University of Tartu (UT), Institute of Bioengineering
The UT, our coordinating partner, is the largest and oldest University in Estonia, founded in 1632. The Institute of Bioengineering was established in January 2024 and was built on visionary projects under the Horizon 2020 Widening ERA Chair programme, SynBioTEC, and GasFermTEC, followed by its final upgrade to an autonomous institute as part of the DigiBio project action plan. The institute consolidates several Estonian research groups on synthetic biology and bioengineering. The research groups have been awarded several competitive international research grants, including the ERC consolidator grants, the Wellcome Trust International Fellowships, and the EMBO installation grants. The institute aims to grow around the Biofoundry and the bioengineering digitalization platform and become a leading international scientific centre in the Baltic Sea region. Our immediate goal under the DigiBio project, and with help and guidance from our Teaming partners in Denmark, is to consolidate the Estonian bioengineering expertise of Tartu and Tallinn into a joint Estonian Centre for Bioengineering and Estonian Biofoundry and use the full synergy of all national bioscience resources.
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
The advanced partner, Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Biosustainability (CFB) at the Technical University of Denmark, was established more than a decade ago by leading international bioengineers to accelerate cell factory design and construction through advances in computational and experimental tools. The CFB established a ‘first generation’ (build-focused) biofoundry and is one of the founding partners in the Global Biofoundry Alliance. The CFB biofoundry has recently shifted to a model with a focus on big data and the digitalization of biology underpinned by an Integrated Informatics Platform. The DTU’s expertise will be essential in establishing the Biofoundry within the Estonian Centre for Bioengineering (ECB). The ECB will customize the platform (e.g. add functionalities) to create a Bioengineering Digitalization Platform (BDP) in Estonia to analyse local data flows and lead developments of parts of the joint framework with the DTU, thereby directly contributing both to DTU activities and the wider applicability of the informatics platform. This unique blend of technical, scientific and business know-how is foundational for DigiBio and ensures that the ECB has sufficient capacity to deliver on proposed activities.
Tallinn University of Technology (TUT)
TUT is the only technical university in Estonia and is ranked third among all Baltic states’ universities in world rankings. TUT research groups bring unique expertise in structural biology, fermentation, bioinformatics, food biotechnology, microbiome, and enzyme engineering. Through the UT and TUT joint initiative – the Estonian Centre for Bioengineering (ECB) and the Estonian Biofoundry – these areas will be expanded by incorporating biology digitalization tools and big data analytics, increasing the ECB’s focus on biosustainable manufacturing and big-data-driven bioengineering products.