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Success of Skype, a peer-to-peer telephony network, which was sold recently to eBay for roughtly 3,2 billion USD, marks clearly the potential of Estonian developers in creating world class products. In 2002, starting with mere 10 employees, the company has meanwhile grown to more than 100 employees internationally, three thirds of them located in Estonia. Pradoxically, there are few people who know that almost entire technical development of the company is lead from Tallinn.

For a small country, with limited market size and resources, participation in collaborative development projects is one feasible way of gaining critical mass. This has been true for Skype as well ? the vision comes from Scandinavia, sales are done from London, and technology development in Estonia. For these purposes, interest towards partnering on EU scales is remarkably high amongst our companies. EU funded programmes consitute quite a good possiblity for entering international networks, serving as a source for additional funding as well as a source for complementing partners and future customers.

Archimedes Foundation, an organisation nominated as official National Contant Point for Framework Programme 6 and a number of other EU programmes such as eTen, eContent+, EUREKA, COST etc, serves to assist local companies and RTD centres in networking with foreign partners. Apart of that, consultations on proposal preparation are provided and international partner searches pursued. Archimedes Foundation acts also as an Innovation Relay Centre, supporting SMEs with technology transfer. More information on the organisation can be found at www.irc.ee.

Thus, once partners from Estonia are needed, you are most welcome to contact our people from Archimedes Foundation, who will kindly help you in identifying proper and credible partner for your project. In case you are interested in Estonia in general or specifically in ICT sector developments, more information can be found at www.esis.ee.