First in the Baltic States Centre for Military Marine Technologies will be opened in Klaipėda, according to the institutional agreement signed by Lithuanian Navy, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, and Baltic Institute of Advanced Technologies, Baltic Technology Park and Institute of Digital Technologies.
“This cooperation is the first precedent of cooperation between military, science and business in order to advance innovative military technologies not only in Lithuania, but also in the Baltics. So far there was not enough cooperation between these stakeholders, at least not in Lithuania. I am certain that this partnership will encourage business to create added value products for defence structures and Lithuanian defence and security industry will become more competitive”, said Daina Kleponė, Managing Director of Enterprise Lithuania, upon signing the agreement.
According to her, Lithuanian defence sector is one of those having the greatest potential of growth, however, in order to expand and develop it needs focused support and more efficient collaboration between defence structures, state, science and business.
The cooperation was supported by European Commission initiatives. Recently, European military fund was established. From 2021 special European Union military research programme will start functioning, annually allotting 500 million euros for research.
Klaipėda is a perfect location for the Military Marine Technologies Centre due to its geographical location, dislocated naval forces and the existing port infrastructure. The strong team of the project will allow to solve the needs of naval forces by new technologies and innovations, and will contribute to the development of defence technologies in the Baltic region.
