of published academic articles and references of each university.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/sci-tech/44de0427-07da-41e4-b593-97c765394bec

ERR - Elcoteq Tallinn, the electronic components manufacturer aquired last month by the French company Eolane, will expand its production range to include medical equipment, its new owners have said.

Eolane chief executive Marc Pasquier said that the change would mean expanding staff numbers, which currently stand at 235, Äripäev reported.

In 2009, Elcoteq Eesti managed one of the most talked-about business deals in Estonia, selling 80 percent of its production capacity to Swedish-based Ericsson. Its future was thrown into doubt last October, however, when its parent company, Elcoteq SE filed for bankruptcy in its country of domicile, Luxembourg.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/economy/be3197b6-9acc-4765-874a-e41ce48b5810

ERR - Revised figures released today by Statistics Estonia have pegged the nation's 2011 GDP growth at 7.6 percent, up slightly from the 7.5 percent that it announced a month ago based on flash estimates.

The first three quarters of the year were characterized by high growth rate, mainly driven by a revving up of the manufacturing sector, followed by an abrupt slowdown that led to the first quarter-to-quarter contraction seen since early 2010.

However, the new numbers indicate that the fourth quarter drop wasn't quite so dramatic as initially believed, with GDP shrinking by just 0.2 percent compared with the 0.8 percent first calculated. Quarterly GDP at current prices came in at 4.22 billion euros, a 4.5 percent increase year-on-year.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/economy/62be2c6a-afae-48fc-924d-d94d5c7e8b0f

ERR - A facial recognition technology company founded by Estonians and supported by the Development Fund has been chosen among the top 20 British companies that will represent the UK at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in the US.

This year's British technology vanguard was put together by Reuters and UK Trade & Investments.

One of the founders of Realeyes, Mihkel Jäätma, says the festival is a multimedia counterpart of Woodstock, and that performance will be a key consideration.

"They also chose WorldDesk, AppBuilder and other examples from the UK game and media technologies to represent the country's budding enterprise," he said.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/economy/ccfff8c2-c566-4032-a142-800ed0fd9ec6

ERR - “Norway has the highest salaries in the world,” says ICD Industries CEO, Christian Testman. “And this is not sustainable.” And so Testman has brought ICD to Estonia.

ICD Industries is in the control software business, their control design platform software (CDP) providing frameworks for their clients to develop, test, simulate and operate advanced control applications – “control” being what happens between a switch on one end and a physical action on the other.

Rolls Royce is a client. ICD’s products enable the creation of software to guide dynamic positioning, an intermediary system between a satellite signal and the thrusters on seagoing vessels which keep an offshore supply vessel in place in deep water. Also, ICD’s motion compensated products serve to align a heeling ship’s helipad with helicopter struts, permitting a safe landing in tossing seas. Or 3D real-time graphics, which allow a ship owner to experiment with crane placement with the ease of drag and drop technologies – before spending the 200 million euros necessary to build the ship.

“We make the toolbox to build the control tool,” explains Testman. “We build software to help other companies build their software.” And given ICD’s Norwegian roots, many of those products are benefitting from what Testman terms “the exponential growth in oil and gas drilling in the maritime sector.”

With a modest budget of 20 million euros this year, ICD employs only 50 people in Norway, and Testman has identified Estonia as a place which can help ICD’s growth through the outsourcing of programming resources.

Read more: http://news.err.ee/economy/4aa510d1-cc1a-4716-a0c7-8a7d2a31f135

BNS – The state-owned Port of Tallinn and Unieveem Eesti, Estonian operation of one of the world's largest logistics companies Katoen Natie, have signed an agreement on the construction of a warehouse complex and distribution center at Estonia's main merchant port of Muuga.

According to the agreement Unieveem plans to build in the first phase of the project a modern warehouse and distribution complex with an area of 25,000 square meters mainly for cocoa beans and cocoa-based products on a 4.5 hectare plot at Muuga, Port of Tallinn said.

Unieveem Eesti CEO Mart Melles said the complex will cost 16 million euros to build and it should start work in the first quarter of 2013. The new facility will initially give work to 25 people.

In the second phase Katoen Natie plans to establish at Muuga one of its most important distribution centers in the Baltic Sea region for other commodities as well, seeing it as a bridge between the East and the West, Port of Tallinn said.

Katoen Natie is a global logistics services provider for several industries including manufacturing and the automotive industry. It has 159 logistics centers in 28 countries of the world with 10,500 employees. The total area of covered warehouse space exceeds five million square meters.