University leaders met with SEB bank representatives

On 11 June, representatives of SEB Estonia and SEB Baltics visited the University of Tartu. During the meeting with Rector Toomas Asser, Vice Rector for Development Tõnu Esko, Head of Finance Kalle Hein, CEO of UniTartu Ventures Mart Maasik and Head of Entrepreneurship Mihkel Tammo, both parties expressed willingness to develop their long-term and meaningful cooperation further.

“SEB is a good example of an organisation with a well-developed innovation culture. Cooperation with academic and research institutions is part of it. We are pleased that our varied and systematic cooperation in developing research-intensive entrepreneurship and educating future talents has lasted over 15 years. This is a success story for both the university and the bank,” said Mihkel Tammo, Head of Entrepreneurship at the University of Tartu.

The university has cooperated with SEB since 2007. Over this period, students have helped solve various practical problems of the finance world as part of their theses and internships in IT, technology and economics. Last year, collaboration with the Department of Philosophy was launched to address ethical questions of data management and use.

Students have also worked on SEB issues during project-based internships and in several courses; for example, computer science students created an application that automatically removed sensitive data from emails. The collaboration is coordinated by SEB Tartu Innovation Centre, which is based in the Delta business building and was set up to bring together young people, innovation and entrepreneurship. In January, SEB recognised outstanding deep technology companies that participated in the pitching competition organised by the University of Tartu at Startup Day.

Last autumn, the university and SEB signed a framework agreement in which they agreed upon the main areas of cooperation: research and development, teaching, internships, continuing education and public relations.