Information technology

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OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR'S PRESENT. STATE. 2.1 .................. ..... Proposals of National software and services technology platform. 4.2.2 .... For example, student response about their lecturers, disciplines  ...
Feasibility study Regarding complex programme of Information Technology sector

Customer: Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania Contractor: Association „National software and services cluster“

Vilnius 2007

Content SUMMARY......................................................................................................................................................... 5 1

INTRODUCTIONS............................................................................................................................. 17 1.1 1.2 1.3

PAPER TARGET ................................................................................................................... 17 THE SCOPE OF RESEARCH ................................................................................................ 17 RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................................................ 17

2 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR’S PRESENT STATE................................................................................................................................................................ 19 2.1 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES EDUCATION SYSTEM.................. 19 2.1.1 Institutions, which prepare specialists for the sector ..................................... 22 2.1.2 Human resources dynamics ................................................................................... 25 2.1.3 Degree of Student wastage in all stages ............................................................. 31 2.1.4 Graduate count dynamics ....................................................................................... 40 2.1.5 Researcher count dynamics.................................................................................... 48 2.1.6 Curriculum conformity to study process needs ................................................ 51 2.1.7 Specialist qualification correspondence to the needs of labour market ... 60 2.2 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE SYSTEM ........................... 63 2.2.1 Topics of the current research and its conformity with present and future demands of science and business sector............................................................ 63 2.2.2 Number and age structure of scientists and research workers .................... 71 2.2.3 Productivity of research activities over the past five years .......................... 74 2.2.4 Research infrastructure, access possibilities to the databases of periodical scientific publications ........................................................................ 78 2.2.5 Functioning susceptible to science business incubators, science technology parks, their relations with science and study institutions ...... 78 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS SECTOR‘S 2.3 DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................... 82

2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4 2.3.5 2.3.6 2.3.7 2.3.8 2.3.9

Products and added value ...................................................................................... 83 ICT sector’s enterprises and employees ............................................................. 85 Direct investments made in the ICT sector ........................................................ 87 Production, trading amd services connected to information technology . 89 Export and import of ICT products ...................................................................... 90 Lithuanian the ICT enterprises in baltic market .............................................. 92 Scientific Research and Innovations in lithuania and the ICT sector........ 94 Structural funds‘ support in 2004–2006 ......................................................... 100 The projects of SPD „the development of information technology services and infrastucture“.................................................................................................. 101 2.3.10 Public electronic services ..................................................................................... 114 2.3.11 Electronic services supplied by business companies .................................... 117 2.4 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS SECTOR’S DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTED BY NTP ........................................................................ 121 2.4.1 The main companies ............................................................................................... 121 2.4.2 The number of employees having high education and their part in total number of emplyees ............................................................................................... 128 2.4.3 The education of employees implementing SRED works and their part in total number of the employees of the sector ................................................... 131 2.4.4 The extent of expense of the companies for R&D and their part in total expenses .................................................................................................................... 131 2.4.5 Government foreign and lithuanian grants received by the companies .. 132 2

2.4.6 2.4.7 2.4.8 2.4.9 2.4.10 2.4.11 2.4.12

Number of registered abroad patents of the companies .............................. 133 The number of licences purchased and used by the companies ................ 134 Volume of the sales of the production of the companies.............................. 135 General profit and general profitability of the companies ......................... 136 Net (clear) profit and proditability of the companies ................................... 136 SHARE of exported production of the companies ......................................... 137 Practice productivity, realization size and general profit of the companies ..................................................................................................................................... 137

2.5

INTEGRATION OF EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR AND WORLD WIDE BUSINESS SITUATION ............................... 139

2.5.1 Integration level of education, research and business ................................. 139 2.5.2 Scope of national technology platforms and integration to European technology platforms ............................................................................................. 140 2.5.3 World wide business situation and trends of development ......................... 150 3 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE AIMED STATE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR .......................................................................................................................................................... 161 3.1 SUGGESTIONS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S STUDY SYSTEM .......... 161 3.1.1 Long-term specialist demand and future variation tendencies .................. 162 3.1.2 Expertise, knowledge and ability requirements.............................................. 164 3.1.3 Curriculum updates and content reforms......................................................... 164 3.1.4 Updates of study process’s methodical and material base ......................... 165 3.1.5 Improvement of lecturer and scientist pedagogical competence .............. 166 3.1.6 Demand for specialist training abroad............................................................ 167 3.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S SCIENCE SYSTEM ...... 168 3.2.1 Development of common IT research area ...................................................... 168 3.2.2 Need for scientists and other researchers ........................................................ 168 3.2.3 Possibilities and demand for inviting and getting experts and scientist back from foreign countries ................................................................................ 169 3.2.4 Tendencies of R&D development ....................................................................... 169 3.2.5 Development of research topics in Lithuania ................................................. 170 3.2.6 Need for R&D programmes covered from the state budget ....................... 170 3.2.7 Need for renovating, building and developing R&D infrastructure ........ 170 3.2.8 Need for updating library resources, new access to databases of scientific periodicals................................................................................................................ 170 3.3 SUGESTIONS FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR .............................................................................................................................. 171

3.3.1 Demand for technological incubators and technological parks................ 171 3.3.2 Demand for organization, juridical, financial and other opportunities to establish „spin-off“ companies.......................................................................... 175 3.3.3 Improvement of business relations with science and studies institutions 177 3.3.4 Demand for integrated science, studies and business infrastructure ...... 178 3.3.5 Financing, necessary for complex development of information technology sector ......................................................................................................................... 179 3.3.6 Criteria of results and positive effect ................................................................ 183 3.3.7 Forecasted result indicators of information technology sector development ............................................................................................................. 184 4 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE COMPLEX PROGRAM OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR ........................................................................................................................ 186 4.1 4.2

THE ORDER OF PRIORITY IN WORK ................................................................................ 186 WORK SCOPE ................................................................................................................... 187 3

4.2.1 Proposals of National software and services technology platform .......... 187 4.2.2 Proposals of Mobile and wireless communications national technology platform..................................................................................................................... 190 4.2.3 Proposals of embedded systems national technology platform ................. 191 4.2.4 Proposals of NTP „Networked and electronic media“................................ 192 4.3 MAIN PROVISIONS AND CONCRETE MEASURES WHILE SOLVING SEPARATE PROBLEMS ......................................................................................................................... 194

4.3.1 Infrastructure renewal ........................................................................................... 194 4.3.2 Curriculum updates and content renewal or establishment ....................... 195 4.3.3 Carry out of research in concrete areas ........................................................... 196 4.3.4 Increase of arranged specialists including explorers ................................... 197 4.3.5 Getting scientists back from foreign countries .............................................. 199 4.3.6 Partial studies and arrangement of specialists abroad ............................... 199 4.3.7 Establishment of business incubators and technological parks ................ 200 4.4 DEMAND AND MOTIVATION OF MEANS, NEEDED FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S DEVELOPMENT ............................................ 203 5

CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................ 206

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ 208

LIST OF REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 209

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SUMMARY Based on subsector‘s documents connected to the information technology sector‘s four national technology platforms:  National software and services technology platform  Mobile and wireless communications national technology platform  National technology platform related to embedded systems  Public informing, communications and electronic technology platform; such as feasibility studies, strategic development visions, data provided by NTP partners, summarized statistic information technology sector‘s data and especially data provided by academic sector‘s institutions there was carried out the national level analysis of the existing and expected status of the information technology sector‘s studies, scientific research and business; collected and systematized the ICT sector‘s data and prepared proposals for preparation of the appropriate complex programme. In the study the definitions of the information technology sector is considered in the broadest sense upon data presented by the Department of Statistics, when the ICT sector covers not only technology of management and processing digital information (data), connected to computers, software and relevant services provided, but also the production, trading and services related to consumer electronics (TV and radio), measuring devices, electronics components and even insulated wires and cables. Neither the Department of Statistics nor other official sources of information (Infobalt, IVPK) presents any separate statistics data about the information technology sector in the restricted sense. Therefore, the ICT sector on the whole shall be analyzed in this Study according to the definitions provided for by the Department of Statistics. Besides, the computer and relevant activity‘s subsector is being considered separately, assuming that the subsector mentioned is related to the conception of the information technology in the restricted sense. Feasibility study of the information technology sector‘s complex programme consists of: Informatics and Informatics‘ engineering studies, scientific research, description of existing and expected status of business and proposals for the complex programme concerned. Studies. Information technology studies are the key factor, which drives Lithuania‘s competitiveness and possibilities to become and equal member of EU. If Lithuanian IT studies (just like any other higher education studies) want to join European higher education area (EHEA), a list of conditions must be fulfilled:  higher education institutions must have necessary autonomy to implement reforms agreed;  higher education institutions must receive continuous and sufficient funding;  higher education evaluation system must change radically;  lecturer expertise evaluation system must be more flexible;  higher education administration system must be flexible, dynamic and ensure sufficient curriculum, study form and manner variety;  Lithuanian study institution communication must be stimulated, while preparing curricula, organizing practices and taking part in common projects;  effort must be taken to stimulate rational international and transnational studies [Internationality of higher education, 2007], which do not increase „brain drain“;  higher education institutions must create conditions for informal communication between students and lecturers and long-term relationship cultivation with their graduates;  bachelor and master practices must be organized in a better way;  business representatives should contribute more in order to make studies better correspond to business needs. 5

Higher education development policy must solve a range of controversies, most important from which are:  education adaptation to business needs and decrease of theoretical potential, because of reduction of fundamental disciplines;  development of higher education internationality and decrease of intellectual resources, which is caused by „brain drain“;  necessity to increase curriculum dynamics and requirements to ensure their quality. One of the main study quality improvement factors is study information collection, analysis and feedback development:  between education institutions and students and graduates later;  between education institutions and business representatives. Information about study process is formed by using information technologies, but it is isolated in institution databases and it is not accessible for analysis using modern methods. Every time, when any data is required, it is collected from the beginning, from many sources, with different forms, therefore the data is often distorted. A lot of time is wasted for this, and acceptable results are still not available. AIKOS system is a progressive act, but it only provides instantaneous information, which is often outdated; only a primitive search is available, information about past periods is inaccessible (it might not be archived at all). By using modern data analysis tools (Data Warehouses, OLAP, Data Mining), a useful analysis of present and past data could be carried out, and trustworthy information would be obtained, which would enable conclusions, based on facts. More information should be archived, than it was until now, considering data analysis. For example, student response about their lecturers, disciplines, value of knowledge gained in further activities, educational gaps, etc. Education institutions should support any possible informal relations with students, in order to better understand their needs and shortcomings in their own activities. One of the possibilities to expand such relations is providing a permanent student email. It would be a substantive possibility to find the graduates, learn about their further career, receive response about the quality of the knowledge gained and make conclusions. In order to sustain relations with business, a project „Portal of scientific research practical application stimulation“ (VU, KTU), where post graduate students will find an information system of possible research activities, offered by business representatives. Business representatives should proactively take part in specialist preparation. First of all they could help more in practice organization. Practice locations should be offered by companies, which have things to teach – create new software, install sophisticated business management systems and carry out large projects. Companies, which need specific specialists, could offer preparation topics requiring a small number of specialists (even a single person), which could be joined by student tutor lecturers. In such a way business and educational correspondence would be reinforced and practical lecturer experience would be stimulated. Objective specialist preparation could be started from the third or fourth year and proceeded in post graduate studies. On the other hand, practice problems are partially solved by the students themselves. Most them are employed during their studies and practice is only a formal affirmation of an existing fact. However students, which find it hard to get practice locations, request universities to organize the practice for them. This problem should be solved in a flexible manner, and it should not be forgotten, that study organizations do not have authority to „designate practice locations“. Research. At the moment Lithuania does not have common IT research space (see Section 2.2.1). On the one hand, this space has partially fragmented by itself; on the other hand, it has been destroyed by the poor Lithuanian science policy. In our opinion, this space has to be rebuilt and developed; otherwise, we will not only fail to accumulate efforts for solving any major scientific issues, but also fail to integrate the majority of Lithuanian 6

scientists in the single European research space. We believe that in order to rebuild the common IT research space in Lithuania, it is necessary to: a. Restore the status of national conferences, in particular, the KUT-hosted conference Information Technologies and conferences of the Society of Lithuanian Mathematicians. On the one hand, the research article reviewing procedures should be improved significantly at these conferences; on the other hand, these research articles should be recognized to be full-fledged scientific publications (incidentally, publications of international conferences, even those of the most important ones, where research articles are reviewed by 5-6 critics, and there are 10-20 articles competing for the right to be published, have been devalued in Lithuania.) These conferences have to regain the status of fora where the most important research conducted in Lithuania is discussed, the unanimous terminology is shaped, etc. b. Promote in every way possible the research and projects conducted by different Lithuanian study and science institutions, the regular seminars and publications, in particular, the ones that involve Lithuanian scientists working abroad and other foreign partners. c. Prepare and sign regularly cross-border agreements (which is similar to the practice that is common in Portugal) on the versatile cooperation in the field of the IT research between science and study institutions of Lithuania and foreign countries, primarily, the most developed EU member states, and to encourage and support such cooperation in every way possible. d. Encourage and support financially the organization of large international conferences in Lithuania (which at the moment depends basically on the initiative of individual people.) Business. The definition ‚information technology‘ used by the Department of Statistics in the broadest sense including those areas which have not been traditionally attributed to information technology, has much in common with the coverage connected to the information technology four national technology platforms. According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, 2179 information and telecommunications technology companies worked within the ICT sector in 2004. A number of the companies mentioned was slightly decreased compared to 2003 and was equal to 3,7 percent of total amount of non-financial enterprises (3,6% in 2003). Decrease in a number of enterprises was conditioned by decrease in amount of small-scale enterprises involved in provision of ICT services and wholesale trading in consumer electronics and radio and TV products. Total amount of employees in ICT enterprises was equal to 35 434 in 2004. Compared to the year 2003, this amount increased by 4,6 percent and amounted to 4.2% of total employees number. A number of employees was considerably increased in industrial companies involved in production of electronic lamps, tubes and other components of TV sets and broadcasting receivers. Amount of small-scale enterprises with a number of hired employees up to 9 in ICT sector was the biggest (78% of total sector‘s enterprises). 16 percent of the total number of the sector‘s employees worked for these companies. Middle-scale and bigger companies with a number of employees equal to 50 and more amounted to 4 percent of total number of companies involved in information and telecommunication technology companies. 62 percent of total number of this sector‘s employees worked for these enterprises. Despite the fact that the companies ‚Ekranas‘ in Panevezys and ‚Vingis‘ in Vilnius which in 2004 were the basis of branch‚ production of radio, TV and communications means and equipment and installations‘ were undergone the process of restructurization, as a result, within recent years appear some new generation companies, such as ‚Teltonika‘ that put this branch closer to the information technology, in other words, the share of real information technology is increasing in the branch mentioned. 7

It is possible to valuate the telecommunications technology companies‘ groups by a number of employees working for them as companies with 5000 workers. Meanwhile, the total amount of employees at the information technology companies upon the restricted sense have been valuated as companies with about 10 000 employees. The mentioned materials of the Statistics Department indicate that computerization level of all Lithuanian companies (there are 65 thousand of them) is from 75 to 100 percents. The computerization level of the companies where 50 or more employees are employed (the major part of employed people work in such companies) is over 97 %. In such companies which do not directly belong to information technologies sector there are established rather strong information technologies subdivisions. For example, the number of employees of information technologies subdivisions in the companies of financial services sector is evaluated as about one thousand. The similar situation is the trade sector. It is possible to evaluate that the number of employees of information technologies subdivisions in the companies which do not directly belong to information technologies sector is 5 thousands. Other substantial sector in relation to work places of information technologies specialists is public sector. Only in the public company „Registru centras“ which is treated as information technologies company the number of employees is about 3 thousands. Municipalities, ministries, departments and other institutions also have their information technologies subdivisions. The number of employees working in information technologies subdivisions in public sector could be evaluated as 5 thousands. The problem is that there is no data for the more accurate evaluation of the number of employees working in information technologies subdivisions as well there is no scientific conception what is the employee of information technologies sector, and what is the information technologies sector. Till the receiving of more accurate data it is possible to consider that the number of the employees of information technologies sector is about 25 thousands or about 4 percents of all employed people. The reliability of the aforementioned findings were partly proved by independent ways and similar evaluations received when applying other points in the process of planning the scope of the information technology services to be provided in public and private sectors. National technology platforms of the information technology sector make proposals for development of the subsectors represented. Proposals of National software and services technology platform. Proposals are structured according thematic groups: e-Process – Business Information and Process Management In the research area “e-Process” – Business Information and Process Management – the core methods for the Software and Services strategy will be elaborated. Actions of this area are of the main strategic importance for the creation of executable process management environments. The overall strategic objective of “e-Process” is to decrease the complexity of process-oriented software development, automate it and support with required methodologies and tools. “e-Process” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: − Creating powerful modeling environments and tools enabling business people to model, monitor and analyze their business processes and business rules, rapidly respond to changes and maintain a rational organization of business processes and service-oriented enterprise architectures based on open standards. − Equipment of these modeling environments with cross-organizational interoperability, planning, costing, simulation, and optimization services, capable to make runtime analysis and suggest improvements to business models.

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− Providing model-driven software development tools with next generation services for collaborative development process automation from requirements to implementation; automated testing and verification; requirements tracing and management. The main R&D criteria in the “e-Process” area: − Focusing on business processes and service-oriented enterprise architectures, not on isolated services; avoiding fragility and short-term solutions; − Ensuring software tools with the verification, automated testing, simulation capabilities for the creation of highly-trusted business processes; − Ensuring user-centric, her/his goals-oriented process construction and tracing, enabling for the creation of processes and services according to the user needs; − Ensuring the capabilities for providing and processing of semantic annotations, ontologies and taxonomies for the unambiguous understanding of the service-based processes by human and software agents; − Adhering to the open standards, supported by EU, enabling the interaction and collaboration of business processes in cross-organizational and cross-national networks; − Providing process measurement, monitoring, evaluation and improvement capabilities, ensuring feed-back from process outputs to its management; − Automating the creation of software services and business processes from requirements to implementation. e-Services – National e-Services Platform In “e-Services”– National e-Services Platform – research area the core infrastructure for the Software and Services strategy will be created. Infrastructure related software products will be used in all other NSSTP areas, so actions of “e-Services” group are of the main strategic importance for the creation of software services infrastructure from the top – semantic – to the bottom – operational – level. The overall strategic objective of “e-Services” research area is to support the needs of the public sector (citizens, government, business subjects) for software products enabling service deployment, legalization, discovery, usage, ensuring safety and trust, semantic representation, management, composition of services into business processes and other emergent possibilities. “e-Services” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: − Creation of organizational and technological infrastructure from semantic to operational level, appropriate standards and formats for every kind of service management, discovery, interoperability and usage by people and computer systems. − Creation of the next generation grids capable of ubiquitous delivery of intelligent software services by multiple devices, using powerful computing resources; effective and efficient services in the form of virtual organizations and resources. − Creation of the environment ensuring the secure, trusted and reliable discovery and reach-ability of services on this infrastructure by a variety of channels for various users needs. − Creation of software enabling providers to place and describe services according to standards, supplementing them with semantic annotations. − Creation of the measures for the initiation and support of the analysis of the service phenomena and its social impact. The main R&D criteria in “e-Service” area: − Enabling users to obtain services on demand adapted to her/his needs and profile; − Providing the possibility for users to define and manage their profiles themselves; − Providing the invisible services perceptible as utilities freeing users from difficulties of using the software; − Ensuring the pervasiveness and ubiquities of services, their reach-ability by different channels and devices; 9

− Adhering to the open standards, supported by EU, enabling the usage of services by human and software agents in cross-organizational and cross-national networks; − Providing the compose-ability of service user interfaces via semantic representations with suitable descriptions of business domains, contexts and business processes based on knowledge models. e-Content – Digital Content Management In the “e-Content” – Digital Content Management – Research Area, the core content digitization software products for the Software and Services strategy will be created. The actions of e-Content group are of the main strategic importance for the digital representation and management of digital content related with the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of the “e-Content” research area is to ensure the availability of the holistic approach to content representation and preservation strategy, avoiding fragmentation and obsolescence, safeguarding the sustainability of technologies for centuries ahead, for the preservation of the cultural and scientific heritage and enabling access to it for coming generations. “e-Content” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: – Providing a content representation environment with software products, technologies, standards, policies, processes which will enable the digitalization of big amount of non-digital objects, including, but not limited to, the printed content stored in libraries, museum artefacts, archaeological sites, public records, paper/audio/video archives and other. – Developing common and simple interfaces for the public access to the digital content, respecting intellectual property rights and balancing legitimate interests of information owners and users. – Developing technologies and tools for the creation of complex ontological representations and their extraction from existing electronic assets. The main R&D criteria in the “e-Content” area: – Coordination and ensuring of compatibility in the e-Content environment with other similar national, EU and international initiatives, as well as with other ongoing national projects concerning digitalization, data collection, cataloguing and e-Services; – Provision of digital content management processes covering the full life-cycle of creation and usage of digital content; – Ensuring security, assess rights and non-obsolesce of digital resources; – Ensuring the required variety of kinds of content available for digitization; – Enrichment of content resources with semantic descriptions in alignment with the implementation of the strategy of knowledge-based service economy; – To investigate possibilities and look for the measures of prevention against the deterioration of the future content assets. e-Improvement – Human Resources and Production Quality Improvement in Software Services Sector In the research area “e-Improvement” – Human Resources and Production Quality Improvement in Software Services Sector – the core competence and quality for the Software and Services strategy will be evolved. Though competence and quality are inherent features for all Software and Services strategy research areas, actions from the “e-Improvement” group are of the main strategic importance for the creation of quality software services production processes and human resources for the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of e-Improvement in the Software Services Sector is the creation of the full-fledged infrastructure including research, education and business, for the intelligent resources cultivation in order to set the preparation of human resources as close to business demands as possible. 10

“e-Improvement” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: – Development of the National IT Greenhouse − the infrastructure for execution of student practices and adaptation of young specialists. − Creation of the National IT Clinics for lecturers training, their theoretic and practical knowledge integration. − Setting up the infrastructure for the software engineering process quality assessment and improvement in the industry, implementing measures to increase industry standards for the process quality. − Implementing measures to increase the software acquisition and procurement management quality on the customer side – an improvement of the competence of users. The main R&D criteria in “e-Improvement” area: − Ensuring the non-decreasing competence and quality of young and not-young Software Services specialists, suppliers and customers. − Ensuring the interaction and feed-back from industry to education. − Ensuring the non-decreasing quality of software services development processes by setting standards, assessment and certification procedures. e-Industry – Intelligent Information Technologies for Industry Sectors In the research area “e-Industry” – Intelligent Information Technologies for Industry Sectors – the meaningful transformations of R&D results from different research areas into software services will be made. e-Industry research area software products are of the main strategic importance for the transfer of results from other research areas to users according the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of “e-Industry” is to promote the service-oriented implementation of research, responding to the specific needs of the business in its variety of sectors. “e-Industry” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: − Creation of innovative processes and services by bringing the complex theoretical methods to an industrial application scope by usage and in compliance with the National eServices Platform, European standards and engagements; − Industrialization of environments and infrastructures enabling modeling, analysis, construction, mining, clustering, recognition, processing and transformation between different representations of complex physical/engineering objects and processes, voice, images, speech, images etc; – Applying R&D adoption achievements to medicine, telecommunications, manufacturing, textile, energetic, biotechnology and other possible business and industry sectors. The main R&D criteria in “e-Industry” area: − Achieving the acceleration of transferring the research results to the industry practice, increasing the effectiveness of intelligent services in synergy with the next generation grids and the national e-Services infrastructure. − Finding common, reusable processes, methods and algorithms for the wider usage across industry sectors. Proposals of Mobile and wireless communications National technology platform. Implementation of new access technologies. Various technologies ensuring broadband accesses are already under implementation and will be available in near future:  UMTS/IMT200 - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), otherwise – mobile network of generation 3 (3G), is used in Lithuania at present. 11



HSDPA – High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, the protocol of mobile technology 3G, which extends UMTS abilities.  HSUPA – High-Speed Uplink Packet Access, the 3G protocol, that allows performance up to 5.76 Mbps  HSOPA (LTE UMTS) – High Speed OFDM Packet Access is an extension of Long Term Evolution (LTE) UMTS technologies, also called Super 3G.  WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is an access of standard IEEE 802.16, improvement of which is ensured by WiMAX Forum, incorporating more than 400 manufacturers, operators, advisory companies, and other undertakings from all over the world.  WiBro – Wireless Broadband is a standard of Korean broadband wireless access, in the middle of 2006 started to use for business connection.  IEEE 802.20(MBWA) – Mobile Broadband Wireless Access, a standard access, which is also called Mobile Fi, is still in process of development. It is designed for building of cheap and constantly available mobile networks.  RFID – Radio Frequency Identification, identification system based on low power radio signal.  xMax – xG Technology is a technology ensuring high data transmission efficiency using a narrow band and low signal power.  WiFi – technology designed for slowly moving users is highly outspread in whole territory of Lithuania.  IMS – intellectual control system enabling user‘s session continuity when he moves between different networks. Services adequate to various business models. Future systems have to support a changing and flexible mobile ecosystem. Therefore, it is predictable that multiple viable business models will coexist with the emerging new actors leading to a new supporting architecture. Service of contents control. The agenda for future services includes creation, adaptation, hosting, provisioning, configuring, and their role in improving the quality of life of the individual(s) who are part of a dynamic and interacting society. In order to realize this, a four orthogonal but complementary research challenges:  User services that change the quality of life of the individual in a sensor networks  Service Creation process Environment (SCE): realize and ease the creation of services and decreases the time-to-market  Content and Media Creation (CMC) and adaptation: improve information and content and make available services instantly on various terminals  Service Execution Environment (SEE): realizes the heterogeneous service execution platforms and takes into account the IT and telecom convergence, multi-domain operation, network and technology heterogeneity, global roaming and specific requirements for adoption by the industry. Services for special interest user groups:  Location Based Services. Location based services (LBS) designates any telematics service using location information.  Privacy and safety of mobile and wireless communication. Mobile and wireless communications will deliver an always-connected environment, facilitating secure services to support the private and professional life of everyone.

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Proposals of Embedded systems National technology platform. Embedded systems NTP foresees three main trends of activity: Technology transfer. The Scope and potential area of intervention are the following:  Established connection between research and its applications  Facilitate interdisciplinary approach to the different Embedded systems application areas  Provide horizontal link between thematic areas  Facilitate integration of industry aspiration into the research strategy  Identification of real innovators  Raising the research level of a company with best practice examples  Trans-sectoral workshops for discussion of topics from perspectives and experiences of different sectors  Strategic involvement of innovation deliverers (suppliers, equipment providers) in the transfer activities  Raising the research area absorptive capacity of companies. Communication. Dissemination actions aimed at policy makers, industry and endusers should include:  summarizing and showing the great possibilities for embedded systems applications in selected end-user industries, indicating at the same time the path and the envisaged strategy to firms  promoting channels of communication and discussion among stakeholders  showing the importance and the feasibility of a greater amount of R&D activities in embedded systems, technology transfer initiatives and need for a more intense training for the sector workforce as the key structural course of action for reducing the vulnerability of Lithuanian knowledge-intensive industries, especially at the level of SMEs  stimulating new methods and formats for building up effective diffusion of the awareness of all aspects of the evolving Embedded systems sector in Lithuania, so that a public support for EmS gains a momentum which is sustained in a longer run  Keeping contact with other national technology platforms in order to enable synergies and interfaces for research and applied results to form a crosssectorial perspective. Training. The steps should be planned in the following directions:  definition of the curriculum and prospectus of an Embedded Systems engineering training. Its main purpose will be the training of highly sophisticated experts in “clustering” current advanced ideas in EmS technology and adapting them to the needs and improvement capabilities of SMEs in the various branches  creation of a sustainable system of dissemination of the methods and approaches at university level and at sectoral level that should take the best out of the existing practices and current projects developed in single firms or branch  progressive accumulation of data and libraries of solutions built upon the current innovation technology transfer and training initiatives, creating knowledge base for EmS applications in Lithuania.

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Recommendations: 1) To develop the national Embedded Systems technology platform as a full-blown TP; hence the need for further funding to prepare the SRA and the detailed Implementation Plan 2) To substantially increase research and development budget for embedded systems, from basic research to technology validation 3) To strengthen international cooperation through incorporation of LT ES players into international cooperation and/or R&D projects 4) To development and promote of educational programmes that will establish embedded systems engineering as a discipline 5) To develop collaboration models between industry and academia that allow a “systems approach” to research and favor the transfer of technology. The development of a Centre of Excellence which could link up with other CoEs in Europe, in particular application domains, is a central consideration 6) To carry out activities to enhance the innovation environment, producing a policy for standards and for open source, stimulating innovative ventures and opening new markets 7) To establish long lasting collaboration with traditional Lithuanian industry sectors providing added value for their products by incorporating EmS into processes and products 8) To carry out an communication activity that will aim at ascertaining the key role of embedded systems in modern societies and economies with a view of possible embedded systems end-user markets in Lithuania. Proposals of National technology platform „Networked and electronic media“. Proposals are structured according to programmes and projects: No. 1

Programme Electronic government services

No. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6

2

E-business

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

3

Electronic democracy

3.1 3.2

Project Integrated translation system E-government everywhere and for everybody. Public authority digital TV channel Electronics protection of persons and premises United agricultural and information network Public geographical information system. Services provided to residents The system of e-cards for town-man and other objects. Identification system of a legal or natural person E-business infrastructure Informing and consulting center for e-business systems and services provided in media area Documents e-exchange. Creation of the small volume documents e-infrastructure Creation of center for micro-payments. Clearing center creation Business geographical information system for territorial analysis of economic facts Means of information analysis and monitoring Geographic information system related to public opinion express

14

4

Electronic training services

4.1 4.2

5

Lithuanian language and culture

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5

6

Scientific data achieves

7

Intellectual management systems

6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7

8

9

Digital television expansion

General issues

7.8 8.1 8.2 8.3

8.4 8.5 9.1 9.2 9.3

Training based on interactive digital TV. Aggregation, transmission and retransmission of the subject concerned Interactive teaching in electricity and electronics engineering Recognition, synthesis and application of Lithuanian speaking language The system of automated translation from Lithuanian into English Distant teaching Lithuanian as a foreign language Project regarding preservation of regional cultural heritage System of e-services related to historical heritage of Lithuanian photography in digital register of photographers The system of services related to Lithuanian scientific institutions‘ data Creation of the proteomic data system management The use of Lithuanian orbital resources (the geostationary orbit position) Applied cosmic activities Geographic information system related to extreme situations Geographic information system related to public order Geographic information system regarding land-use and land market Geographic information system regarding management and prognosis of extreme situations, risk factors in Lithuanian agriculture Geographic information system regarding transport navigation Intellectual house. Premises identification International Lithuanian TV channel for emigrants HDTV format television Creation and manufacturing application of digital TV receivers with interactive functions architecture, function methods, algorithms and software Art and technology center for new media Center for measuring of digital TV feedback Electronics person‘s identification and signing of documents System of automated production aggregation and distribution in multiplatform area of digital materials Creation of basic services related to Lithuanian semantic infrastructure

15

So in conclusion it can be stated that at present development of information technologies is important to Lithuanian business and every citizen, the size and content of development are determined and it can be implemented with available human resources by searching purposeful financing from potential sources. As the same time, while preparing study, number of clarifying problems had rose; during preparation of complex program of information technologies these problems should be solved at least partially:  Information technologies as any other sector is vertical structure. At the same time influence of information technologies sector to other sectors is traditionally named in information society concept, is horizontal structure. Unite concept of information technologies is necessary, which should cover vertical and horizontal dimensions, including management aspects which at present are absolutely inadequate.  More concrete concept of sector of information technologies is necessary, including it‘s aspects of horizontal dimension, by concentrating base for registration of IT sector and for decisions making.  Accordingly to data it is necessary to determine working places of IT sector, size of production and other main indexes which can enable adequately evaluate significant of sector and it‘s comparability with other sectors. At present available and used statistical data don‘t make any opportunity to evaluate IT sector adequately.  Formulation of IT sector demands to system of higher education in informatics and informatics engineering studies.  Evaluation of IT sector significance to other sectors of business and to public sector. Accordingly to present available statistical data conclusions can be made that IT sector is minor, not significant and does not influence Lithuania and isn‘t object of strategic significance. But the same available data and its‘ interpretation don‘t match experience, practical observations and general perception. The most important task of IT sector itself is adequately understand itself and objectively present itself for others.

16

1

INTRODUCTIONS

1.1 PAPER TARGET The Paper targets is to elaborate feasibility study regarding information technology sector‘s complex programme (hereinafter referred to as the Study), covering training of specialists with higher education, R&D and development of science receptive businesses in the area of information technology. The Study shall be taken into consideration when implementing the plan of actions for 2006-2008 connected to the National Lisbon Strategy Implementation Programme Means, titled ‚To prepare complex programmes covering training of specialists for those R&D strategic future technology areas where Lithuania has a scientific and (or) production potential and allocate the Structural and National Budget means to support the implementation of these programmes‘ and to be prepared for efficient application of structural support to be provided by the European Union within 2007-2013 years. Based on sectors‘ feasibility studies there will be created complex programmes, such the programmes designated for ensuring the complex development of the R&D particular area and relevant the science receptive business sector. The complex programmes mentioned would be implemented based on scientific research, higher education and the science receptive business potential and, if necessary, when creating a general infrastructure of the science and study and business centers integrated. 1.2 THE SCOPE OF RESEARCH National-scale analysis of existing and purposive condition of studies, scientific research and business connected to the information technology sector as well as proposals to be provided in regard with the sector‘s development complex programme including the study, scientific research and business elements. The aforementioned research has been carried out based on the four following national technology platforms of information technology:  National software and services technology platform  Mobile and wireless communications national technology platform  National technology platform related to embedded systems  National public informing, communications and electronic technology platform As well as the studies carried out by the State Information technology Institute and the Vytautas Magnus University, NTP documents and data provided. The study concerned has been completed by the team of experts representing the national technology platform partners of the information technology sector. The team mentioned consisted of the three working groups: the study, scientific research and business groups involved in creation of the appropriate feasibility study section. Prof Rimantas Butleris is a leader of the working group study section, Albertas Čaplinskas is a leader of the working group scientific research, dr. Antanas Mitašiūnas is a project leader. 1.3 RESEARCH METHODS The research methods are conditioned by existing and purposive status analysis, definition of necessary capabilities connected to the gap and transition to the condition to be achieved and the planning of the transition directions. The target to be achieved is related to valuation of the condition of the information technology sector‘s study system. However, the system of education in Lithuania has no 17

appropriate criteria suitable for evaluation of this condition, therefore, this subsections contain valuation of the amount of the students‘ and lecturers‘ qualifications etc., however, these amounts cannot be considered as comprehensive and precise, because in most cases, higher education institutions could only provide the information of general valuations of the amounts in question, not separating information technology from the other educational areas. The following methodological problems can arise when gaining and processing the data for this section:  The limits of the information technology sector‘s scientific system have not been strictly defined and cannot be treated by different ways. It is extremely difficult to define the limits separating IT research from Applied Mathematics and Information sciences  There are no any reliable (legalized) sources based on which it would be possible to define which scientific studies are being actually carried out in Lithuania. Official names of the scientific and research institutions‘ subjects of research do not fully reflect the real nature of studies being carried out. A single scientific code is being provided to a publication in the scientific publications base, as a result, a considerable amount of articles related to studies carried out in the area of applied science have been attributed not to the informatics or informatics engineering, but to the scientific areas connected to medicine, transport or other branches.  Informatics and Informatics engineering divided into branches according to the scientific areas, trends and branches contained in the Official Classifier correspond neither to the normal international standards de facto (ACM, IEEE and others), nor to the nature of research carried out in Lithuania. Therefore, there is no opportunity to use the aforementioned Classifier in the present Paper. The methodological problems mentioned were being sold when applying the research upon the appropriate list of subjects related to the information technology sector scientific system. It means that it has been tried to cover all the studies related to Informatics and information technology which are being carried out in Lithuania. Appropriate benchmarks have been defined based on the information technology sector‘s four national technological platforms of companies‘ data and the summarized sector‘s data has been conditioned by integral ICT sector‘s indexes.

18

2

OVERVIEW

OF PRESENT STATE

THE

INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

SECTOR’S

2.1 OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES EDUCATION SYSTEM The purpose of this subsection is to evaluate the present state of information technologies education system. Yet there are no fixed criteria to evaluate this state, therefore only student, lecturer and qualification numbers are evaluated in this subsection. Moreover these numbers cannot be considered as comprehensive and accurate, because in most cases higher education establishments could only provide information about general assessment of such numbers, without accentuating information technologies from other educational areas. In 2006-2007 several surveys of Lithuanian higher education studies have been carried out: „Concordance of postgraduate studies and Lithuanian economy needs“ [Institute of public policy and management, 2006], „University potential to carry out postgraduate studies“ [Capabilities of universities, 2006], which was carried out by KTU, VU and VDU in 2006; „Global practice of higher education internationality stimulation and guidelines to apply it in Lithuania“ [Internationality of higher education, 2007] – monograph, which was prepared by ISM University of management and economics in 2007, and an audit report „Organization of University Studies and Use of Funds Allocated to Studies, Science, and Investments“[LRVK, 2007], prepared by National audit Office of the Republic of Lithuania in 2007. One can get the picture of the educational system state by reading these surveys, which, as A.Žalys, director of Ministry of education and science Department of Science and Technology, has mentioned, inherits the same problems as 10 years ago, when Lithuanian education state was evaluated by Norwegian experts:  One of the main problems is that the funding is too poor, which should be at least three times larger than now, in order to reach EU average.  Students have weak motivation to seek knowledge.  Universities are not autonomous enough.  Graduate qualification does not meet economy needs.  Quality of education does not meet EU standards.  Universities do not have enough international and trans-national characteristics. All of these problems are also inherent to information technologies sector, although it is worth mentioning, that information technologies sector has some exceptional traits:  It requires more resources than any other sector, because in order to provide information technologies, it is not enough to acquire only technical equipment, human intellectual activity is constantly required.  Many specialists are required to soak up constantly changing knowledge in this sector.  Information technologies enhance development of other sectors, therefore again this sector needs more specialists.  Information technologies force their way into other sectors, and as a result of this medical informatics, biology informatics and other branches have emerged. All of these disciplines have a right to exist independently, but they should by developed further by specialists, who have basic education in informatics. In „Concordance of postgraduate studies and Lithuanian economy needs“ [Institute of public policy and management, 2006] technology sector is labeled as receptive to knowledge, 19

and the number of people studying it should rise. According to National Lithuanian Software and Services Technology Platform (NPPTP) [NPPTP, 2006] information technologies sector‘s labor force should grow 10 percent per year. Perhaps because of this reason information technologies education state is not the worst in the matter of employment and popularity. According to the data of United study admission system, in 2006 informatics and information technologies took the second place according to entrant options. Information technology higher education is definitely one of the most important for the progress of Lithuanian society. As a member of European Union, Lithuania has gained new rights and responsibilities, which in the sector of higher education can be described as a need to join European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which was described in 1998 Sorbonne declaration with a goal to balance European higher education system. It was determined in which areas different countries’ higher education system corresponds to each other, and means, how to reach a higher degree of concordance between higher education systems in different countries, were provided. Signers committed to encourage international qualification acknowledgment, enhance student mobility, grant education, which would let them compete in labor market, where in today’s context knowledge and skill is appreciated more, than formal qualification. To avoid the assimilation of educational systems, shortly after (in 1999) Bologna declaration has followed, in which goals it is emphasized, that in order to enhance European higher education system’s ability to compete internationally, make it engaging for the whole world, European national culture and education traditions and individuality must be preserved. The state of higher education is periodically (every 5 years) evaluated by Study quality assessment centre (SKVC), which accredits curricula according to information provided by the institutions being evaluated. This data was mostly invoked while evaluating the state of information technologies studies in this subsection. But the evaluation carried out by SKVC does not give ratings of curricula or higher education institutions. Curricula ratings, corroborated by objective criteria, could help to find their pros and cons and improve them; it would help entrants choose curricula and institutions, which best suit their needs. University rating, carried out in 2006 by polling them, cannot be considered unbiased, because the rating was done by the universities themselves. Some opinions emerged in the press, that business representatives should also take part in the process of curriculum rating. This would give partial benefits, but taking only current business needs into account would not be reasonable. Information technologies studies must first of all give basic education, which would first of all ensure proper qualification to carry out research and only after that it would orient to current applications. A specialist, who has basic knowledge, will adapt to technology change must faster, than a well prepared practician, who is oriented to specific business area technologies. In order to get international acknowledgment, higher education institutions must ensure both high quality of given education and extra qualities, which are described in [Internationality of higher education, 2007] as higher education internationality and transnational higher education. Internationality includes all aspects of higher education, which are associated with it’s mobility: lecturer exchange, cooperation in research, international higher education development projects, curriculum choice, also discipline, study modulus and curriculum exchange. Trans-national higher education includes all of the ways and models of higher education offering, when students are situated in a different country, than the education institution. Such curricula can belong to other countries’ higher education system or they can operate independently. In case of trans-national education, students, lecturers, curricula, institutions or course material cross the country borders. Trans-national education can include

20

higher education, which is provided by public or private non-profit suppliers, and it can have different forms, starting from direct education to distant education. In [Internationality of higher education, 2007] it is noted, that institutions, which modernize their activity according to Bologna process and become international, have to consider their profile and institutional needs, seek to meet the needs of regional and national and also foreign partners. Primarily this involves order of new activities, lecturer selection and engagement, ensuring mobility of the academic society, policy of rational usage of foreign languages in the studies. As higher education mobility is not the only form of internationality accepted by everyone, it is considered appropriate to reinforce possibilities of trans-national education. As requirements for the quality of higher education rise, a quality assessment system becomes necessary. Unfortunately, it must be stated, that such a system is not used in Lithuanian higher education institutions. Another very important problem is that education state data are not available in such an extent, that they could be used in a purposeful analysis and identification of proper changes. Such data are only available in higher education institutions’ internal information systems, but they are not available for review and generalization, which would help evaluate the present situation, assess the state of an individual higher education institution in regard to Lithuania, Europe and the rest of the world. Available information systems, such as AIKOS, creation of which is by itself a welcome event, gives an incomplete, inaccurate and in many cases outdated information, also only in a shape of non-recurring data – it is not possible to obtain information about previous year state, besides the date of the given state is not identified. Higher education institutions waste time every year, preparing reports for the Ministry of education and science. Unfortunately, in order to see the whole picture, data from these reports must be gathered manually, therefore a detailed image is not available. Whereas Warehouse and Online Analytical Processing tools are mature enough to let one integrate the data from available sources and render it in a desirable view. Higher education studies evaluation criteria definition and creation of analysis system could help evaluate the real state of this system. Such evaluation would be more reliable with a smaller chance of misrepresentation. Without access to the data and to the evaluation system, it is impossible to evaluate the present state of the higher education quality, therefore it is often described subjectively, referring to rumors or it is deliberately being mutilated. The press is actively forming an attitude, that the quality of Lithuanian higher education does not meet labor market needs. Higher education is treated as a purchasable service, and market laws are being tried to apply to it. But too much adjustment according to the market demand can destroy fundamental science studies and chop down the roots of the higher education itself. Because there is no study evaluation system defined and part of the data is not available, Analysis of potential of Information technologies in higher education was prepared providing a view of student count in different degrees, their dynamic, wastage, lecturer qualification and other aspects, using higher education institution self-analysis reports, such as [Juodka, 2006], internet sources, AIKOS system and also several broader studies carried out recently ([Institute of public policy and management, 2006], [Capabilities of universities, 2006], [LRVK, 2007], [Internationality of higher education, 2007]) and a fragmentary polling of graduates of one of the higher schools. Information technologies studies state tendencies will be simulated based on these numbers. Essential features of the present state derived from analytical evaluations found in the aforementioned sources and not the numbers, are represented further. Negative points of the present situation are careless student attitude towards education, high student wastage, employment not according to their education. Still weak economical situation forces the students to get employed during the study years, which makes their grade suffer. One third of the students is lost. Information technologies curricula, in order to have 21

specialist and diploma recognition in all of the countries, are created according to international requirements, which are very strict. Such a high level requires corresponding work, unfortunately, not all of the students start learning prepared for such work, which begins at the first day of the school year. Another reason – often student dreams do not meet the reality. Informatics is an exact science, consisting of both mathematics, physics, computer science theory, therefore it is not easy to study. Profiling, carried out in schools also has a bad effect on study readiness. Most important problems:  Inadequate study financing, weak material-technical base, small lecturer salaries, high loads.  Copying and plagiarism.  Studies organization principle nonconformity to goals of European higher education area. Available information about forthcoming higher education reform suggests, that the gap between these goals will only enlarge. The suggestion of reform initiators for the universities to set the study fees from 2 to 5 thousand LTL themselves is specifically unappealing. This fee would be compulsory to all students during the learning years. This might encourage young people emigration and disordered rivalry between high schools. Higher education systems might collapse completely. Most European Union member countries progress to free bachelor studies, therefore it unintelligible why things are going in a different direction in Lithuania.  Diminutive university autonomy and representation to higher education, when important decisions are being taken, e.g. preparing higher education reform documents. Therefore reform aims differ from the needs of higher education.  No feedback from the students, for which the universities themselves are to blame. They do not care about graduate future. Such a simple mean as e-mail would help keep the relation. When a student joins the university, he should get an e-mail address for life, like, for example, KTU gymnasium students do. They keep the relation, because the gymnasium is not indifferent to them. For this reason the status of KTU Gymnasium is high. All of these problems can be described as a “closed circle” problem: because of inadequate financing (small lecturer salaries) higher education does not have any status in young people’s eyes; sluggish attitude of the government and the surrounding influences the lecturers not to show any creational breakthrough; lack of lecturer enthusiasm furthermore reduces their status. It is worth mentioning, that in the information technologies sector, the state of higher education in some cases is better than in other sectors. For example, the hardware and software, used to create the curriculum and to accomplish the teaching process, is not outdated (the equipment used and the disciplines are in parallel with the international level); The part of the graduated employed is very high, the specialties are popular. Unfortunately the financing, curriculum assertion inflexibility and other aspects are the same as in other areas. 2.1.1

INSTITUTIONS, WHICH PREPARE SPECIALISTS FOR THE SECTOR

Seven universities are preparing specialists for the information technologies sector in Lithuania: Kaunas university of technology (KTU), Klaipėda University (KU), Vilnius university (VU), Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU), Vytautas Magnus university (VDU), Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU) and Šiauliai university (ŠU). Information about information technology oriented curricula, carried out in these universities and colleges was retrieved from AIKOS website (Ministry of education and science Open Information, Counseling and Guidance System – www.aikos.smm.lt) and university poll data. As seen in curriculum list, given in table 1, universities carry out 36 curricula, which prepare bachelors, masters and teachers: 22

 10 curricula in informatics (09P) and 5 in informatics engineering (07T) are allocated to bachelor studies.  specialized professional studies, which prepare teachers have one curriculum in informatics allocated, carried out in Kaunas university of technology. This curriculum is not directly attributed to bachelor nor master studies, but in this feasibility study professional studies‘ statistical data is included into common bachelor studies statistical data.  Postgraduate studies have 13 curricula in informatics (09P) and 7 in informatics engineering (07T). Table 1. Universities, which prepare specialists for the sector, and curricula carried out in them No. Curriculum Institution: Kaunas university of technology (KTU) 1. 62107T104 Information system engineering 2. 62107T105 Systems on-chip 3. 62107T103 Information technologies 4. 62107T107 Distant learning information systems 5. 62107T101 Software system engineering 6. 61209P104 Informatics 7. 62109P104 Informatics 8. 61207T101 Information technologies 9. 62209P104 Informatics (teachers) Institution: Klaipėda university (KU) 1. 61207T103 Informatics engineering 2. 61209P105 Informatics 3. 62109P105 Informatics Institution: Vilnius university (VU) 1. 61209P108 Informatics 2. 61209P110 Software systems 3. 61209P111 Bioinformatics 4. 61209P101 Business informatics 5. 62109P101 Business informatics 6. 62109P106 Informatics 7. 62109P111 Computer simulation 8. 62409P101 Software systems Institution: Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) 1. 61207T104 Information system engineering 2. 62107T102 Information technologies 3. 62107T106 Distant learning information technologies 4. 61209P109 Informatics engineering 5. 62109P107 Informatics engineering Institution: Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) 1. 61209P107 Informatics 2. 62109P108 Applied informatics 3. 62109P109 Business informatics 4. 62109P112 E-business 23

Institution: Šiauliai university (ŠU) 1. 61207T102 Information technologies 2. 61207T105 Informatics engineering 3. 61209P106 Informatics 4. 62109P110 Informatics 5. 62109P102 Informatics Institution: Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU) 1. 62109P103 Informatics 2. 61209P103 Informatics The list of colleges, which prepare specialists for information technologies sector, and their curricula are given in table 2. Specialists for information technologies sector in Lithuania are prepared by 14 colleges: Vilnius college (VK), Alytus college (AK), West Lithuania business college (VLVK), Vilnius law and business college (VTVK), Vilnius business college (VVK), Social science college (SMK), Klaipėda business and technology college (KVTK), Šiauliai college (ŠK), Panevėžys college (PK), Utena college (UK), Žemaitija college (ŽK), Kaunas college (KK), North Lithuania college (ŠLK), Vilnius college of construction and design (VSDK). 22 curricula are carried out (8 in informatics (09P) and 14 in informatics engineering (07T)), where professional bachelors and engineers are prepared. Table 2. Colleges, which prepare specialists for the sector, and curricula carried out in them No. Curriculum Institution: Vilnius college (VK) 1. 65309P101 Computer programming 2. 65307T105 Information systems 3. 65307T101 Computer technologies Institution: Alytus college (AK) 1. 65309P102 Computer programming 2. 65307T113 Electronic publishing 3. 65307T109 Information system technologies 4. 65307T114 Computer network management Institution: West Lithuania business college (VLVK) 1. 65309P103 Computer programming Institution: Vilnius law and business college (VTVK) 1. 65309P104 Computer programming Institution: Vilnius business college (VVK) 1. 65309P105 Computer programming Institution: Social science college (SMK) 1. 65309P106 Computer programming Institution: Klaipėda business and technology college (KVTK) 1. 65309P107 Computer programming Institution: Šiauliai college (ŠK) 1. 65309P108 Business informatics 2. 65307T107 Computer system technologies Institution: Panevėžys college (PK) 1. 65307T106 Information systems 2. 65307T104 Computer technologies Institution: Utena college (UK) 24

1. 65307T103 Information system technologies Institution: Žemaitija college (ŽK) 1. 65307T112 Computer technologies Institution: Kaunas college (KK) 1. 65307T102 Computer network management 2. 65307T111 Multimedia technologies Institution: North Lithuania college (ŠLK) 1. 65307T108 Computer network management Institution: Vilnius college of construction and design (VSDK) 1. 65307T110 Transport information systems 2.1.2

HUMAN RESOURCES DYNAMICS

2.1.2.1

Bachelor studies

Information, supplied by the universities about curricula in informatics and informatics engineering (listed in previous section) student count was used to count bachelor student count dynamics. Aforementioned curricula are carried out in a full-time, part-time and extramural form. Full-time studies take four years to complete, part-time and extramural – 45 years, depending on the curriculum. Common count of informatics and informatics engineering students for each university (a sum of all informatics and informatics engineering students in that institution) is given in table 3, student count dynamics for the years 20032006 are given in picture 1. Table 3.

Bachelor students count dynamics in the institutions Informatics and informatics engineering bachelor studies Institutions student count 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Kaunas university of 1077 1396 1582 1581 1639 1469 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university 169 257 312 388 398 400 (KU) Vilnius university (VU)

850

1186

1548

1736

1759

1718

515

649

779

793

900

921

415

502

668

682

588

511

Šiauliai university (ŠU)

308

482

646

827

804

874

Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU)

194

251

307

319

330

315

Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) Vytautas Magnus university (VDU)

In the given data we can observe, that the highest number of informatics and informatics engineering students is in two universities – Vilnius university and Kaunas university of technology. More than half of both educational direction students study in these universities.

25

All of the aforementioned institutions did not have many informatics and informatics engineering bachelor student number variation in 2003-2006. As data given in table 3 suggests, the biggest student number increase was observed in 2001-2003. Total number of bachelor students in informatics and informatics engineering 2000

1759 1736 1718 1548

1800 1582 1639 1581 1600 1469 1400 1200

900921 779793

1000 800 400 398 388 312

600 400

682 668 588 511

874 777804 646 307

330 319 315

200 0 KTU

KU

VU

VGTU

2003

Picture 1.

2004

2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

2006

Bachelor student count dynamics

Analyzing human resources dynamics, one should take into account the number of students accepted into informatics and informatics engineering bachelor studies. The number of students accepted into informatics and informatics engineering students for each university (a sum of all informatics and informatics engineering students in that institution) is given in table 4 and the dynamics of student count for 2003-2006 is given in picture 2. Table 4.

Dynamics of students, accepted to bachelor studies Informatics and informatics engineering bachelor studies Institutions student count 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Kaunas university of 514 550 574 548 544 489 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university 60 114 103 125 97 115 (KU) Vilnius university (VU)

410

519

519

484

493

463

215

225

231

170

264

250

235

263

277

283

198

177

Šiauliai university (ŠU)

159

241

260

274

275

267

Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU)

93

120

125

91

81

76

Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) Vytautas Magnus university (VDU)

26

The number of students accepted into informatics and informatics engineering studies (also total count of informatics students) is the highest in two universities – Kaunas university of technology and Vilnius university. Total count of students, accepted into bachelor informatics studies grew until 2003, later it was stable or declined a little. Number of students accepted to studies in informatics and informatics engineering 700 574 600

544

548

519

489

500

484

493 463

400 275 264250 277283 260 274 267 198 177 170

300

231

200

125 103 97115

100

125 91 81

76

0 KTU

KU

VU 2003

Picture 2.

VGTU 2004

2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

2006

Bachelor student count dynamics

Specialists for the information technologies sector are also prepared by 14 Lithuanian colleges. Students, who graduate from these colleges gain informatics or informatics engineering professional bachelor and/or engineer qualification. Information about total college informatics student count (informatics and informatics engineering directions) is taken from Ministry of education and science Open Information, Counseling and Guidance System – www.aikos.smm.lt) website. This information is given in table 5 and represented in a diagram form in picture 3. Table 5.

Professional bachelor student count in colleges Informatics and informatics Colleges engineering bachelor studies student count in colleges in 2006 Vilnius college (VK) 1078 Alytus college (AK) 202 Western Lithuania business college (VLVK) 0 Vilnius law and business college (VTVK) 135 Vilnius business college (VVK) 71 Social science college (SMK) 61 Klaipėda business and technology college 0 (KVTK) Šiauliai college (ŠK) 158 Panevėžys college (PK) 162 Utena college (UK) 146 Žemaitija college(ŽK) 23 27

Kaunas college (KK) North Lithuania college (ŠLK) Vilnius college of construction and design (VSDK)

357 0 171

The highest number of informatics students is found in Vilnius college. Second by this count is Kaunas college, but three times less students than in Vilnius college study there. Total number of students in informatics and informatics engineering in colleges in 2006 1200 1078 1000 800 600 357

400

202

200

135 0

71

61

171

158 162 146 23

0

0

Picture 3.

K D VS

ŠL K

KK

ŽK

K U

PK

ŠK

K KV TK

SM

VV K

VT VK

VL VK

AK

VK

0

Professional bachelor student count in colleges

2.1.2.2 Post graduate studies While analyzing post graduate student count dynamics, informatics and informatics engineering master studies student count data supplied by the universities was used. These programmes are carried out in a full-time, part-time and extramural form. Full-time studies take two years to complete (in Kaunas university of technology one of the informatics engineering master studies curriculum takes 1,5 years to complete), part-time and extramural – 1.5, 2 or 2.5 years, depending on the curriculum. Total number of informatics and informatics engineering students for each university (a sum of all informatics and informatics engineering studies students in that institution) is given in table 6, and student count dynamics for 2003-2006 is given in picture 4. Table 6.

Post graduate student count dynamics Informatics and informatics engineering bachelor studies Institutions student count 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Kaunas university of 238 377 457 474 486 469 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university 0 31 47 39 28 27 (KU) Vilnius university (VU) 138 166 192 214 228 296 Vilnius Gediminas technical university 142 187 214 240 265 276 (VGTU) Vytautas Magnus 28 32 41 41 37 47 university (VDU) 28

Šiauliai university (ŠU) 18 25 37 57 62 55 Vilnius pedagogical 31 60 62 69 53 48 university (VPU) The highest number of students in informatics and informatics engineering is found in Kaunas university of technology. The number of students studying informatics in VU and VGTU is similar, but it is almost twice lesser than in KTU. These universities have more than two thirds of both studies directions post graduate students. Total number of post graduate students in aforementioned institutions constantly grew for the period of 2001-2006. A higher growth of informatics post graduate students is observed in Kaunas university of technology in 2001-2003, later the number is approximately the same. In Vilnius university a constant growth of post graduate informatics students is observed until 2006. Total number of master students in informatics and informatics engineering 600 474486469 500 457 400 296 265276 228 240 214 214 192

300 200 100

47 39

41 41 37 47 37 57

28 27

62 55 62 69 53 48

0 KTU

KU

VU 2003

Picture 4.

VGTU 2004

2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

2006

Dynamics of the post graduate student count in institutions

The dynamics of the number of students accepted to informatics and informatics engineering post graduate studies is similar to the dynamics of total count of informatics students. The number of students accepted into informatics and informatics engineering studies for each university is given in table 7, and student count dynamics for 2003-2006 is given in picture 5. Table 7.

Dynamics of student count accepted into post graduate studies Informatics and informatics engineering bachelor studies Institutions student count 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Kaunas university of 191 220 222 222 207 206 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university (KU) 0 31 31 23 16 18 Vilnius university (VU) 80 98 106 126 125 179 Vilnius Gediminas technical university 107 114 141 146 147 158 (VGTU) 29

Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) Šiauliai university (ŠU) Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU)

29

33

42

29

36

37

11

17

25

27

24

25

31

30

38

34

26

27

The number of students accepted into post graduate studies in informatics and informatics engineering is the highest in Kaunas university of technology, but Vilnius Gediminas technical university and Vilnius university have been rapidly closing the gap for the last few years. Number of students, accepted to informatics and informatics engineering postgraduate studies 250

222 222 207 206

200 179 158 147 141146

150 126

125

106 100

50

31 23

42 16

29

36 37

18

24 25 25 27

38 34 26 27

0 KTU

KU

VU 2003

Picture 5.

VGTU 2004

2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

2006

Dynamic of count of students accepted into post graduate studies

2.1.2.3 Doctoral studies Information about the dynamics of informatics and informatics engineering doctoral student count is received from Institute of mathematics and informatics, which gather yearly reports of education and science institutions‘ scientific activities and other activities associated to them. Doctoral studies take four years to complete. Total number of informatics and informatics engineering students in different institutions is given in table 8, and the dynamics of doctoral student count for 2003-2005 is given in picture 6. Table 8.

Total doctoral student count in institutions Informatics and informatics engineering doctoral student Institutions count 2003 2004 2005 Kaunas university of technology (KTU) 72 79 80 Klaipėda university (KU) 0 0 1 Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) 20 20 19 Vilnius university (VU) 30 23 24 Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) 8 10 10 Institute of mathematics and informatics (MII) 26 30 34 30

The total number of doctoral students, studying in these institutions, with separate counts of each educational direction (informatics (09P) and informatics engineering (07T)) is given below. From the given data one can observe, that Kaunas university of technology and Institute of mathematics and informatics prepare students of both educational directions, and in other institutions only informatics or only informatics engineering doctoral students are prepared. Table 9.

Doctoral student count according to educational directions Informatics and informatics engineering doctoral student count Institutions 2003 2004 2005 07T 09P 07T 09P 07T 09P Kaunas university of technology (KTU) 54 18 59 20 57 23 Klaipėda university (KU) 0 0 0 0 1 0 Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) 20 0 20 0 19 0 Vilnius university (VU) 0 30 0 23 0 24 Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) 0 8 0 10 0 10 Institute of mathematics and informatics (MII) 10 16 17 13 21 13

The highest number of informatics and informatics engineering doctoral students is observed in Kaunas university of technology. Second by the informatics doctoral student count is Institute of mathematics and informatics, Vilnius university and Vilnius Gedinimas technical university is not far behind. The total count of informatics and informatics engineering students in aforementioned institutions grew during the period of 2003-2005. Total number of doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering 90 80

79 80 72

70 60 50 40

30

30

23 24

20 20 19

20

26 8

10

0

0

30

34

10 10

1

0 KTU

KU

VGTU 2003

Picture 6. 2.1.3

VU 2004

VDU

MII

2005

Doctoral student count dynamics

DEGREE OF STUDENT WASTAGE IN ALL STAGES

The wastage of students in each stage should be counted comparing the number of students who have started the studies and the number of graduates. But it is hard to get exact data, while counting student wastage, because of a few reasons: 31

a. Different form (full-time, part-time and extramural) study duration differs. Therefore while counting the number of accepted and graduated students to get the wastage degree, inaccuracies can occur because of different study duration. When counting it was taken into account, that bachelor studies take four, post graduate – two years, also if it was possible, studies with different duration (part-time and extramural) were not taken into account. b. during the study course, the number of students can be complemented with the students, who are repeating the course or who migrate from other curricula. This also adds extra inaccuracies, but in this case only a few cases were observed in the possessed information, and in these cases graduate student count was not higher than the accepted student count. 2.1.3.1 Bachelor studies In order to evaluate the degree of wastage of students in informatics and informatics engineering studies in universities, data of accepted students in 2001 was compared to the count of final year students and graduates in 2004 (picture 7), count of students accepted in 2002 with the count of final year students and graduates in 2005 (picture 8) and also the number of accepted students in 2003 with the number of final year students and graduates in 2006 (picture 9). The number of accepted students, final year students and graduates in informatics and informatics engineering in 2001-2004 600 514 500 410 400 302 300

274 258

230

235

215 177

200 100

159 93

60 52 50

99

93 47

46

49 40

0 KTU

KU

VU

accepted in 2001

Picture 7.

VGTU

VDU

final year students in 2004

ŠU

VPU

graduates in 2004

Accepted undergraduate students, final year students and graduates in 2001-2004

32

The number of accepted students, final year students and graduates in informatics and informatics engineering in 2002-2005 600

550 519

500 410 400

342

318

319

300

263

231

225 187

200 114 99 100

164 96

75

120 74

60

55 18

0 KTU

KU

VU

accepted in 2002

Picture 8.

VGTU

VDU

final year students in 2005

ŠU

VPU

graduates in 2005

Accepted undergraduate students, final year students and graduates in 2002-2005 The number of accepted students, final year students and graduates in informatics and informatics engineering in 2003-2006

700 600

574 519

500

438

400

327

317 300

277

248

231

260

205 169

200 103 106 100

98

100

90

80

125 67

54

0 KTU

KU

VU accepted in 2003

Picture 9.

VGTU final year students in 2006

VDU

ŠU

VPU

graduates in 2006

Accepted undergraduate students, final year students and graduates in 2003-2006

Considering student accepted into informatics and informatics engineering undergraduate studies count and graduate count dynamics, a conclusion can be made, that student wastage is observed not only during the first three years, but also in the final year. It is very obvious in Vilnius pedagogical university in 2002-2005 and in Vytautas Magnus informatics students in 2001-2004. If the universities are compared between themselves, it can be observed, that a higher number of wastage is in institutions, where more informatics students study, therefore universities cannot be directly evaluated by the number of wastage. In order to evaluate the degree of wastage, percentage must be counted for each university. Such counted percentage (a result of comparing accepted student count with the count of graduates at the end of the studies) are given in table 10 and depicted in diagram form in picture 10.

33

Table 10. Undergraduate student wastage percentage in institutions Institutions Informatics and informatics engineering student wastage percentage 2001-2004 2002-2005 2003-2006 Kaunas university of 51% 40% 56% technology (KTU) Klaipėda university (KU) 17% 15% 33% Vilnius university (VU) 44% 35% 40% Vytautas Magnus 70% 61% 72% university (VDU) Vilnius pedagogical 57% 85% 57% university (VPU) Šiauliai university (ŠU) 71% 78% 65% Vilnius Gediminas technical university 57% 27% 27% (VGTU) The highest informatics and informatics engineering student wastage percentage is observed in Šiauliai university, Vilnius pedagogical university and Vytautas Magnus university. In Vilnius university and Kaunas university of technology wastage percentage is similar (it is a little higher in KTU), in Klaipėda university wastage percentage is the lowest. Wastage percentage of undergraduate students in informatics and informatics engineering 85%

90% 80%

70%

70% 60% 50%

74% 71% 65%

72%

61% 56%

57%

57%

57%

51% 44%

40%

40%

33%

40% 35% 27%27%

30% 17%15%

20% 10% 0% KTU

KU

VU

Wastage in 2001-2004

VDU

VPU

Wastage in 2002-2005

ŠU

VGTU

Wastage in 2003-2006

Picture 10. Undergraduate student wastage percentage 2.1.3.2 Post graduate studies In order to evaluate post graduate student in informatics and informatics engineering wastage degree in the universities, student counts accepted in 2003 and 2004 final year student and graduate counts were evaluated (picture 11), as well as accepted students in 2005 and 2006 final year and graduate counts (picture 12), also the count of students accepted in 2005 was compared to final year student and graduate count in 2006 (picture 13).

34

Number of accepted students, final year students and masters in informatics and informatics engineering postgraduate studies in 2003-2004

250 200

222

172 164 141

150 106 88

100

94 58

50

51

31

42 48

31

16 13

38 25

24 22 4

0 KTU

KU

VU

accepted in 2003

VGTU

VDU

final year students in 2004

ŠU

VPU

master students in 2004

Picture 11. Accepted post graduate students, final year and graduate student count in 2003-2004 Number of accepted students, final year students and masters in informatics and informatics engineering postgraduate studies in 2004-2005

250 200

222 199 185 146

150

126 108 89

100

68

50

23

75 29 28 22

12 10

34 34 30

27 9

0 KTU

KU

accepted in 2004

VU

VGTU

final year students in 2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

master students in 2005

Picture 12. Accepted post graduate students, final year and graduate student count in 2004-2005

35

Number of accepted students, final year students and masters in informatics and informatics engineering postgraduate studies in 2005-2006

250 207

200 161162

150

125 117

100

77

147 127 83

36 30

50 16 9 6

24

15

26 23 21

0 KTU

KU accepted in 2005

VU

VGTU

final year students in 2006

VDU

ŠU

VPU

master students in 2006

Picture 13. Accepted post graduate students, final year and graduate student count in 2005-2006 Informatics and informatics engineering post graduate student wastage is observed both during the first and the second (final) year. Wastage is quite similar during both of these years. In some institutions a higher number of final year students than accepted students was observed (e.g. Vytautas Magnus university in 2003-2004). In order to evaluate real wastage degree, the percentage wastage evaluation must be counted for each university. Informatics and informatics engineering post graduate student wastage percentage (a result of comparing accepted student count with graduate student count during the last year) is given in table 11 and depicted in picture 14. Table 11. Post graduate student wastage percent in institutions Institutions Informatics and informatics engineering post graduate student wastage percentage 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 Kaunas university of 26% 17% 22% technology (KTU) Klaipėda university (KU) 43% 36% 63% Vilnius university (VU) 45% 46% 38% Vytautas Magnus 26% 24% university (VDU) Vilnius pedagogical 42% 12% 19% university (VPU) Šiauliai university (ŠU) 84% 67% 38% Vilnius Gediminas technical university 64% 45% 44% (VGTU) The highest number of informatics and informatics engineering post graduate student wastage percentage is observed in Šiauliai university in 2003-2004, later this percentage got 36

lower. Post graduate student wastage in other universities is also unstable and changes every year. Wastage percentage of post graduate students in informatics and informatics engineering 90%

84%

80% 70%

67%

63%

64%

60% 50%

36%

40% 30% 20%

46% 45%

43% 26%

26%

22% 17%

45%44%

42%

38% 24%

38%

19% 12%

10% 0% KTU

KU

VU

Wastage in 2003-2004

VDU

VPU

Wastage in 2004-2005

ŠU

VGTU

Wastage in 2005-2006

Picture 14. Post graduate student wastage percentage 2.1.3.3 Doctoral studies In order to evaluate the degree of students in informatics and informatics engineering wastage, the number of informatics and informatics engineering doctoral students accepted in 1999 was compared to the number of students, who successfully finished their studies in 2003-12-31 (picture 15), also the number of accepted students in 2001 with the number of students, who successfully finished their studies in 2004-12-31 (picture 16), the number of accepted students in 2002 with the number of graduates in 2005-12-31 (picture 17).

37

Number of doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering, who were accepted in 1999 and finished the studies in 2003 14

13

12 10 8 6 4

4

4

4

4 2 2

1 0

1

0

0

0

0 KTU

KU

VGTU

Accepted in 1999

VU

VDU

MII

Doctors, who finished until December 31, 2004

Picture 15. Number of doctoral students accepted in 1999 and graduated in 2003 From the number of students, accepted in 1999, 6 students in informatics and informatics engineering finished their doctoral studies successfully in 2003. The highest number of students, who successfully finished their doctoral studies (4) is observed in Kaunas university of technology (it also has the highest number of informatics doctoral students). One graduate is found in Institute of mathematics and informatics and in Vilnius Gediminas technical university. Number of doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering, who were accepted in 2000 and finished the studies in 2004 14

13

12 10 8

7

6

5

4

3 2

2 2

1

1

0

0

0

0

0 KTU

KU Accepted in 2000

VGTU

VU

VDU

MII

Doctors, who finished until December 31, 2004

Picture 16. Number of doctoral students accepted in 2000 and graduated in 2004 From the number of students, accepted in 2000, twice more than the previous year finished their doctoral studies in informatics and informatics engineering in 2004. The highest 38

number of successful graduates is found in Kaunas university of technology and in Vilnius university. One graduate is found in Institute of mathematics and informatics and in Vilnius Gediminas technical university. Number of doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering, who were accepted in 2001 and finished the studies in 2005 14

13

12

11

10 8 6 4

4

4 2 2

2

2

1 0

1

1

0

0 KTU

KU Accepted in 2001

VGTU

VU

VDU

MII

Doctors, who finished until December 31, 2005

Picture 17. Number of doctoral students accepted in 2001 and graduated in 2005 From the number of students, accepted in 2001, sixteen students in informatics and informatics engineering finished their doctoral studies successfully in 2005. The highest number of graduates is again found in Kaunas university of technology. Vilnius university was second, according to the number of successful graduates. One student finished doctoral studies in Institute of mathematics and informatics and one in Vilnius Gediminas technical university and also Vytautas Magnus university. In order to evaluate the degree of wastage the percentage expression of wastage was counted for each institution, which is given in table 12 and depicted in a diagram form in picture 18. Table 12.

Doctoral student wastage percentage Institutions Informatics and informatics engineering doctoral student wastage count 1999-2003 2000-2004 2001-2005 Kaunas university of technology (KTU) 69% 46% 15% Klaipėda university (KU) Vilnius Gediminas technical university 50% 50% 75% (VGTU) Vilnius university (VU) 100% 40% 50% Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) 100% 50% Institute of mathematics and informatics 75% 50% 50% (MII) Doctoral student wastage percentage is high in all institutions, sometimes reaching even 100%. The lowest degree of wastage is observed in Kaunas university of technology in 2005.

39

Wastage percentage of doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering 120% 100%

100%

100% 80%

75%

69%

60%

75%

50% 50%

46%

50%

50%

50% 50%

40% 40% 15%

20% 0% KTU

KU Wastage in 1999-2003

VGTU

VU

Wastage in 2000-2004

VDU

MII

Wastage in 2001-2005

Picture 18. Doctoral student wastage percentage 2.1.4

GRADUATE COUNT DYNAMICS

2.1.4.1 Specialists prepared 2.1.4.1.1

Bachelor studies

Information, provided by the universities was used to count informatics and informatics engineering bachelor student count dynamics. Total number of informatics and informatics engineering students for each university (a sum of all students in informatics and informatics engineering count) is given in table 13, graduate dynamics for 2003-2006 is given in picture 19. Table 13.

Bachelor graduate count Bachelor graduate count dynamics Institutions 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Kaunas university of 168 181 246 258 318 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university 19 28 46 50 75 (KU) Vilnius university (VU) 73 118 162 230 319 Vilnius Gediminas technical university 66 65 93 93 164 (VGTU) Vytautas Magnus 41 39 47 47 74 university (VDU) Šiauliai university (ŠU) 16 22 28 46 52 Vilnius pedagogical 0 15 14 40 18 university (VPU)

2006 248 100 327 169 80 90 54

The number of informatics and informatics engineering bachelor students has kept increasing. The highest number of graduates was observed in Vilnius university and Kaunas university of technology. Vilnius Gediminas technical university is behind these two universities. Klaipėda university, Šiauliai university and Vytautas Magnus university had very 40

similar numbers of informatics graduates. The lowest number of graduates was observed in Vilnius pedagogical university. Number of graduate bachelor students in informatics and informatics engineering 350

318

319 327

300 258 250 246

248

230

200

169 164

162 150 75

100

100

93 93

46 50

50

90

74 80 47 47

46

60

54

40

28

14

18

0 KTU

KU

VU 2003

Picture 19. 2.1.4.1.2

VGTU 2004

2005

VDU

ŠU

VPU

2006

Bachelor graduate count dynamics

Post graduate studies

Informatics and informatics engineering post graduate student count was received from the information universities provided. Total count of informatics and informatics engineering post graduate students for each university (a sum of all post graduate students in informatics and informatics engineering count) is given in table 14, and post graduate student dynamics for 2003-2006 is given in picture 20. Table 14.

Post graduate student count Master student count dynamics Institutions 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Kaunas university of 74 115 126 164 185 technology (KTU) Klaipėda university 0 0 15 13 10 (KU) Vilnius university (VU) 25 55 52 58 68 Vilnius Gediminas technical university 55 53 68 51 75 (VGTU) Vytautas Magnus 21 18 21 31 22 university (VDU) Šiauliai university (ŠU) 4 6 7 4 9 Vilnius pedagogical 0 15 28 22 30 university (VPU)

2006 162 6 77 83

15 21

41

The total number of students, who finished informatics and informatics engineering post graduate studies kept growing. This growth was influenced by increasing numbers of post graduate students in Kaunas university of technology, Vilnius university and Vilnius Gediminas technical university. A decrease of post graduate students is observed in Klaipėda university. The highest number of informatics and informatics engineering post graduate students was found in Kaunas university of technology. Number of graduate master students in informatics and informatics engineering 200 180

185 164

162

160 140 126 120 100 80

52 58

60

68

77

75

68

83

51

40

21

15 13 10 6

20

31

22

28 15 7 4 9

22

30

21

0 KTU

KU

VU 2003

VGTU 2004

VDU

2005

ŠU

VPU

2006

Picture 20. Master student count dynamics 2.1.4.1.3

Doctoral studies

Total number of informatics and informatics engineering Doctoral students, who finished their studies until December 31 of each year is given for each institution in table 14 and graduate count dynamics fro 2003-2005 is given in picture 20. Table 15.

Students, who finished doctoral studies

Institutions Kaunas university of technology (KTU) Klaipėda university (KU) Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) Vilnius university (VU) Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) Institute of mathematics and informatics (MII)

Count of doctoral students, who successfully finished their studies until December 31 of the year indicated 2003 2004 2005 4 7 11 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 1

The highest and growing number of informatics and informatics engineering doctoral studies graduates is found in Kaunas university of technology. Number of Vilnius university doctoral studies graduates is the second largest. Number of doctoral students in Institute of mathematics and informatics and Vilnius Gediminas Technical university is stable, one student successfully finishes the studies every year. 42

Number of graduate doctoral students in informatics and informatics engineering 12

11

10 8

7

6 4 4

3 2

2

1 0

0

1

0

1

1 0

0

1

1

1

0

0 KTU

KU

VGTU 2003

Picture 21.

VU 2004

VDU

MII

2005

Doctoral student count dynamics

2.1.4.2 Graduates, employed in the sector during the first year after graduation Data, which should at least partially describe the state of student employment is given in this section. As it has been mentioned before, no official data sources describing this state exist. The poll was fragmental, carried out in Kaunas university of technology without applying any scientific statistical poll principles. E-mail addresses of graduates were randomly selected, and a minimal content poll was sent, which was answered by approximately half of the students. Of course, most of the addresses belonged to recent graduates, and answers were mostly received from students who had good grades and were satisfied with their studies, although there were some, who seized the opportunity to express their disappointment. This poll is valuable, because some comments were received, also it confirmed the fact, that there are no unemployed people between informatics graduates. Most of the master degree graduates work in IT sector companies. But as a matter of fact, very few of the respondents worked in research organizations, which include higher education institutions, Institute of mathematics and informatics and State institute of information technology. Mostly doctoral students were working in research organizations. It is interesting to note, that most of the respondents expressed their will to keep studying, but not necessarily in doctoral studies (for example to study economics, management or improve technological knowledge). This indicates, that and alternative high level study forms should exist, where participants would not necessarily pursue a degree. Another frequent suggestions – students would like to have more practical lectures and assignments. Also most of them would prefer to have practice organized and not left for the student to find, also practice should be carried out in bigger, experienced companies with their own methodology, where students could learn something. The poll proved, that most students start working during their third study year, at first not necessarily in IT sector, but later they step by step migrate to IT sector companies.

43

Table 16.

Master student graduates poll data 2002 2003 2004

Employed in IT sector company Employed in IT sector in a non-IT sector company Employed in non-IT sector

3

1

2005

2006 2007 2008

2

4

12

7

2

2

3

5

12

1

2

2

5

1

3

4

1

2

3

19

19

Employed in a higher education institution Unemployed Total respondent count

3

1

Total

4

7

6

35

6

59

Master graduate employment survey data 120% 100%

100%

100%

100% 80% 63% 57%

60%

50%50% 37%

40%

29%

26%

14%

20% 0% 0% 0% 0%

0% 0% 0% 0%

0% 0% 0%

0% 0%

16% 11% 5% 5%

16% 11% 11% 0% 0% 0% 0%

0% 2002

2003

2004

Employed in IT sector IT company

2005

Employed in IT sector non-IT company

2006 Employed in non-IT sector

2007

2008

Employed in a high school

Unemployed

Picture 22. Master graduate employment poll according to the years Master graduate employment survey data 70,0% 60,0%

59,3%

50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,3% 20,0% 10,0%

8,5%

6,8%

5,1%

Employed in nonIT sector

Employed in a high school

Unemployed

0,0% Employed in IT sector IT company

Employed in IT sector non-IT company

Picture 23. Master graduate employment poll data 44

During the analysis of gained expertise, students were asked if bachelor studies gave knowledge and understanding, knowledge application and communication abilities; master studies were evaluated according to given knowledge and understanding, knowledge application, communication, decision taking and learning skills. All of the respondents admitted, that they received knowledge. The biggest gaps were noticed in knowledge application, a bit smaller – in communication and learning skills. Table 17. Expertise, gained during bachelor studies Expertise 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Knowledge and 3 3 7 17 13 5,50 48,5 understanding Knowledge 3 1 3 4 7,5 10 4 32,5 application Communication 2 1 5 13 7 6 34 Respondent count 3 1 4 7 19 19 6 59 Expertise, gained during bachelor studies 120,0%

80,0%

100,0% 100,0%

100,0%

100,0% 100,0%

89,5%

100,0%

91,7%

75,0%

75,0% 68,4%

71,4% 68,4%

66,7% 66,7% 57,1%

60,0%

52,6%

39,5%

36,8%

40,0% 25,0% 20,0% 0,0%

0,0%

0,0% Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge application 2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Communication 2007

2008

Picture 24. Expertise, gained during bachelor studies, according to the years

45

Expertise, gained during bachelor studies 90,0%

82,2%

80,0% 70,0% 60,0%

57,6%

55,1%

50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,0% 10,0% 0,0% Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge application

Communication

Picture 25. Expertise, gained during bachelor studies Table 18. Expertise, gained during post graduate studies Expertise 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Knowledge and 3 3 7 14 13 5,5 45,5 understanding Knowledge application 3 2 6 9,5 10 4,5 35 Communication 3 2 7 12 8 5 37 Taking decisions 3 1 7 13 8 4 36 Learning skills 3 2 7 12 6 4 34 Respondent count 3 1 4 7 19 19 6 59 Expertise, gained during postgraduate studies 120,0% 100,0%

80,0%

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

91,7% 75,0%

100,0%

85,7%

73,7%

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

83,3% 75,0%

68,4%

68,4% 66,7%

63,2% 50,0% 52,6% 50,0%

60,0%

100,0%

50,0%

63,2%

66,7%

50,0% 42,1%

42,1%

40,0%

31,6% 25,0%

20,0% 0,0%

0,0%

0,0%

0,0%

0,0%

0,0% Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge application

2002

2003

Communication

2004

2005

2006

Taking decisions

2007

Learning skills

2008

Picture 26. Expertise, gained during post graduate studies, according to the years

46

Expertise, gained during postgraduate studies 90,0% 80,0%

77,1%

70,0%

62,7%

59,3%

60,0%

61,0%

57,6%

50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,0% 10,0% 0,0% Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge application

Communication

Taking decisions

Learning skills

Picture 27. Expertise, gained during post graduate studies Graduates were also asked if they are happy with their studies and work. Data from this poll is given in table 19 and pictures 28 and 29. Table 19. Are graduates happy with their work and studies Are graduates happy 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 with: Master studies 3 1 1 5 13 Bachelor studies 3 1 3 4 12 Work 3 3 5,5 11,5 Respondent count 3 1 4 7 19

2007 2008 Total 10 11 11 19

4 1 2 6

37 35 36 59

Are graduates happy with their studies and work? 120,0% 100,0% 100,0%

100,0% 100,0%

100,0%

100,0% 80,0%

71,4%68,4%

60,0%

78,6% 75,0% 60,5% 57,9%

75,0% 66,7%

63,2% 57,9% 57,1%

52,6%

40,0%

33,3% 25,0% 16,7%

20,0%

0,0% 0,0% Master studies

Bachelor studies 2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Work 2007

2008

Picture 28. Are graduates happy with their studies and work (according to the year) 47

Are graduates happy with their studies and work? 63,0%

62,7%

62,0% 61,0% 61,0%

60,0% 59,3% 59,0%

58,0%

57,0% Master studies

Bachelor studies

Work

Picture 29. Are graduates happy with their studies and work As a conclusion it should be noted, that this poll should not be considered as a serious survey, but it unveiled some moments, also it showed how such polls could be improved. A definite conclusion can be made, that master study quality in KTU is better, than bachelor studies, of course a large part of that is because master students are more mature and have a more serious attitude towards studies, and at the same time they receive more from the studies. Such surveys should be carried out for each curriculum, semester and programme, the information gathered could be used to improve study quality. On the other hand, the present study system is stagnant and inert to change something, therefore study improvement can only be carried out with well-meant effort from individual lecturers. 2.1.4.3 Employment in sector‘s research companies Graduate employment in sector‘s research companies is sparse. For example, in the partial poll from 59 respondents only 4 master students worked in universities, but the number might be exaggerated because of a small sample set. The percentage of students employed, who finished doctoral studies is larger. For example, VDU employed half of the doctoral students, who finished the studies in 2006. According to doctoral and resident studies department, in 2003-2005 from 155 doctoral students, who finished the studies, 94 keep working in Vilnius university. On the other hand, part of the doctoral students do not relate their future with work in the university, because they can make a better career if they choose business sector or emigrate. 2.1.5

RESEARCHER COUNT DYNAMICS

Information about researcher count dynamics was received from Institute of mathematics and informatics, which gathers yearly reports about study and research institution scientific activities, and other activities associated to science. In order to evaluate researcher count dynamics, these departments of institutions, working with information technology sector‘s most relevant topics, were examined: 1. Kaunas university of technology (KTU) Faculty of informatics; 2. Klaipėda university (KU) Faculty of nature and mathematical sciences; 48

3. Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VGTU) Faculty of fundamental sciences; 4. Vilnius university (VU) Faculty of mathematics and informatics and Faculty of humanities in Kaunas; 5. Vytautas Magnus university (VDU) Faculty of informatics; 6. Šiauliai university (ŠU) Faculty of physics and mathematics and Faculty of technology; 7. Vilnius pedagogical university (VPU) Faculty of mathematics and informatics; 8. Institute of mathematics and informatics (MII). Information about researcher staff was used to count researcher dynamics. Total researcher count and the part of lecturers in this count for 2003-2005 is given in table 20 and in picture 30 in a diagram form. Table 20.

Researcher staff count and dynamics in examined institutions

Researcher staff count 2003 m.

2004 m.

2005 m.

KTU

KU

VGTU

VU

VDU

ŠU

VPU

MII

130,1

112,5

21,45

98,22

29,79

0

159,93 37,15 163,71 157,01 28,95 103,97

31,74

158,65

Lecturers 106,75 37,15 Total Lecturers

90,5

38,3

137,95 126,25

22

100,85

29,8

0

Total

98,5

38,3

147,45

132,5

24,5

103,85

31,55

86

Lecturers

102

39,45 161,85

131

21,6

93,4

47,73

0

Total

110

39,95 176,35 137,75

24,1

97,3

49,48

120,5

The highest number of researchers in examined institutions is found in Vilnius Gediminas technical university Faculty of fundamental sciences, Vilnius university Faculty of mathematics and informatics and in Faculty of humanities in Kaunas, Institute of mathematics and informatics and also in Kaunas university of technology Faculty of informatics. In Institute of mathematics and informatics all of the researchers are scientists, there are no lecturers. As in Vilnius Gediminas technical university Faculty of fundamental sciences the count of lecturers is the highest, compared to lecturer count in other examined institutions.

49

Dynamics of researcher staff in evaluated institutions, which prepare specialists for IT sector 200

VGTU

180

VGTU KTU VU

160 VGTU 120 KTU VU

VGTU

MII

100

VGTU VU

VGTU VU

140

ŠU

ŠU

ŠU

KTU

ŠU

KTU

VU

VU

MII

KTU

KTU

ŠU

ŠU

MII

80 60 40

KU

VPU VDU

20

KU

VDUVPU

KU

VPU VDU

MII

KU

VPU VDU

VPU

KU

VDU

VDU

MII

VPU

KU

MII

0 lecturers

total

lecturers

Researcher staff in 2003

total

lecturers

Researcher staff in 2004

total

Researcher staff in 2005

Picture 30. Researcher staff count dynamics Total number of researchers in examined institutions, preparing specialists for IT sector, and researcher count specifications according to their degree and title in 2003 is given in table 21. Lecturer distribution by their degree and title in 2003 in a diagram form in picture 31. Table 21.

Total researcher staff count Total researcher count

Lecturer count, according to their degree and title in 2003 Institutions, which departments prepare specialists for the Researcher sector type KTU KU VGTU VU VDU ŠU VPU MII 106,75 37,15 130,1 112,5 21,45 98,22 29,79 0 lecturers scientists

53,18

0

33,61

44,51

7,5

5,75

1,95

158,65

lecturers

77,75

25,1

112,7

90,5

16,46

47,2

21,79

0

scientists lecturers

3,5

0

6

5

1,5

0,75

1,95

75

5,25

5,6

20,8

14,5

5,06

6,75

3,9

0

scientists

0

0

1

1

0

0,5

0,75

22,5

Doc.hab.dr.

lecturers scientists

Hab.dr.

lecturers scientists

1 0 0 0

0 0 0 0

0 0 1,65 0

1 0 0,5 0

1 0 0 0

0 0 0,5 0

0 0 0 0

0 1 0 5

Prof.dr.

lecturers scientists

1

0

0

0

0,15

0

1,52

0

0 55 1,5 15,5 2

0 11,65 0 7,85 0

0 56,35 0 33,9 5

0 55 0,5 18,5 3,5

0 4,95 0,5 5,3 1

Prof. hab.dr.

Doc.dr

lecturers scientists

Dr.

lecturers scientists

0 0 29,85 13,62 0,25 1,2 10,1 2,25 0 0

0 0 16,5 0 30

50

Lecturer distribution, according to their degree and title in 2003 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Prof. hab.dr

Doc.hab.dr KTU

Hab.dr. KU

VGTU

Prof.dr. VU

VDU

Doc.dr ŠU

Dr.

VPU

Picture 31. Lecturer distribution by their degree and title in 2003 It can be noticed, that in all of the examined institutions (except for Vytautas Magnus university Faculty of informatics) there are most lecturers with docent title. After them there are lecturers with doctor degree, but no title and lecturers with professor‘s title. 2.1.6

CURRICULUM CONFORMITY TO STUDY PROCESS NEEDS

2.1.6.1 Partial studies abroad Gathering data about student mobility also proved to be tricky. Although all institutions try to boast that their students and lecturers take part in exchange programmes, the data provided by the institutions is hard to compare. An example is given in table 22: a fragmental information about KTU, VU and ŠU SOCRATES/ERASMUS IT sector student exchange in 2001-2006. Numbers of incoming students are infinitesimal (for example, no IT students arrived to KTU in 2001-2006). Only four students have been learning abroad and only one student was working in IT company, from all respondents (in section 2.2.4.2). Most students are more interested in good learning conditions in Lithuania, than abroad, but there is a small percentage of them, who want to leave at least temporarily. Table 22. KTU, VU and ŠU IT student participation in SOCRATES/ERASMUS programmes in 2001-2006 Leaving students 200120022003200420052002 2003 2004 2005 2006 KTU Faculty of informatics 12 8 10 19 14 VU Faculty of mathematics and ? ? ? 18 ? informatics ŠU Faculty of mathematics and ? ? ? 0 3 informatics 51

If comprehensive information needs to be collected about the use of exchange and further participant career, the research should be systematically and this could be used to improve the study quality. 2.1.6.2 Practice This section gives information about practices carried out in IT institutions, according to data received from AIKOS and the institutions themselves, but it cannot be stated, that the information is correct and full, because some mismatches have been noticed. Besides the information is rendered poorly, for example if a curriculum description is opened in AIKOS, it‘s name is not given. Practice is not included into all curricula, in some cases it‘s duration is too short. In fact, most IT students are employed and have great practice, therefore the gap is nonexistent in many cases. And vice versa, the practice included into curricula is only carried out formally. Table 23. Practice in curricula Programme Programme name code KTU 1. 62107T104 Information system engineering

M or Qualification B achieved

Practice (credits)

M

Informatics engineering master, engineer Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics engineering bachelor

-

Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master

-

2.

62107T105

Systems on-chip

M

3.

62107T103

Information technologies

M

4.

62107T107

Distant learning information technologies

M

5.

62107T101

Software system engineering

M

6.

61209P104

Informatics

B

7.

62109P104

Informatics

M

8.

61207T101

Information technologies

1.

KU 61207T103

Informatics engineering

B

2.

61209P105

Informatics

B

3.

62109P105

Informatics

M

12 8 -

-

52

1.

VU 61209P108

Informatics

B

2.

61209P110

Software systems

B

3.

61209P111

Bioinformatics

B

4.

61209P101

Business informatics

B

5.

62109P101

Business informatics

M

6.

62109P106

Informatics

M

7.

62109P111

Computer simulation

M

8.

62409P101

Software systems

M

1.

VGTU 62407T104

Information system engineering

M

2.

62107T102

Information technologies

M

3.

61207T104

Information system engineering

B

4.

62107T106

Distant learning information technologies

M

5.

61209P109

Engineering informatics

B

6.

62109P107

Engineering informatics

M

1.

VDU 61209P107

Informatics

B

2.

62109P108

Applied informatics

M

3.

62109P109

Business informatics

M

4.

62109P112

Electronic business

M

1.

ŠU 61207T102

Information technologies

B

2.

61207T105

Informatics engineering

B

Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master

-

Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics engineering master Informatics bachelor Informatics master

2

Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master

-

Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics engineering bachelor

4

12 2 12

2 6 9 2

-

-

53

3.

61209P106

Informatics

B

4.

61209P102

Informatics

B

5.

62109P110

Informatics

M

6.

62109P102

Informatics

M

1.

VPU 62109P103

Informatics

M

2.

61209P103

Informatics

B

Bachelor study practice credit count KTU KU VU Practice credits 8 0 14 Curriculum count 2 2 4 Credits per curriculum 8 0 4,6

Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master, lecturer

4 4 6

Informatics master, lecturer Informatics bachelor

4 2

Table 24.

VGTU VDU 15 0 2 1 7,5 0

ŠU 12 4 4

VPU 2 1 2

Bachelor practice credit count 16

15 14

14 12 12 10 8

8

7,5

8 6 4

4,6

4

4

4 2

2

2

2

2

2 1

0

1 0

0

0

0 Practice credit count KTU

Curriculum credit count KU

VU

VGTU

VDU

Credits per curriculum ŠU

VPU

Picture 32. Bachelor study practice credit count Table 25.

Master study practice credit count KTU KU VU VGTU VDU ŠU VPU Practice credits 12 0 12 6 0 12 2 Curriculum count 6 1 4 4 3 4 1 Credits per curriculum 2,4 0 3 1,5 0 3 2 54

Master practice credit count 14 12

12

12

12 10 8 6

6

6 4

4

4

4 3

3

2

2

2

1 0

2

1,5

1

0

3

0

0

0 Practice credit count

Curriculum credit count KTU

KU

VU

VGTU

VDU

Credits per curriculum ŠU

VPU

Picture 33. Master studies practice credit count 2.1.6.3 Final degree projects Credits dedicated to final degree projects are defined in this section. It is worth mentioning, that final degree projects exist in all curricula, with some exceptions (two in KU, one in ŠU and one in VPU, but this may be a mistake). Credit count, dedicated to final degree projects is not high and it could be more significant. Few credits are mostly dedicated to bachelors. Table 26. Final degree projects in curricula Programme Programme name code

M or Qualification B achieved

Final degree projects (credits)

Information system engineering

M

16

1.

KTU 62107T104

2.

62107T105

Systems on-chip

M

3.

62107T103

Information technologies

M

4.

62107T107

Distant learning information technologies

M

5.

62107T101

Software system engineering

M

Informatics engineering master, engineer Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master

20 16 16 12

55

6.

61209P104

Informatics

B

7.

62109P104

Informatics

M

8.

61207T101

Information technologies

1.

KU 61207T103

Informatics engineering

B

2.

61209P105

Informatics

B

3.

62109P105

Informatics

M

1.

VU 61209P108

Informatics

B

2.

61209P110

Software systems

B

3.

61209P111

Bioinformatics

B

4.

61209P101

Business informatics

B

5.

62109P101

Business informatics

M

6.

62109P106

Informatics

M

7.

62109P111

Computer simulation

M

8.

62409P101

Software systems

M

1.

VGTU 62407T104

Information system engineering

M

2.

62107T102

Information technologies

M

3.

61207T104

Information system engineering

B

4.

62107T106

Distant learning information technologies

M

5.

61209P109

Engineering informatics

B

6.

62109P107

Engineering informatics

M

Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics engineering bachelor

8 16 6

Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master

6

Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master

5

Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering master Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics engineering master Informatics bachelor Informatics master

20

-

5 5 8 17 20 18 20

20 8 16 8 20

56

1.

VDU 61209P107

Informatics

B

2.

62109P108

Applied informatics

M

3.

62109P109

Business informatics

M

4.

62109P112

Electronic business

M

1.

ŠU 61207T102

Information technologies

B

2.

61207T105

Informatics engineering

B

3.

61209P106

Informatics

B

4.

61209P102

Informatics

B

5.

62109P110

Informatics

M

6.

62109P102

Informatics

M

1.

VPU 62109P103

Informatics

M

2.

61209P103

Informatics

B

Bachelor final degree project credit count KTU KU VU Final degree project credits 14 6 23 Curriculum count 2 2 4 Credits per curriculum 7 3 5,75

Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master Informatics master

10

Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics engineering bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics bachelor Informatics master Informatics master, lecturer

4

Informatics master, lecturer Informatics bachelor

20

20 20 20

6 6 20 14

-

Table 27.

VGTU VDU ŠU 15 10 12 2 1 4 7,5 10 3

VPU 0 1 0

57

Bachelor final year project credit count 25

23

20

15

15

14

12 10

10

10

7,5 5,75

7

6 4

4

5 2

2

2

0

3

3 1

1

0

0 Final year project credit count KTU

Study curriculum count KU

VU

VGTU

Credits per curriculum

VDU

ŠU

VPU

Picture 34. Bachelor final degree project credit count Table 28.

Master final degree project credit count KTU KU VU VGTU VDU ŠU VPU Final degree project credits 96 0 67 76 60 34 20 Curriculum count 6 1 4 4 3 2 1 Credits per curriculum 16 0 16,75 19 20 17 20 Postgraduate final year project credit count 120

100

96

76

80 67

60 60

34

40

20

16,75 19

16

20 6 1

0

4

4

3

4

20

20 8,5

1

0

0 Final year project credit count KTU

Study curriculum count KU

VU

VGTU

VDU

Credits per curriculum ŠU

VPU

Picture 35. Master final degree project credit count 58

2.1.6.4 Methodology and material base Methodology base mainly consists of course books, manuals and teaching material provided in an electronic form. Unfortunately gathering such information is also very difficult, because it is most often summarized and made for faculties and not different curricula. The list of books, released in KTU Faculty of informatics in 2002-2006 is given as an example. The digits look very small, but it is easy to explain by the fact, that lecturers are completely unmotivated to write course books. Besides, most of the learning material is kept in an electronic form, as it is much easier to update it that way. Such updates are required almost yearly in IT sector, therefore writing books is not the most effective way to provide learning material. No other information about IT technology course material has been found, except some local servers, which are available only to registered users and also KTU and VGTU distant learning IT technology course. It is known, that some projects, meant to update and provide the material for distant studies, are being carried out this year. Table 29.

KTU course books (quantities), released in 2002-2006 Student count Monographs Course books KTU Faculty of informatics 2006 1938 1.50 5,62 2005 2125 0,00 10,13 2004 2055 1,00 9,05 2003 2039 1,00 27,43 2002 1773 1,14 17,00 Lecturer salaries should be raised (picture 36), and loads should be decreased (table 30). This is agreed by multiple official institutions. For example, in documents, prepared by Lithuanian education union [LMS] such material is presented:

Picture 36. Average salary dynamics in LTL (University lecturer and scientist salaries have not been increased for four years)

59

Table 30.

Lecturer workload in KTU 2005-2006 Total Staff Function workload count Total Lectures Practice hours Professor 138 142081 1027.7 152.9 50.8 Docent 412 456812 1108.8 162.2 91.8 Lecturer 296 310041 1048.3 99.7 125.6 Assistant 107 143908 1348.1 85.2 166.3 Total 953 1052842 1105,1 Other staff * 191579 Total 1244421 Staff for 2006 1290 * Lecturers paid hourly and visiting lecturers, scholar staff, doctors.

Lab. 44.2 186.2 259.8 412.8

Assign.

Other

447.7 598.9 539.3 658.8

332.1 69.7 23.9 25.0

Loads and salaries for IT sector‘s lecturers correspond to loads and salaries in other sectors, therefore a separate analysis is not required, besides financial aspects of educational institutions was properly analyzed by National Audit office [LRVK, 2007]. Facts such as the one, that in their opinion get only a part of the funding they require, 90 percent of material base must be renewed and similar are worth mentioning. 2.1.6.5 Lecturer and scientist qualification and expertise Information, provided in this section, interrelates with section 2.5.5, but more recent data (although fragmented, presented by one university, but situation should be similar in other universities) is provided, which shows, that lecturer and scientist expertise is constantly improving. On the other hand there is a problem: higher expertise is achieved by older lecturers, therefore qualification improvement is a very important question. Again, it is worth mentioning, that IT lecturers are hard to separate in information sources, therefore comprehensive analysis was not feasible in such a short time, and it is questionable if it is worth doing it at all. Table 31.

Lecturer and scientist expertise (in staff) Student count

Total count of lecturers

KTU Faculty of informatics 2006 1938 111.73 2005 2125 102.75 2004 2055 93.00 2003 2039 90.75 2002 1773 89.25 2.1.7

Prof.

14.75 9.25 8.25 7.25 6.25

Docent

46.75 52.25 50.5 54.00 53.00

Assistants

Scientific employees

Other employees

50.25 41.25 34.25 29.50 30.00

8.5 8.0 8.5 5.0 3.5

88.25 67.25 42.25 47.00 38.25

SPECIALIST QUALIFICATION CORRESPONDENCE TO THE NEEDS OF LABOUR MARKET

The opinion of business representatives, referenced from [SMM, 2002] is given in this section, but from present contacts with business representatives it can be concluded, that the information has not changed. How is the growth of informatics specialist number evaluated? Only a bit more than half (51%) of IT companies, who assessed recent year changes, think, that enough informatics specialists with higher education are being prepared, but this does not mean that informatics specialist market is overcrowded and that more specialists will not be required in the future. 60

In Lithuanian small and medium IT enterprises a lot of employees have higher education (71%). IT specialists with higher education make about 44% of total employee count. IT specialists, who have IT direction higher education make about 32% of total employees. About 55% of the surveyed companies are happy with IT specialist preparation quality. Surveyed companies are satisfied by qualification of VU and KTU specialists the most (one of the reasons is that these two universities prepare the most IT specialists). 61.5% of the companies admitted, that there are positive changes during the last 5 years in informatics specialist preparation with higher education diplomas. More negative answers were provided by bigger companies, where requirements for specialist knowledge and competence are higher. How is informatics specialist competence growth evaluated? In their answers to question, what knowledge and competence informatics specialists mostly lack, the companies noted, that the highest concern is the lack of practice (ability to apply the knowledge in practical situations). As a matter of fact, both university, both college curricula training should not be ignored in favour of education. It would be false to consider training to be more important for colleges, but not universities. The second group of shortcomings – training informatics specialist‘s personal qualities. Employers note, that they miss:  ability to work in a team (work group);  communication skills;  systematic thinking;  ability to work independently;  ability to update ones knowledge;  ability to evaluate economical and timing factors. Employers emphasize, that training of these qualities in high schools is continuous and attention, which reflects in curricula, should be given to it. The third group – lack of theoretical knowledge in these disciplines:  IT project management;  information system design;  website architecture planning;  specification of technical task;  scientific inquiry basics;  quality control. Also it is noted, that disciplines, which are outdated or untypical for informatics activity, should be refused. When employees are being accepted, the most attention is paid to these aspects:  knowledge and ability as a whole;  will to work, learn and improve;  ability to communicate, work in a group, understand the tasks;  initiative and responsibility;  in what high school and what specialty was gained;  previous work experience;  recommendations;  test data. All of these aspects prove, that employers care both about knowledge, both the ability to use this knowledge and also personal human qualities of the accepted specialists. What prevents informatics specialist number and ability growth? Employers think, that high schools successful activity is impeded by these factors:  market and business changes are ignored, when specialists are being prepared; 61



universities do not pay enough attention to abilities to apply the knowledge in practice (for training), problems associated to study practice in IT companies are unsolved, connections with IT companies are too weak;  teaching process is inflexible, it lacks speed and punch;  lecturers do not participate enough in activities typical to business, do not take part in big projects and do not have enough practical experience, therefore these shortcomings are also obvious in high school graduates;  lack of young skilled lecturers;  current lecturer material stimulation has negative effect on teaching quality;  investments into lecturer knowledge and qualification are insufficient;  venerable age, excessive ambitions;  student academic groups are too large;  student practical works are too short and formalized;  students do not get sufficient familiarization with new IT products;  weak material and technical base in high schools. In their answers companies do not mention young specialist programming skills, knowledge and control of these technologies. This could potentially mean, that the level of programmers suits the needs of the employers. But if the situation is analyzed further, it is obvious, that Lithuanian IT companies solve problems, which require conditionally unsophisticated programming and programming technology knowledge. Problems, which would require complete potential of modern programming technologies are quite uncommon. Mostly financial, accounting and other administrative tasks dominate. To conclude company needs and their expertise with students, who have recently finished their studies, informatics abilities should involve a list of specializations, which employers miss the most in the market (in the context of informatics content):  IT project directors;  software project directors;  software engineers;  database administrators;  IT security system specialists;  quality managers, testers;  IT system auditors;  integrated systems project specialists;  computer network specialists;  user interface design specialists;  automated hardware design specialists;  internet and multimedia designers;  specific operating systems and platforms (LINUX, UNIX and other) administrators;  data and management programming specialists.

62

2.2 2.2.1

OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE SYSTEM TOPICS OF THE CURRENT RESEARCH AND ITS CONFORMITY WITH PRESENT AND FUTURE DEMANDS OF SCIENCE AND BUSINESS SECTOR

2.2.1.1 Methodology When collecting and processing data for this section, we faced the following methodical problems: a. Limits of the science system of the IT sector are not clearly defined; they can be treated rather differently. It is particularly hard to set the limits between IT research and applied mathematics, and between IT research and information sciences. b. There are no reliable (officially validated) sources that would allow us to find out what type of research is being conducted in the IT sector in Lithuania in reality. Official titles of the research conducted by science and study institutions do not fully reflect the true nature of the research carried out. In the database of scientific publications there is only one code of scientific type attributed to the publication, therefore a significant part of research articles related to applied research are attributed to medicine, transport or other sciences rather than informatics or informatics engineering. c. The subdivision of the informatics and informatics engineering, provided in the official classification of the areas, branches and fields of science, does not comply with either adopted international standards de facto (ACM, IEEE, etc.), or the nature of research conducted in Lithuania. Therefore it was impossible to use this classification in the present study. The aforementioned methodical problems were solved as follows: a. The topics addressed in the research attributed to the science system of the IT sector include the following: i. programming for computers, including program languages, methods and methodologies; ii. systematic computer software, including operational systems, translators of program languages and other software necessary for computer operation; iii. software system engineering; iv. engineering of information systems; v. issues of storing and organizing data in the computer; vi. computation theory, including algorithm theory, theory of formal languages, automata theory and some of the issues of mathematical logic; vii. computer mathematics, including parallel computing and computer arithmetic-related issues of computing mathematics, discrete mathematics, probability theory, and mathematical statistics; viii. issues of human-computer interface, including ways and methods of providing information to a human; ix. computer technologies, including symbolic processing, computer graphics, text processing, theory of recognition processes, processing of video and audio information, signal processing, computer simulation, computer design and artificial intelligence technologies; x. computing techniques and theory of computer networks; xi. informational ethics and computer ethics; xii. the law on the informatics; 63

xiii. applied computer sciences, i.e. application of IT in the field of arts, medicine, engineering, law, construction, transport, energy, etc. This means that there was an attempt to cover all the research associated with informatics or information technologies, conducted in Lithuania. b. In order to find out what type of research is being conducted in Lithuania, publications by the following science and study institutions (units), registered in the database of publications over the past three years, were reviewed (by key words provided): i. Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI): departments of recognition processes, data analysis, operational research, informatics methodology, optimization, software engineering and system analysis, also technological process control group, computer linguistics group, and computer networks laboratory. ii. Kaunas University of Medicine (KUM): Institute of Psychophysiology and Rehabilitation, Institute of Cardiology, Institute for Biomedical Research, Clinic of Cardiology, Clinic of Eye Diseases also departments of kinesiology and sports medicine of the Pharmacy Faculty. iii. Kaunas University of Technology (KUT): Faculty of Informatics; departments of process control, applied electronics and control technology of the Faculty of Electrical and Control Engineering; departments of electronics engineering and signal processing of the Faculty of Telecommunications and Electronics; departments of manufacturing technologies and engineering graphics of the Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics Faculty; Information Technology Development Institute; Institute of Biomedical Engineering; Computational Technologies Centre, and Mechatronics Centre for Studies and Research. iv. Klaipeda University (KU): department of informatics of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. v. Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education (LAPE): Faculty of Sports Biomedicine. vi. Lithuanian University of Agriculture (LUA): Institute of Information Technologies. vii. Mykolas Romeris University (MRU): department of informatics and statistics of the Faculty of Economics and Finance Management; Knowledge Society Management Institute. viii. Siauliai University (SU): department of informatics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics; departments of electronics and IT of the Technology Faculty. ix. Vilnius University (VU): departments of computer science I, computer science II, mathematical computer science and software engineering of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics; department of economics of the Economics Faculty; department of informatics at the Faculty of Humanities in Kaunas; International Centre for Knowledge Economy and Management. x. Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU): departments of informational systems, information technologies, graphical systems and engineering graphics of the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences; departments of electronic systems and computer engineering of the Faculty of Electronics, department of construction technology and 64

, and department of Construction Economics and Property Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering; Research Institute of Internet and Intelligent Technologies and Open Source Research Institute. xi. Vilnius Pedagogical University (VPU): departments of information technologies, informatics, didactics of mathematics and informatics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics; departments of theoretical physics and computer studies of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. xii. Vytautas Magnus University (VMU): applied informatics department of the Faculty of Informatics, and Computer Linguistics Centre of the Faculty of Humanities. The State Institute of Information Technologies (SIIT) has submitted data on the research that it is working on, too. Commissioned and other experimental development projects that science and study institutions are carrying out were also reviewed, however system-based procedures were not used here therefore the data collected is very incomplete. c. For the purpose of classifying research a list of branches of informatics and informatics engineering was drawn up with reference to the structure of the ACM classification and the nature of the research conducted. This list is not ideal; the subdivision has not been completed. For example, research related to the use of IT in the computerization of medical establishments (medical information systems) together with research related to the use of IT in cardiology, oncology and other fields of medicine, were among others attributed to the medical informatics. Works associated with the computer-based modeling and management of technical, economic and other type of complex systems and processes were attributed to the field of computer-based modeling and management of complex systems and processes. The situation of the other branches provided in the classification is similar. In our opinion, despite the obvious drawbacks of the classification, it allows forming a more objective and comprehensive picture of the structure of research that is being conducted in Lithuania, compared to what it would be if an official classification of areas, branches and fields of science were used. d. The scope of IT research conducted in Lithuania (see Table 32.1) is very different. Some of the research branches involve individual scientists and researchers (e.g. computer-based music), other fields involve tens of experts (e.g. computer-based modeling and management of complex systems and processes.) Besides, sometimes scientists and researchers working in one particular research field work in a large number of small groups, and in some other cases they work in a few large groups. Some of the research is conducted in cooperation with foreign partners. Although some of the data on researcher collectives have been collected, they are not reflected in Table 32.1. Besides, the table does not provide any assessment of the level of the research either (neither by institutions, nor by research branches.) 2.2.1.2 Topics addressed in current research Topics of the IT research currently conducted in Lithuania, by branches of informatics and informatics engineering, in connection with organizations performing the research, are reviewed in Table 32.1.

65

Table 32.1. Theoretical and application research in informatics cared out by Lithuania science and study institutions Artificial neural networks and neuroinformatics Biomedical electronics Business informatics Computer-aided control of technological systems and devices Computer-aided data analysis methods Computer-aided diagnostics of technical systems Computer-aided design Computer-based measuring systems Computer graphics and computer geometry Computer learning technologies and study informatics Computer linguistics Computer modelling and control of complex systems and processes Computer music Computer networks engineering Computer-supported voice technologies and virtual collections of sounds Computer technologies for image analysis and processing Construction informatics Cryptology and coding theory Data engineering and DB technologies

KUM KUT KU + + + +

LAPE

LUA

IMI +

MRU ŠU

+

+

VMU VGTU SIIT

VPU

VU

+ +

+

+

+ +

+

+ +

+

+ +

+

+ + +

+

+ + +

+

+

+

+ + + +

+

+ +

+ + 66

Table 32.1. Theoretical and application research in informatics cared out by Lithuania science and study institutions E-business Economical and social aspects of IS E-government Electronic security systems E-publishing technology Evaluation quality of electronic systems and testing systems Informatics of agriculture Informatics of ecology Informatics of energetic Informatics of Lithuanistic Internet technologies IT for disabled people GIS and computer cartography Law informatics Mechatronics systems and robotics Medical informatics Methodology and methods of computer-based experiment Methods and processes of recognition theory Methods and technologies of artificial intelligence Numerical analysis of physical structures and processes Oculomotoric systems Operation research Optimization methods Parallel computing

KUM KUT KU + + + +

LAPE

LUA

IMI

+ +

+ + + + +

MRU ŠU

+

VMU VGTU SIIT + + + + +

VPU

+ +

+ + + + +

VU

+ + + + +

+ +

+ +

+ +

+ + +

+

+ +

+

+

+

+ +

+ +

+

+ +

+

+ +

+ 67

Table 32.1. Theoretical and application research in informatics cared out by Lithuania science and study institutions KUM KUT KU Process engineering and evaluation Safety of computer systems and data, safe electronic environment School informatics SE and IS engineering Signal analysis and processing Software localisation Software quality evaluation Sport informatics State regulation of informatics Statistical data analysis Technologies for development of eglossaries Telecommunication informatics Transport informatics Ubiquitous computing Virtual laboratories

LAPE

LUA

IMI +

MRU ŠU

VMU VGTU SIIT

VPU

VU +

+ + +

+ +

+ +

+ +

+

+ + +

+

+

+ +

+

+ +

+

+

+ +

+

+ +

+ + + +

68

According to Table 32.1 a total of 13 science and study institutions are currently performing research that is associated with the IT sector in one or another way: Kaunas University of Medicine (KUM), Kaunas University of Technology (KUT), Klaipeda University (KU), Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education (LAPE), Lithuanian University of Agriculture (LUA), Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI), Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), Siauliai University (SU), Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), Vilnius Pedagogical University (VPU), Vilnius University (VU) and State Institute of Information Technology (SIIT). KUT, IMI, VGTU and VU are the largest research centres. At KUT, IT-related research is conducted by seven departments of the Faculty of Informatics, three departments of Electrical and Control Engineering Faculty, two departments of the Faculty of Telecommunications and Electronics, two departments of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics Faculty, Information Technology Development Institute, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and Computational Technologies Centre and Mechatronics Centre for Studies and Research. The research involves about 400 workers and doctoral candidates. At IMI, research in the field of informatics is conducted by seven departments, two research groups and a laboratory. The research involves around 100 workers and doctoral candidates. At VGTU, research in the field of informatics is conducted by three departments of the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences, three departments of the Electronics Faculty, two departments of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Institute of Internet and Intellectual Technologies, and Open Source Research Institute; the Computer Centre is involved to some extent, too. The research involves over 200 workers and doctoral candidates. At VU, the research in the field of informatics is carried out by four departments of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, one department of the Economics Faculty, one department of the Humanities Faculty in Kaunas, also the Computer Centre. The research involves around 150 workers and doctoral candidates. The number of research workers and doctoral candidates involved in informatics-related research is much lower: at SU, the number stands at about 70, at other institutions it reaches below 50. Both by scope and by maturity, the aforementioned types of research are very heterogeneous. Some types of the research emerged many years ago; some of them have just started evolving. Sometimes the research is conducted by large groups of researchers, meanwhile the others involve individual people. The classification chosen is also arguable, however the classification of areas, branches and fields of science, officially registered in Lithuania, as well as other widely used classifications (ACM, IEEE, etc.) are not suitable for the type of analysis that is being conducted because it does not classify branches of applied informatics. 2.2.1.3 Conclusions The data provided in Table 32.1 leads to the following conclusions: 1. The range of IT sector-related research conducted in Lithuania is very broad; the research projects are very different and cover many various topics. Applied research on the use of IT in various fields (ecology, public administration, economy and commerce, energy, agriculture, living environment, data analysis, diagnosis of technical systems, control of technological processes and equipment, various protection systems, measuring systems, mechatronics systems, communication and transport systems, design, processing of audiovisual information, medicine, law, teaching and study process, construction industry, sports, linguistics, compilation of dictionaries, publishing, music, science of handling museums, etc.) prevails. The number of fundamental research studies is rather low; besides, this type of research is of a rather “accidental” nature, i.e. it has been initiated by separate scientists interested in one or another topic, who have managed to bring together a sufficient group of researchers for such research. One could say that for countries like Lithuania, which have neither large research centres with old traditions nor close partnership relations with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or other similar international 69

corporations, such a situation is rather natural. The breakthrough is likely to happen only in narrow fields of theoretical IT research, if one succeeded to form long-term researcher groups that are strong enough for this purpose. Incidentally, it seems that there are no such breakthrough groups in Lithuania at the moment. The situation in the neighboring countries – Latvia, Estonia, also partially in Poland and even Scandinavian countries – is quite similar. 2. Certain level of stagnation has been observed in the field of research. There is no enthusiasm to start new type of research. There has never been any research conducted in the field of quantum computation in Lithuania, there is basically no research conducted in the field of computerization of the living environment, buildin system technologies and many other relevant fields. In this respect Lithuania is increasingly lagging behind the neighboring countries. In our opinion, this has happened due to the very one-sided assessment of the performance of science and study institutions also the scientist certification system. Since research articles published in prestigious science publications are the main assessment criterion and, after starting a new branch of research, it takes 3—4 years to publish such an article, nobody is interested in starting new research. Continuing something that various institutions have been doing for many years is much simpler and involves fewer risks compared to starting new type of research. Incidentally, the present assessment and certification system is quite a large handicap for interdisciplinary research, too, because such research involves cooperation of large groups of researchers who come from different institutions. Let us consider a situation of a group of five scientists from three different institutions who have been working on a single collective publication for one year: if we divided the single publication among five people, officially it would seem that the five researchers have been doing basically nothing for one year, since this is the number of publications rather than results that count. Thus, it is more purposeful for separate researchers to work on small research articles of a relatively small significance that are suitable for publishing. 3. Lithuania does not have a solid research space, and instead of developing one, it witnesses the split of the research space into even smaller parts. There are several reasons why this is happening, i.e.: a. The system for the assessment of the performance of science institutions and the certification system of research workers discourage them from working on collective publications. b. The status of research articles published by local conferences (conference of the Society of Lithuanian Mathematicians, Lithuanian Computer Society, etc.) has been devalued; such conferences have therefore become basically meaningless because researchers no longer want to take part in such events to present and discuss serious research (such research works are now intended for prestigious foreign publications), and as a result Lithuania virtually no longer has any fora for the discussion among scientists from different science and study institutions. c. In our opinion, the Ministry of Education and Science practically does not give any attention to the development of the Lithuanian research space in general. There is only an ongoing discussion about the integration in the common European research space, however without developing such a space in Lithuania, basically without any promotion for organizing large international conferences in Lithuania and with relatively limited financing possibilities to maintain regular communication with foreign science and study institutions, only one or two Lithuanian research groups are likely to achieve this integration. 70

d. Beside technology platforms, the development of which started recently, there are virtually no instruments for promoting development of the common IT research space in Lithuania. 2.2.2

NUMBER AND AGE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTISTS AND RESEARCH WORKERS

2.2.2.1

Methodology

When collecting and processing data for this section, we faced the following methodical problems: a. It is not clear which scientists and research workers should be attributed to the group of people working in the field of IT research. Theses defended by scientists cannot be used as a criterion in this case because many of the people who are now conducting IT-related research have defended their theses in other research areas or fields. If we calculated scientists working in the units of science and study institutions attributed to informatics and informatics engineering, the final picture would also be very vague because due to the dominance of applied research in Lithuania, research in the field of information technologies, at least to some extent, involves a large percentage of scientists and research workers working in the units of science and study institutions that cannot be attributed to the IT field, for example, Biomedical Engineering Institute of KUT or the Cardiology Institute of KUM. b. Quite a large number of people work in several institutions therefore the question is whether it is the number of people or the number of staff that should be calculated. Besides, for many people, in particular, among younger pedagogical personnel, working at university is their secondary occupation. Some of them do publish their research articles however they can be attributed to scientists or research workers only conditionally because for the majority of them this is a secondary occupation. c. There are no reliable (officially validated) sources which would allow us to analyze the age of scientists and research workers working in the IT field. Although science and study institutions provide such data in their annual reports, this data cannot be used because in the reports scientists and research workers are grouped according to the study field (physical sciences, technological sciences). Science and study institutions do accumulate such data for internal use but even if this information is available it is hard to use it as it is usually collected and accumulated applying completely different methods (different age groups are used to classify people; researchers are sometimes not included in the groups of people classified; some of the institutions collect data unit by unit, meanwhile others choose to collect the data by the position occupied, etc.) The aforementioned methodical problems were solved as follows: a. When calculating scientists, research workers and researchers working in the field of information technologies, we counted the number of staff of the units of science and study institutions, conducting any type of research associated with the IT (including analysis of the problems of the use of IT in various fields). Only the units, the publications of which – when analyzing the structure of research (see Section 2.2.1) – were attributed to the publications in the IT sector, were counted. People working at the units providing computer service to units conducting IT research were included in the number, too. In other words, people working in the units like IMI Computer Networks Laboratory or VGTU Computer Centre, have been included in this number. Thus, not only scientists and research workers but also doctoral candidates, programmers and engineering personnel providing the maintenance of the computer network were counted. The word approximately in 71

this case means that the error may reach 5% or even slightly more than this because the number of people working at the units changes constantly; besides, part of the data has been collected informally. The fact that quite a few people have several jobs adds to the error. Therefore the data provided in Table 2 reflects the number of staff rather than people. b. When analyzing the age structure of scientists and research workers we referred to the assumption that KUT Informatics Faculty, as one of the largest IT research units, reflects the distribution of workers by age and represents the age structure of IT scientists and research workers of the entire Lithuania the best. This assumption has been specified using the data obtained from other science and study institutions. 2.2.2.2

Number of scientists, research workers and researchers working in IT sector

The approximate data on scientists, research workers and researchers working in the field of IT at Lithuanian science and study institutions are provided in Table 32.2. Table 32.2. Approximate number of scientists, research workers and researchers working in IT sector Institution Total Among them Habil. dr. Dr. Others KUM ? ? ? ? KUT 335 28 156 151 KU 35 4 6 25 LAPE ? ? ? ? LAU ? ? ? ? IMI 100 12 19 69 MRU 30 4 5 21 ŠU 70 4 13 53 VMU 45 7 13 25 VGTU 215 23 78 114 SIIT 15 ? ? ? VPU 65 9 21 35 VU 220 10 65 145 1130 101 376 TOTAL Data provided in Table 32.2: a. At KUT, not only scientists and researchers, working at the Faculty of Informatics were included in the total number: scientists and researchers conducting IT and ITrelated research at the Faculties of Electrical and Control Engineering, Telecommunications and Electronics and Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, also Institutes of Information Technology Development and Biomedical Engineering, and Computational Technologies Centre and Mechatronics Centre for Studies and Research, were included in this number, too. b. At KU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the departments of informatics and informatics engineering. c. At IMI, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the informatics-related units (including Computer Networks Laboratory). 72

d. At MRU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the department of informatics and statistics of the Faculty of Economics and Finance Management as well as the Institute of Knowledge Society Management (The institute has been eliminated). e. At SU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the department of informatics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics and departments of electronics and IT of the Faculty of Technology. f. At VMU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the department of applied informatics of the Faculty of Informatics and the Computer Linguistics Centre of the Faculty of Humanities. g. At VGTU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the departments of informational systems, information technologies, graphical systems and engineering graphics of the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences, departments of electronic systems and computer engineering of the Electronics Faculty, department of construction technology and management as well as department of the construction economics and property management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Institute of Internet and Intellectual Technologies, Open Source Research Institute and Computer Centre. h. At VPU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at the departments of information technologies, informatics, didactics of mathematics and informatics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, also departments of theoretical physics and computer studies of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. i. At VU, the total number included scientists and researchers working at computer science-related departments of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, department of economic cybernetics of the Economics Faculty, as well as the department of informatics of the Faculty of Humanities in Kaunas, International Centre of Knowledge Economy and Management, and Computer Centre of the university. 2.2.2.3

Age structure of scientists, research workers working in IT field

Data on the age structure of some of the scientists and research workers working in the field of IT at Lithuanian science and study institutions are provided in Table 32.3. Table 32.3. Distribution of scientists and research workers working in IT field according to age group (per cent in group) Institutions Age groups 25-34

KU FNSM KUT FI IMI SIIT VU FMI

 



? 12.7 ? ? 26.3

35-44

45-54

55-64

65

5.56

33.34

26.19

22.22

18.41

34.2

15.79

5.3

Available additional information: At IMI, the average age of habilitated doctors is 60, the average age of doctors stands at 51, the average age of other scientists and researchers reaches 47. The average age of habilitated doctors working at KU Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is 65; the average age of the all scientists and researchers is about 40. Eight scientists and researchers working at SIIT are below 50, and the age of seven scientists and researchers ranges from 50 to 65. 73

2.2.2.4

Conclusions

It is impossible to draw any more specific conclusions from the data accumulated. Such analysis requires more thorough research that would also demand much more time: 1. KUT, IMI and VU remain the largest IT research centres. These centres have accumulated top qualification research personnel however they are aging rapidly. The situation is abnormal indeed, for example, at the KUT Faculty of Informatics, scientists and researchers above 65 make up more than 22% of the staff, and scientists and researchers in the 35-44 age group constitute less than 6%. The situation at IMI, VGTU and other institutions is similar. 2. The renewal of scientists and researchers has been more rapid at the newly developing universities (universities in Klaipeda and Siauliai), also at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of Vilnius University, which has established new departments of IT-related studies relatively recently. This is happening due to the establishment of new positions that are filled with people of a younger age in the majority of cases, because the older top qualification workers choose to stay in their old positions and change the job only in exceptional cases. 2.2.3

PRODUCTIVITY OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS

2.2.3.1 Methodology When collecting and processing data for this section, we faced the following methodical problems: a. When any of the publications is registered in the official database of publications, it is given only one classification code number. For this reason a large number of ITrelated publications have been attributed to medicine, transport, construction or other fields. b. The publications database 1 contains information about the attribution of publications to the ISI list, however making an enquiry into all science and study institution has not been successful. c. It is not completely clear what books published by foreign publishing houses should be attributed to the category of monographs. The aforementioned methodical problems were solved as follows: a. The information about articles published in the journals of the ISI list was collected from the science and study institutions which had agreed to provide such information. b. A summary table (Table 32.4) which was prepared on the ground of this information is provided below. c. When working on Table 32.5 (monographs and collections of research articles, published by foreign publishing houses), we counted all the publications published by foreign publishing houses, including those of Russia. The table includes not only monograph-type of publications by Lithuanian scientists but also collections of research articles, the compilers of which included at least one Lithuanian scientist. 2.2.3.2 Articles in journals of ISI list Data on the publications on IT research-related topics, published in the journals of the ISI list over the past five years, is provided in Table 32.4. Table 32.4. Articles on IT research-related topics published in journals of ISI list

Institution KU 1

Year 2002 ?

2003

2004

2005 1

2006 1

Total 2

http://pdb.library.lt/pdb_ata/PDB_ATA_FRA.php5

74

Table 32.4. Articles on IT research-related topics published in journals of ISI list

Institution

Year 2002

FNSM, Informatics department KUT FI IMI SIIT VU FMI Total

2003

6 32 0 13 51

2004

9 36 0 8 53

2005

14 44 0 23 81

2006

9 41 0 20 71

11 45 0 32 89

Total

49 198 0 98 347

2.2.3.3 Monographs and article collections, published by foreign publishing houses Data on monographs and article collections, published by foreign publishing houses is provided in Table 32.5. Table 32.5. Monographs and article collections, published by foreign publishing houses

Institution 2002

2003 1

2004

Year 2005

2006

0 1 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 1

0 2 0 0 2

KU FNSM, Informatics department KUT FI IMI SIIT VU FMI Total

Total 1

0 4 0 0 5

2.2.3.4 Projects commissioned by Lithuanian economic entities Data on projects commissioned by Lithuanian economic entities and carried out by science and study institutions are provided in Table 32.6. Table 32.6. Data on projects contracted by Lithuanian economic entities and carried out by science and study institutions (in thousands LTL)

Institution

Year 2002

KU FNSM, Informatics department KUT FI IMI SIIT VU FMI Total

2003

2004

2005

2006

?

?

?

?

?

241,457 ? 420 3 664,457

81,75 1835,2 590

965,152 1980,938 361

332,053 4458,182 674

428,31 2230 629

465,7

280,4

304,05

378,8

2972,65

3587,49

5768,285

3662,11

Total

2048,722 10504,32 2674 1431,95 16654,992

75

2.2.3.5 International cooperation projects Data on international projects carried out by science and study institutions are provided in Table 32.7. Table 32.7. Data on international projects carried out by science and study institutions Institution Department of Informatics of KU FNSM

KUT FI

Years

Title

Financing source

Finance

20022003

Socrates/Erasmus: CDA project “MOCURIS”

Socrates/Erasmus

?

?

Socrates/Erasmus project for exchanging teachers and students (partners: 2 universities in Germany and 1 university in French). Socrates/Erasmus tematinių tinklų projektas “NETTLE” Software for 2D and 3D geometrical computing and derivation of graphical data using Java, Java 3D, Open GL and ISO 10303 ( STEP) Software development ( quality systems)

Socrates/Erasmus

?

Socrates/Erasmus

?

20052007 2002

CAD/CAM communication software in Java and C/C++ Digital input of analogical maps 2003

2004

2005

2006

IMI

?

SIIT

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

LKSoft, Germany IBS AG, Germany LKSoft, Germany

19,970 196,609 373,994 59,184

Atvidabergs kommun, Sweden

10,328

Processing of unlinear speech signals (KUT and VMU join the project in 2003) Conversational style interaction in telecommunication Geant network (GN1)

COST277

0

COST 278

20

5 BP

0

REASON

5 BP

39,86

Software development (quality systems)

IBS AG, Germany

380,293

CAD/CAM communication software in Java and C/C++ Software development (quality systems) CAD/CAM communication software in Java and C/C++ Software development (quality systems) CAD/CAM communication software in Java and C/C++

LKSoft, Germany

44.54

Improvement of local services Software development (quality systems) CAD/CAM communication software in Java and C/C++ ?

Hohr-Grendhausen IBS AG, Germany LKSoft,Germany Hohr-Grendhausen IBS AG, Germany LKSoft,Germany EX Libris LTD,Israel Hohr-Grendhausen IBS AG, Germany LKSoft,Vokietija

175,914 72,435 67,399 59,388 242,452 351,29 41,43

?

?

Visualisation of safety indication second block of Ignalina nuclear powerstation (INP). Radiation monitoring system in INP

Foreign business

?

Foreign business

?

TITANAS-2

Foreign business

?

Second independent stop-system in INP

PHARE

?

Improvement of radiation monitoring system AKRB-06 “GORBATH” Licensing system for INP instaliations

Foreign business PHARE

Second independent stop-system in INP

PHARE

Improvement of radiation monitoring system AKRB-06 “GORBATH” Licensing system for INP

Foreign business PHARE

Second independent stop-system in INP

PHARE

Antro bloko TG-3 garo linijų nuotekų aptikimo sistema “Cable-radar” Improvement of radiation monitoring system AKRB-06 “GORBATH” Second independent stop-system in INP

Foreign business Foreign business PHARE

Antro bloko TG-3 garo linijų nuotekų aptikimo sistema “Cable-radar” Second independent stop-system in INP

Foreign business PHARE

Supporting software for TG-4 and TG-3 in INP

Foreign business

Design of digital mobile radio communication system Enhanced Learning Unlimited

Foreign business

MAGIC

FP 6

FP 6

76

Table 32.7. Data on international projects carried out by science and study institutions Institution

VU FMI

Years

2002

Title

Efficient Lightning for the 21st Century

Project NORFA EUREKA-number EU2359 (Choclab II)

Wireless Information Management Instruments and Standard Test Procedures for Laser Beam and Optics Characterization Intelligent Signal Processing of Biosensor Arrays Using Pattern Recognition for Characterization of Wastewater: Aiming Towards Alarm Systems (INTELLISENS)

0,0 0,00

Project COST No. 529

Efficient Lightning for the 21st Century

0,00

Project NORFA

Wireless Information Management

0,00

PROJECT „INTELISENS“ FP5/QUALITY OF LIFE (EC)

Intelligent Signal Processing of Biosensor Arrays Using Pattern Recognition for Characterization of Wastewater: Aiming Towards Alarm Systems (INTELLISENS) Instruments and Standard Test Procedures for Laser Beam and Optics Characterization Wireless Information Management

0,00

EUREKA- number EU2359 (Choclab II) 2004

Project NORFA Eureka-number E!2359 (Choclab II) Project COST No. 529

2005 2006

Finance Total per 5 years it was received 10 mln. LTL 0,00

Project COST No. 529

PROJECT „INTELISENS“ FP5/QUALITY OF LIFE (EC)

2003

Financing source

NATO Science Programme – Cooperative Science and Technology Sub – Programme Oil Spill Detection Algorithms by Remote Sensing Approach BalticGrid

Instruments and Standart Test Procedures for Laser Beam and Optics Charectirization, Efficient Lighting for the 21st Century Analysis of probability distributions of combinatorial statistics

0,00

0,00

125,2 0,0

0,0 0,0

OSIS

20,37

6 BP

555,0

2.2.3.6 Conclusions Review of the productivity of the Lithuanian science and study institutions over the past five years leads to the following conclusions: 1. There is a clear tendency of increasingly stronger integration in the European research space. The increasing number of publications published in the journals of the ISI list and the number of international projects proves the fact. 2. The number of scientists working in the field of IT research across the world exceeds the number of scientists working in the fields like physics, mathematics or chemistry thousands of times. Besides, the pace of the development of this branch of knowledge is very large. Therefore, in our opinion, the assessment of the performance of scientists working in this field, which is based on the number of publications in prestigious journals only, is very much inadequate. Ten to twenty research articles and sometimes even up to several tens of articles compete for one position at international conferences. They are reviewed by three or more reviewers from different countries. Some of the publications of this type (e.g., at SIGMOD, VLDB conferences) go through more rigid filters, compared to publications in the journals of the ISI list, and at times only few articles from the entire Europe are admitted. Although such publications are considered to be prestigious across the world, in Lithuania they are completely worthless. 3. In our opinion, the existing one-sided (strictly quantitative) system for the assessment of scientific activity is inciting degradation of the IT research in Lithuania. Scientists and researchers are forced to pursue quantitative indicators and this is why they 77

choose the least complicated scientific issues, articles are artificially divided into smaller parts, etc. Lithuania has even seen the emergence of the market of publications in the journals of the ISI list. Science and study institutions “buy” such articles from their own workers or those of other institutions (by paying copyright fee, employing the author, or achieving the goal in some other way). For this reason, it is necessary to change the existing assessment system as soon as possible, by granting more significance to qualitative rather than quantitative indicators. 2.2.4

RESEARCH

INFRASTRUCTURE, ACCESS PERIODICAL SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

POSSIBILITIES

TO

THE

DATABASES

OF

Possibilities of the access to the databases change all the time. At present Lithuanian science and study institutions can use about 20 full-text IT topics-related databases. The databases that different institutions have the access to slightly differ, however these differences are not crucial. All the science and study institutions working in the field of IT are currently facing the following main problems:  The access to the Springer LINK database is limited (only some of the articles are available for reading);  There is no access to the ACM Digital Library (it is most probably the most important database; the access to this database was available at the end of the preceding year however now such a possibility does not exist anymore, or at least not all the institutions have the access);  Only some of the science and study institutions have the access to the databases ISI Web of Knowledge and Web of Science. 2.2.5

SUSCEPTIBLE TO SCIENCE BUSINESS INCUBATORS, SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PARKS, THEIR RELATIONS WITH SCIENCE AND STUDY INSTITUTIONS

FUNCTIONING

Summarized data on business incubators and scientific technology parks, related to science and study institutions, are provided in Table 32.8. Table 32.8. Data on business incubators and scientific technology parks

Name of incubator or scientific technology park Kaunas high-tech and IT park KTU regional science park Klaipeda Science and Technology Park Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park Visoriai IT Park North Town Technology Park Technopolis, Kaunas

Related institutions of science and education KTU, LEI, VMU, KTU KU VU, VGTU VGTU, VU, Vilnius College, MII

Data on the functioning Lithuanian business incubators and scientific technology parks are provided below. Kaunas high-tech and IT park (Kauno aukštųjų ir informacinių technologijų parkas) Kaunas, Director Povilas Jankus The public institutions Kaunas High-Tech and IT Park was founded on 30 August 2002. The list of the founders includes the Lithuanian Energy Institute, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas University of Technology and the Economy Ministry of the Republic of Lithuania. The goal of Kaunas high-tech and IT park is to develop and implement modern technologies and competitive products, promote and foster relations between manufacturing 78

companies and science and study institutions, condition the strategy of the economic development, investment policy and the development of the knowledge society. Technopolis Kaunas, Director Eugenijus Macikenas Vision KAUNO TECHNOPOLIS:  High-tech town in Kaunas, representing the city in the world as the centre of modern technologies;  The manufacturing complex of knowledge-based business enterprises and science institutions;  The epicentre of modern Lithuanian economy;  One of the largest complexes in Eastern and Central Europe for the development intellectual products and services;  A breakthrough possibility for small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the global market. Mission To bring together advanced Lithuanian enterprises, to help them in every possible way to develop and sell enhanced value-added products and services; To shift national scientific resources towards development of new technologies; To promote cooperation between schools of higher education and innovative companies in order to use the knowledge of scientists for the development of products that provide tangible benefit. Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park (Saulėtekio slėnis) Vilnius, Director Andrius Bagdonas Vision The most innovations- and business-friendly environment, shaped by the dynamic partnership of science and study institutions, high technology enterprises as well as national and local authorities, where enhanced added-value products and services that can compete on the global markets are developed. Mission To increase the competitiveness of Vilnius and Lithuania on the common European and other global markets, by improving the quality of research and studies at local universities, and promoting the implementation of innovations and the high-tech business development. Main goals  To bring together promising and rapidly growing high-tech enterprises;  To draw foreign and local investments for the development of universities and the necessary infrastructure (buildings, laboratories, lecture halls, etc.) and improvement of study quality;  To draw foreign and domestic investments for the research conducted in the cluster;  To draw foreign and domestic investments by developing risk capital infrastructure;  To create favorable conditions for the development of innovations, technology transfer and emergence of new rapidly growing innovative enterprises;  To develop favorable environment for the commercialization of research; To create new jobs, in particular, for university graduates high qualification experts.

79

North Town Technology Park (Šiaurės miestelio technologijų parkas) Vilnius, Director Gediminas Pauliukevicius Mission – to promote the culture of innovation, encourage establishment and development of technology-based businesses. Objectives of the Northern Town Technology Park:  To develop and manage the technology park in the Northern Town, Vilnius;  To promote innovations in the business community of the park;  To provide incubation services to innovative companies; To promote cooperation among universities, scientific research organizations, technological business, capital market and governmental organizations. Klaipeda Science and Technology Park (Klaipėdos mokslo ir technologijų parkas) Klaipeda, Director Roma Stubriene Objectives – to bring together enthusiasts of the successful development of the Klaipeda city and the Western Region, students, graduates, businesspeople and their companies with progressive thought and ideas, who want to become the architects of the future of the country, generating innovations and possibilities for applying them in the business sector, to promote cooperation among scientists, industry and other sectors of economy, as well as the development of the high-tech sector, and to maintain and develop the scientific potential. Mission – to encourage development of susceptible to science modern technologies in the Western Region of Lithuania and across the country. KTU regional Science Park (KTU regioninis mokslo parkas) Kaunas, Director Pranas Bernardas Milius Goals:  To promote development of SMEs in Kaunas and Kaunas Region;  To create business and innovation friendly environment;  To employ scientific and technological achievements for the development of the region;  To foster competitive and market change-resistant companies;  To encourage business in the field of high-tech;  To encourage creation of new businesses and new jobs. The main activities of the public institution KTU regional Science Park include:  

rent of premises under preferential conditions, rent of conference halls (max. 60 people) and meeting rooms (max. 20 people) for different events,  business management and marketing consultations,  intermediation in seeking financial support,  intermediation in seeking foreign partners for corporate activity,  support for the implementation of modern up-to-date technologies in the business sector,  organization of workshops and seminars,  arranging awareness raising events, presentation of company products at international and local expositions.

80

Visoriai IT Park (Information Technologies Park of Visoriai) Vilnius, Director Henrikas Makutenas The public institution Visoriai IT Park was founded on 14 November 2002. It is a nonprofit organization that was established by a group of science and study institutions, public institutions and IT business enterprises that cooperate closely. The cooperation among the founders of the park in based on a tradition shaped in Visoriai District. The IT-related scientific work started in 1986 when the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics moved to Visoriai. The development of IT business enterprises began in 1988. At the moment there are UAB Baltic Amadeus, UAB VTEX and UAB TEV operating in Visoriai. In cooperation with the IMI, Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, the companies implemented joined projects in developing new methods and software tools for reviewing and storing scientific information, designing and implementing integrated systems, a document management system, the information system of the education sector, etc. While developing new products for the Lithuanian market and expanding exports, business companies created more than 100 new jobs, since 2000. Objectives:  To promote the commercialization of science through the development of new technologies, by developing and expanding small and medium-sized enterprises;  To promote development of information society;  To provide information, training and consultancy services related to the development of knowledge society;  To encourage the export of IIT business produce and new technologies;  To promote creation of new jobs in the field of ITT; To draw investments of international funds, foreign capital and domestic capital to the region by expanding the concentration of ITT technology enterprises.

81

2.3

OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS SECTOR‘S DEVELOPMENT

According to data provided by the Department of Statistics covers not only the ways of management and processing of ITC sector‘s digital information (data) connected to computers, software and relevant services provided, but also the production, trade and provision of services related to consumer electronics (TV and radio), measuring devices, electronic components including insulated wires and cables. Besides, data provided by other sources in most cases is different as well because of existing difference in definitions used in the Information technology sector. Neither the Department of Statistics, nor other official information sources such as Infobalt, IVPK provide any particular statistical data covering the information technology sector only. Therefore, in this study the ICT sector shall be analyzed on the whole the way it has been defined by the Department of Statistics. Besides, a computer sector and relevant activity subsector shall be considered separately, taking into consideration that the aforementioned subsector has much in common with information technology in restricted sense of the appropriate conception. According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, 2179 information and telecommunications technology companies worked within the ICT sector in 2004. A number of the companies mentioned was slightly decreased compared to 2003 and was equal to 3,7 percent of total amount of non-financial enterprises (3,6% in 2003). Decrease in a number of enterprises was conditioned by decrease in amount of small-scale enterprises involved in provision of ICT services and wholesale trading in consumer electronics and radio and TV products. Total amount of employees in ICT enterprises was equal to 35 434 in 2004. Compared to the year 2003, this amount increased by 4,6 percent and amounted to 4.2% of total employees number. A number of employees was considerably increased in industrial companies involved in production of electronic lamps, tubes and other components of TV sets and broadcasting receivers. Amount of small-scale enterprises with a number of hired employees up to 9 in ICT sector was the biggest (78% of total sector‘s enterprises). 16 percent of the total number of the sector‘s employees worked for these companies. Middle-scale and bigger companies with a number of employees equal to 50 and more amounted to 4 percent of total number of companies involved in information and telecommunication technology companies. 62 percent of total number of this sector‘s employees worked for these enterprises. In 2005 income of the biggest the ICT sector‘s enterprises increased compared to income received in 2004. In 2005 companies, members of the information technology group UAB Sonex group, the biggest enterprise in the Baltic States, received income in amount of LTL 273 million, by 18 percent more compared to 2004. The fastest growth of this group income was in the area of information technology services provided; this income was increased by 44 percent. These services were connected to solutions presented in the area of infrastructure and the system integration, the business management systems, specialized programming works. The international group structure allows to implement international projects and provides services to clients of whose business structure covers several countries. Income received by Alna from ICT services in 2005 increased by 20 percent. However, total profits of this business was growing faster: by over 50 percent. In 2005 total amount of consolidated income received by companies, the Alna members, amounted to Litas132 million, by 17 percent more compared to the year 2004. The aforementioned company has expanded its activities in neighboring countries and established in Poland its subsidiary company, Alna Business Solutions. The growth of total amount of income received by Microlink Group in the first half of the year 2005 was considerably low, by 1 percent only, however, income received from ICT services increased by 25 percent. [DnB NORD, 2006].

82

2.3.1

PRODUCTS AND ADDED VALUE

According to preliminary data provided by the Department of Statistics in 2005, prices for

Picture 37.

Picture 38.

Estimation of output and value added of ICT sector (source: Statistics Lithuania)

Output of ICT sector (at current prices, LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania) 83

the information technology sector‘s products increased by 4,9 percent compared to the previous years and its share in national output decreased from 5,5, percent in 2004 to 5,0 percent in 2005. Values added connected to price level applicable in 2005 increased by 9,0 percent compared to 2004. A share of sector‘s value added in the total value added amount decreased from 6,3 percent in 2004 to 6,1 percent in 2005 (Pic. 37). Fast development of activities related to telecommunications and computers products achieved in the aforementioned years had crucial impact of this growth. According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, in 2005 a number of the ICT sector‘s all products was constantly increasing and amounted to LTL 6221,7 million in 2005. Computers and relevant sector‘s productions were also under a constant growth and amounted to LTL 610 million in 2005. (See Pic. 38). According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, in 2005 ICT sector‘s value added in 2005 amounted to LTL 3894,8 million, or 5,5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product amount. Value added of a computer and relevant activity sector the part of which consists of software and service sector reached LTL 362,8 million in 2005 (See Pic. 39) or 0,5 percent of GDP.

Picture 39.

Estimation of value added of ICT sector (at current prices, LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

84

2.3.2

ICT SECTOR’S ENTERPRISES AND EMPLOYEES

Information technology sector is one of fast developing sectors in economy of Lithuania. 2179 information and telecommunications technology enterprises were functioning in 2004 (Pic. 40). In 2004 amount of the enterprises mentioned slightly decreased compared to 2003 and was equal to 3, 7 percent of total amount of non-financial enterprises (3, 6 percent in 2003). Decrease in a number of enterprises was conditioned by decrease in amount of small companies involved in providing of ICT services and wholesale trading in consumer electronics and broadcasting and TV products. According to data contained in the research carried out by the Center for Professional Training in 2004 the computer and software sector included 914 enterprises [the Center for Professional Trading 2004]. Most of the aforementioned enterprises were situated in the biggest cities of Lithuania; there are considerable regional differences connected to the ICT evolution. In fact, the main development of the computer and software sectors takes place in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. In other places, the ICT sector expansion can be considered as passive. Small enterprises with amount of employees up to 9 were prevailing. The same situation is prevailing in the EU countries According to data contained in questionnaire surveys completed by the Methodological Centre for Professional Training in 2003; Lithuanian capital enterprises prevailed in a computer and software sector. Foreign capital enterprises amounted to 8 percent and joint venture to 11 percent from total number of ICT sector‘s enterprises.

Picture 40.

Number of ICT sector enterprises by size classes (source: Statistics Lithuania)

According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, since 2000 the ICT turnover is under constant increase; within 1998-2003 it increased as much as twice. According to information presented by DnB NORD bank, the values added created by ICT were also under constant increase. According to data contained in different sources, the ICT export share is increasing as well. In opinion of Vilniaus bankas‘s analysts, in 2002 a share of export in the ICT enterprises‘ income was significant. According to data provided by Association ‚Infobalt‘ an aggregated turnover of the 20 largest Lithuanian enterprises increased by 13 percent; in 2003 a share of the ITC export services and products increased by 8,7 percent and reached LTL 45 million According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, 35 434 people were employed at the ITC sector‘s enterprises in 2004. Number of employees increased by 4, 6 percent compared to 2003 and amounted to 4, 2 percent of total employee number. Most increase in employees' number was reported in industrial enterprises involved in production of electronic lamps, tubes and other electronic components and TV sets and radio receivers. Small-size enterprises (with employees number up to 9) were prevailing in the ITC sector on the whole (78% of total number of sector‘s enterprises) 16 percent of total sector‘s employees number were working for these enterprises. Middle-size and large enterprises with 50 and more employees amounted to 4 percent of total number of information and telecommunications enterprises. 62 percent of total number of this sector employees were working for the enterprises mentioned, In 2004 the ITC sector‘s enterprises received income in amount of LTL 9559 million (see Pic. 41). Compared to 2003 the turnover amount 85

increased by 12,7 percent and reached 8, 4 percent of total turnover amount. The increase in turnover was based on increased turnover of trading enterprises involved in wholesale trading in consumer electronics, broadcasting and TV products, computers and software.

Picture 41.

Main indicators of structural business statistics in ICT sector (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In 2003 a share of Lithuanian residents involved in the ITC sector was one of the smallest compared to other businesses. However, it is necessary to note that within 1998-2003 an amount of the ITC employees increased by 1,5 times. The similar tendency is in the EU countries (In 19952000 employment in the ICT sector increased as much as twice). Table 32. Residents involved in the main economic activities, 1998-2003, thous. people (source: the Methodological Centre for Professional Training, 2004) Economic activities Total:

1998 1 489,4 Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishery 285,9 Industry 328,6 Construction 99,3 Services 775,5 Of which belong to computer and 2,6 software sector:

1999 1 456,5 281,4 306,2 91,17 777,1 2,9

2000 1 397,8 261,6 290,8 83,7 761,7 3,2

2001 1 351,8 233,9 281,1 84,8 752,1 3,5

2002 1 405,9 250,6 293,3 93,2 768,8 3,8

2003 1 438,0 257,0 297,5 107,1 776,5 4,0

According to data contained in the research carried out by the Methodological Centre for Professional Training, in 2003 the software sector (PI) consisted of 753 enterprises 87 percent of which were enterprises with 9 and less employees [the Methodological Centre for Professional Training, 2004]. A number of residents in subsector was a little bit more than 3 thousand. Within 1998-2003 a number of employees increased considerably. In 2003 a number of employees in a software sector was by 64 percent more compared to 1998. Changes in the number of the ITC sector‘s employees had no impact on increase in employment, especially at the state level. In 2003 the ITC employees amounted to yet 0.5 percent of total amount of residents involved in services providing.. In 1998-2003 an increase in the ITC personnel amount in most cases was based on compute software sector (Pic. 42).

86

Picture 42. The employee turnover in Information Technology sector by subsectors in 1998-2003. (source: [the Methodological Centre for Professional Training, 2004]) Pic. 43 provides information about a number of the Computer and Software Sector‘s employees by size classes gained by the Methodological Centre for Professional Training. In this picture it is seen that most employees of the Software sector were employed at middle class enterprises (from 10 up to 49 employees). These companies amounted to 12 percent of the Software sector enterprises. The main share of employees in this sector consisted of workers employed upon fixed-term agreement on employment and upon indefinite term agreements on employment (98 percent). Actually, there are no any seasonal workers. Employees’ distribution by gender: 60 percent men and 40 percent women. This index is considerably higher than the same index in the European Union (in 2000 26 percent of women were employed in the ICT sector). About 16 percent of employees are working upon a shortened working day conditions. Most employees of this sector are young people with higher education.

Software Hardware Picture 43. The ICT sector‘s employees structure by size classes in 2003(source of information: [the Methodological Centre for Professional Training, 2004]) 2.3.3

DIRECT INVESTMENTS MADE IN THE ICT SECTOR

Under intensified competition conditions at international level some EU member states draw full attention to the importance of improvement of investment environment, taking into consideration that direct foreign investments are the most important factors creating favorable 87

conditions for fast development of technologies and economic growth. Direct foreign investments shall be an important source of formation of the main capital and competence, therefore, if Lithuania is trying to ensure the long-term economic growth by refocusing its business on creation of a higher value added, the most important factor in this activity, aimed at faster economic changes, should be the attraction of direct foreign investments to the knowledge receptive or advanced technologies areas. Lithuania has accumulated some scientific potential in appropriate areas being strategically important and competitive at the world level, therefore, there are created favorable conditions for investments attraction to the knowledge receptive areas even from the United States of America and Asian countries. In this case, the growth of competitiveness and attractiveness of the European Union should be stimulated in regard with potential investors. However, within some recent years, the situation regarding the direct foreign investments attraction to Lithuanian economy has not been satisfied, taking into consideration that the scope of annual direct foreign investments flows cannot be considered as growing: they showed only considerable ‘jumping’ difference when comparing the annual volumes of the direct foreign investments (see Pic. 44). 3000 2000 1500

2521,9

2338,7

2500

2493,2

1750,9 1394,8 1361,3

1085,2

1000

1324,6 515,6

500 0 1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Picture 44. Annual direct foreign investments made in Lithuania, mln. LTL (source of information: the Programme of Action for Economic Growth, 2006) According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, at the beginning of 2005, direct foreign investments (DFI) accumulated in the ICT sector in Lithuania amounted to LTL 2501,9 million, i.e. 15,5 percent of total DFI amount in Lithuania (see Pic. 45). Most investments into this sector were made by Scandinavian countries: at the beginning of 2005 Denmark invested LTL 1087,6 million (43,5% of total amount of DFI in this sector), Sweden Litas570,1 million (22,8%). However, major part of direct foreign investments in this sector were made into companies involved in telecommunications activities: investments into aforementioned companies were equal to 72,7 percent of total amount of investments made into ICT sector.

Picture 45.

Foreign direct investment in ICT sector (at beginning of year, LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

88

2.3.4

PRODUCTION, TRADING AMD SERVICES CONNECTED TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, information technology products in 2005 amounted to 2,9 percent of all industrial products sold. These products include audio and video devices, computers and relevant equipment, electronic components, telecommunications installations and other ICT products (see Pic. 46). In 2005 Lithuanian companies sold information technology products for amount of LTL 1197 million, i.e. by 7,4 less compared to 2004. Most products sold by Lithuanian producers in 2005 were components of electronic devices (415) and audio and video equipment (38,4%of total sales. In 2005 the ICT sector‘s sales decreased compared to 2004: by 25,9 percent decreased sales of computers, by 25,8 –sales of spare parts of electronics and by 1,3 percent – the sales of other ICT sector‘s products. However, sales of telecommunications devices increased by 33,9 percent; sales of audio and video equipment increased by 21,9 percent.

Picture 46.

Lithuanian production value of ICT goods by product group (at current prices, LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In 2005 income amount received by enterprises involved in wholesale trading in ICT products increased by 20,8 percent and reached LTL 5727,6 million compared to the previous year (see Pic. 47). In 2005 income amount received from wholesale trading by trading companies involved in trading in computers, peripheral installations and software amounted to LTL 1579,3 million, or 27,6 percent from total sales of all the ICT sector‘s enterprises. In 2005 the largest income was received by companies involved in providing of computer services, installation of computer networks and consultations regarding the use of computer equipment, this income amount was equal to LTL 541,9 million, or 70,5 percent of total income received by enterprises involved in computer services providing. During the year 2005 income of these companies increased by 26,9 percent. According to summarized data presented by the Department of Statistics the annual income received by the software and service enterprises amounted to about LTL 300 million.

89

Picture 47.

2.3.5

Income of ICT wholesale and service enterprises (LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

EXPORT AND IMPORT OF ICT PRODUCTS

During 2001-2005 the export and import of ICT products was under constant increase. According to data presented by the Department of Statistics, in 2005 amount of exported and imported products was equal to 5,2 percent of total Lithuanian export and in 2003 – 5 percent, in 2004 - 5,6 percent. In 2004 among imported goods the share of ICT products was equal to 6,9 percent, in 2005 - 6,8 percent. According to data contained in Customs declarations and Intrust reports, in 2005 there were exported ICT products for amount of LLT 1699,2 million and there were imported to Lithuania the ICT products for amount of LTL 2932,0 million. In 2005 the ICT products export increased by 16,9 percent compared to 2004 and was equal to 5,2 percent of total Lithuanian export, import increased by 24,5 percent and was equal to 6,8 percent of total Lithuanian import. Major part of imported information technology products in 2005 were computers and relevant equipment (33,5%) and telecommunications equipment (23,9%) (Pic. 48).

90

Picture 48.

Structure of imports of ICT products in 2004-2005. (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In 2005 the largest export share consisted of electronic devices (Pic. 49): amount of these goods exported was equal to 34,9 percent of the total ICT goods exported, in 2004 - 49,5 percent. In 2005, compared to the year 2004 export of computers and relevant equipments was under the fastest growth, it increased by 2,1 times, import of computers and relevant equipment increased by 44,1 percent.

Picture 49.

Structure of exports of ICT products 2004-2005 years. (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In 2005 most ICT products were exported to Russia (17,3%), Latvia (12,1%), Turkey (11,5%) (pick0). Most goods were imported from Germany (16,1%), Finland (12,9%), the Netherlands (11,9% of the total ICT products import) (Pic. 50-51).

Picture 50.

Main exports partners of ICT products in 2004-2005. (source: Statistics Lithuania) 91

Picture 51.

2.3.6

Main imports partners of ICT products in 2004-2005. (source: Statistics Lithuania)

LITHUANIAN THE ICT ENTERPRISES IN BALTIC MARKET

Prime Investment, one of the leading investment banking companies, established in Lithuania, which is regularly issuing semiannual reviews about the information technology and telecommunications market. These reviews contain information about the most important news on the ITT market and special the ICT companies ratings by the ICT services turnover and efficiency of the value added created by the companies mentioned. The ratings mentioned consider the income received from the ICT services, software creation, programming, system integrating, maintenance, realization of software and systems, sales of consulting services and software products, created in the country. This income amount do not include sales of hardware, income received from re-sold software, office equipment and other products. Daughter companies or branches established by appropriate foreign companies are not considered as well According to ICT enterprises rating ‚Prime TOP-20‘ in 2005 (see table 33), for two years on end the tempo of Baltic ICT enterprises‘ growth has been measured by two-figure numbers: in 2005 the ICT services turnover increased by 24 percent and total income by 16,4 percent. This proves the tendency that that companies in Baltic States have already developed the competitive ICT infrastructure, therefore, they make further investments into solutions related to programming business management that allow to use the ICT infrastructure advantages in business processes in more efficient way and help to ensure the safety of existing ICT [PrimeInvestment, 2006b]. Table 33. Rating of Baltic ICT service companies in 2005, thousand Euros (source: www.primeinvestment.lt) Nr

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Enterprises

Exigen Group (LV) Sonex Group (LT) MicroLink Eesti (EE) Alna Group (LT) Elsis Group (LT) Baltic Data Center (LT) MicroLink Lietuva (LT) Helmes (EE) Webmedia (EE) Blue Bridge (LT) Sintagma Group (LT)

ICT service income

Total income

2005

2004

Annual growth %

% from total

2005

2004

Annual growth,%

19 994 15 639 8 115 7 768 4 300 4 021 4 018 3 727 3 712 3 539 2 882

17 585 10 861 7 412 7 697 3 840 3 615 2 823 2 234 2 083 2 007 2 491

14% 44% 9% 1% 12% 11% 42% 67% 78% 76% 16%

100% 20% 62% 38% 25% 100% 87% 56% 92% 15% 39%

19 994 79 066 13 163 20 361 17 450 4 021 4 630 6 599 4 032 23 712 7 436

17 585 66 902 12 013 17 016 13 707 3 615 2 887 5 946 2 313 19 811 7 878

14% 18% 10% 20% 27% 11% 60% 11% 74% 20% -6%

92

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Tilde SIA (LV) New Vision Baltija Group (LT) Regio (EE) Algoritmu sistemos (LT) HNIT-Baltic Geoinfoservisas (LT) Baltic Amadeus (LT) Prototechnika Group (LT) Santa Monica Networks (EE) Edrana (LT)

2 636 2 143

2 260 2 027

17% 6%

100% 20%

2 636 10 832

2 260 8 515

17% 27%

2 097 1 722 1 702

496 1 970 1 183

322% -13% 44%

89% 75% 54%

2 347 2 308 3 131

648 2 041 2 318

262% 13% 35%

1 561 1 334

1 277 1 300

22% 3%

22% 90%

7 180 1 485

10 641 1 481

-33% 0%

1 248

582

114%

16%

7 849

7 090

11%

1 206

1 056

14%

95%

1 265

1 103

15%

Based on rating “Prime‘s TOP-20“ of the first six months of 2006 created upon data provided by the ICT enterprises (see table 34), Baltic ICT service market was developing fast within the six month period of this year. Now it is possible to predict that the sector shall be growing within the next year as well. Companies of ‚Prime‘s TOP-20‘ rating have increased the share of the ICT services in total income amount: income received from the ICT services was increased by 26,3 percent, whilst general companies‘ income increased by 22,6 percent. Five companies rated as ‚Prime‘s TOP-20‘ increased the ICT service income more than twice compared to the first six months of the year 2005. [PrimeInvestment, 2006a]. Table 34. Rating of Baltic ICT service companies in the first six months of the year 2006, thousand Euros (source: www.primeinvestment.lt) Nr

Enterprises

ICT service income 2006 I half

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Sonex Group (LT) Exigen Group (LV) Microlink Eesti (EE) Alna Group (LT) Elsis Group (LT) Webmedia Group (EE) Columbus IT Partner (LT/LV/EE) Helmes (EE) Baltic Data Center (LT) Microlink Lietuva (LT) Blue Bridge (LT) Tilde (LV) Baltic Amadeus (LT) Edrana (LT) FMS (LV) Sintagma Group (LT) Santa Monica Networks (EE) New Vision Baltija Group (LT) NRD (LT) Rix Technologies (LV)

2005 I half

Total income

Annual growth %

% from total

2006 I half

2005 I half

Annual growth %

10,861 9,373 4,839 4,270 3,330 2,480 2,374

8,689 8,300 3,769 3,629 3,686 1,223 2,068

25% 13% 28% 18% -10% 103% 15%

34.9% 100.0% 58.3% 52.6% 30.4% 92.5% 75.9%

31,105 9,373 8,299 8,114 10,969 2,680 3,128

28,557 8,300 5,715 8,083 8,984 1,544 3,256

9% 13% 45% 0% 22% 74% -4%

2,264 2,137 2,072 1,832 1,580 1,576 1,034 1,015 956 924

1,126 1,841 1,879 1,474 1,052 565 527 402 1,178 623

101% 16% 10% 24% 50% 179% 96% 152% -19% 48%

52.3% 100.0% 77.5% 17.4% 100.0% 27.5% 97.8% 97.0% 20.8% 19.3%

4,331 2,137 2,673 10,516 1,580 5,730 1,057 1,047 4,602 4,800

2,327 1,841 2,054 8,621 1,052 3,320 564 402 2,894 3,263

86% 16% 30% 22% 50% 73% 87% 160% 59% 47%

840

719

17%

22.8%

3,691

3,924

-6%

546 529

233 435

134% 22%

96.9% 100.0%

563 529

233 435

142% 22%

93

2.3.7

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONS IN LITHUANIA AND THE ICT SECTOR

Knowledge is the basis for economic development, new jobs creation and social welfare. Fruitful knowledge as a basis for the knowledge economics shall be accumulated and renewed regularly when developing the scientific research and practical activities. Modern state should focus on the needs of the knowledge economics to be the most important factor to base the development of state economy and the task of the state in this regard shall be the creation of favorable environment for the aforementioned process creating conditions for development of the state economy. In 2005 in Lithuania an amount of LTL 542 million was spent for scientific research and technological development (R&D). (see table 35). The amount of 110,5 million LTL belong to business companies. Table 35. Costs for scientific research and development of technology (source: Statistics of Lithuania) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

2004 2005

Total LTL mln. 114,9 164,9 217,2 244,5 220,3 269,9 326,8 344,7 381,8 472,7 542,0 Including, % Fundamental research 52,6 39,5 41,1 46,6 55,7 41,7 35,3 40,9 35,5 35,8 34,7 Applied research 39,6 41,6 44,1 43,3 34,5 36,3 29,8 36,3 38,0 36,7 36,4 Development of 7,8 18,9 14,8 10,1 9,8 22,0 34,9 22,8 26,5 27,5 28,9 experimental activities Ratio of costs for scientific research to 0,46 0,52 0,56 0,56 0,52 0,59 0,67 0,66 0,67 0,76 0,76* Gross Domestic Product (GDP), % * Preliminary data.

Competitiveness of Lithuanian business companies can be considered as considerably low and insufficient. In most cases this was based on low innovative activities. According to international valuations of level of innovation Lithuania is far behindhand compared to indexes of EU-15 member states and is at the bottom in the list of new EU member states. [the Programme of Action for Economic Growth, 2006]. This economic lag of Lithuania compared to leading states of the European Union is based on low level of investing into scientific research and technological development (R&D). Besides, among the European countries Lithuania is at the bottom by common technological level, amount of patents, the Internet users and number of personal computers, foreign technology licensing activities. According to Network Readiness Index of the World Economic Forum in 2004–2005 Lithuania was behind most states of the European Union, except for Latvia, Poland and Slovakia and took 43 position among 102 world countries (the average position of the EU-25 is 29). Besides, there is an evidencing lack of researchers in Lithuanian business sector. According to the Department of Statistics of Lithuania in 2004 a number of researchers was 589, of whom only 103 had academic degree. Number of researchers employed with business enterprises amounts to 6,7 percent of total number of researchers. Upon this index Lithuania had one of the lowest position among the European Union member states [the Programme of Action for Economic Growth, 2006]. Among the European Union members states Lithuania keeps the only position by one innovative activity index: companies‘ cooperation related to innovative activity (in the area of innovation Lithuanian companies are working in close cooperation and interaction). Lithuania keeps the 4 position by this index among EU-25 and exceeds by 34% the EU-25 average index. According to results of analysis carried out in 2005 (European Innovation Scoreboard 2005: Comparative analysis of Innovation Performance), in 2002-2004 only 10,1of innovative enterprises were provided with financial support by various state institutions (such as deferred taxes or privileges, non-repayable benefits, subsidized credit facilities or credit collaterals). Most 94

innovative enterprises (6,0) received financial support for innovations from the state budget and the European Union support programmes (4,4). According to the aforementioned analysis, about half of companies mentioned (47,7%) received helpful information for their innovative projects from their internal sources, 29,2% – from customers and users, 26,9% – from suppliers of equipment and materials. A considerable amount of companies received information about innovations and needs for innovations from appropriate fairs and exhibitions: 18,4%, from competitors or the companies of the same market: 12,9%. Only 2,0% of companies gained some information from the state scientific institutions, universities of other higher schools. Stimulation of innovations and business activities is an important means of increase in the valued added created within the economic services sector, in the companies‘ innovativeness and residents‘ businesses. A level of business activity is low in Lithuania (16 functioning SME/per thousand residents at the beginning of 2005). One of the most important factors to condition the level of business is the lack of knowledge and a certain fear of starting the business. Besides, the growth of functioning companies can be suppressed either by escalated competition or such market disadvantages as limited financial opportunities, impossibility to carry out comprehensive scientific research and innovative activities, take part in networks and supply chains. In 2005 42 Business Information Centers were functioning in Lithuania, 7 business incubators, including 1 technological business incubator (the Kaunas Technological University Regional Business Incubator, established in 1998, the Alytus Business incubator, established in 1998, the Vilnija Business Incubator established in 1998, the Telšiai region Business Incubator, established in 1998; the Šiauliai Business incubator, established in 1999; the Kazlų Rūda Business Incubator, established in 2000; the Ignalina Nuclear Plant area Business incubator, established in 2002), 6 science and technology parks (the Science and Technology Park, established in 1993, the Kaunas high-tech and information technology park, established in 2002, the Northern community technology park, established in 2003, the Klaipėda science and technology park, established in 2002, the Visoriai information technology park established in 2002, the Šiauliai university science and technology park, established in 2002. The Kaunas TECHNOPOLIS, the Vilnius BIOPOLIS are under the process of establishment; „Saulėtekio slėnis“ founded in Vilnius shall start functioning soon as well as 2 innovation centers established in Vilnius and other institutions.

Picture 52.

Infrastructure of public services provided for business activities, source: [Programme of Action for Economic Growth, 2006])

95

Within some recent years the amount of funds allocated for scientific research is constantly increasing in Lithuania In 2004 this amount was equal to LTL 472,7 million or 0,76 percent of the gross Domestic Product, as much as in 2005 according to preliminary data (table 36) [the Department of Statistics]. However, compared to an average index of the EU-25 member states, the level of financing of the scientific research in Lithuania is considerably less either in the European Union on the whole or the new the European Union member states. According to information contained in the European Innovation Scoreborad of 2005, in 2003 the European Union 25 member states invested into scientific research (in public and business sectors) about 1,95 percent of the their Gross Domestic Product, while Lithuania only 0,68 of the GDP. 0.76

0.8 0.67 0.7 0.6

0.59 0.52

GDP, %

0.5

0.66

0.67

0.55

0.53

0.6 0.48 Business sector

0.4

Public sector

0.3

Total

0.2

0.19 0.07

0.11

0.14

0.16

0.1 0 2000

Picture 53.

2001

2002

2003

2004

Expenditure on R&D ratio to the GDP (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

Business investments made into R&D in Lithuania are still insufficient, compared to the similar investments made by the EU-25. According to data of EIS in 2005, in 2003 business means designated for R&D in the EU-25 on average reached 1,26 percent of the GDP and in Lithuania only 0,14% (Among the EU-25 members states Lithuania keeps the 22nd position by this index). Only 6,7 % of total number of researchers are employed with business enterprises and this index is the lowest in the EU member states (the EU-15 index is about 50%). When comparing the scope of R&D financing in public and business sectors in Lithuania in 2004, it becomes clear that business investments made either in research carried out the companies and expenses for development works or companies‘ expenses related to acquisition of the works mentioned are by 3 times more compared to investments made in public sector (see Pic. 54).

96

Abroad funds; 10.7%

Government sector funds; 63.1%

Picture 54.

Higher education sector funds; 6.0%

Private non-profit sector funds; 0.3%

Business enterprises sector funds; 19.9%

Expenditure on R&D according to financing sources in 2004 (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

The R&D expenses of the ICT enterprises in 2005 amounted to LLT 34,9 million (Pic.55). The ICT sector‘s companies‘ R&D expenses in 2005 increased by 64 percent compared to the year 2004 and amounted to 31,6 percent of total R&D expenses in the business companies sector (Pic. 56). The R&D expenses of the processing companies in 2005 decreased by 22,7 percent, of which the R&D expenses of the information technology sector‘s companies decreased by 18,1 percent, in 2005 these expenses amounted to 22,6 percent of total expenses of processing companies in 2005 (in 2004 there were equal to 21,3%). Service companies expenses for scientific research and technological development were equal to 45,4 percent from the R&D expenses of the services companies.

Picture 55.

Picture 56.

R&D expenditures in ICT sector (LTL million) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

R&D expenditures in business enterprises sector in 2002-2005. (source: Statistics Lithuania)

97

Final result of scientific achievements is application of innovations to practical activities, spread of these achievements in public society and implementation by the organization. In 20022004 in Lithuania 23,4 percent of companies were involved in innovative activities. In the ICT sector innovations were implemented by 44 percent of companies (see Pic. 57). Major part of the ICT sector’s innovative companies (85,6%) consisted of the companies involved in the ICT services providing.

Picture 57.

Innovation enterprises in ICT sector in 2002-2004. (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

About 45 percent of total employees number were working for innovative companies. Despite the fact that only every fourth company was involved in innovative activities, the innovative companies’ turnover amounted to more than one half of all companies’ total turnover (in 2002 -59,5%, in 2004 - 56,9% of total turnover of all the companies). When analyzing innovative companies by number of employees, it was revealed that innovations have been submitted to the market by over 60 percent (60,6%) of large companies with 250 and more employees. However, among innovative companies large enterprises amounted to only 8,2 percent. Small companies with number of employees from 10 to 49 were the main innovators of the state and these companies amounted to 58,1 percent of all the innovative companies. The R&D employees‘ employment rate in the information technology sector‘s companies in 2005 amounted to 37,8 percent of total number of employees involved in the R&D activities of the business companies‘ sector (Pic. 58).

Picture 58.

R&D personnel in ICT sector enterprises (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

Most the R&D employees of the ICT sector were working for the ICT production companies (Pic. 59). The share of the R&D employees of the ICT service companies (including the software and electronic service companies) reached 21,6 percent in 2005.

98

Picture 59.

R&D personnel in ICT sector (per cent) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In Lithuania, amount of public sector’s expenses for scientific research and technological development is not considerably different from the EU average index: according to EIS of 2005, in 2003 the R&D financing by public sources in the EU-25 states was equal to about 0,69 % of the GDP, in Lithuania in index was equal to 0,54%. According to data provided by the Department of Statistics of Lithuania, in 2004 in Lithuania means allocated for R&D by public sector (i.e. governmental and higher education means) amounted to 0,48 % of the GDP. However, the efficiency of use of the public sector‘s means for R&D is still very low in Lithuania [Programme of Action for Economic Growth, 2006].One of the most important reason of this is insufficient cooperation between the scientific research institutions, universities and economy subjects when performing scientific research and creating new products and technologies of the market. The subject of scientific research poorly meets the needs of business; helpful results are not properly applied to practical business activities. Nowadays, higher schools and the scientific research institutions in Lithuania upon tender conditions receive only about 7% of means allocated by public sources of financing, the balance means are poorly related to activity results of the aforementioned institutions and depends on criteria based on number of students and appropriate staff, the result of teaching programmes, etc. Therefore, one of the most important task to be fulfilled in future is to increase the relevance for business of public scientific research, to stimulate the researchers’ and scientists’ activity when creating and testing in cooperation with appropriate enterprises the new products and technology. In order to implement the aforementioned task, full attention should be paid to the R&D projects elaborated in close cooperation of business and scientific institutions, at the same time, promoting business investments into scientific research and technological development and an active researchers’ and scientists’ integration into the process of economic development. Table 36. Scientific and technological indexes (source: the Department of Statistics of Lithuania) 2003

2004

2005

Number of residents with high and higher education degree in nature, techniques and applied sciences per 1000 residents

16,3

17,5

18,9

Residents with higher education, %

23,0

25,2

30,6

Index of life-long training (age 24-64), %

4,5

6,5

6,3

Average rate of employment in high and high-tech technology industry, %

3,0

2,6

2,5

Rate of employment in high-tech (knowledge requiring) service sector, %

1,7

1,4

1,5

Business enterprises‘ means

16,7

19,9

20,9

Governmental means

64,6

63,1

62,7

Foreign means

13,8

10,7

10,5

R&D expenses by sources of financing, %

99

2003

2004

2005

Higher education sector‘s means

4,8

6,0

5,7

Non-profitable institutions‘ sector‘s means

0,1

0,3

0,2

Ratio of expenses for scientific research activities (R&D) to the Gross Domestic product (GDP), %

0,67

0,76

0,76*

The share of value added created by high and middle high-tech sector in the value added created in processing production, %

19,2

20,1

19,9*

*Preliminary data

2.3.8

STRUCTURAL FUNDS‘ SUPPORT IN 2004–2006

Implementation of the General Programming Document (hereinafter referred to as GPD) in Lithuania in 2004–2006 showed a great interest of strong companies in the EU structural funds‘ support and its intensity when submitting appropriate applications. Within 2004–2005 413 applications were submitted regarding projects connected to GPD means ‚Direct Business Support‘. The aforementioned applications contained the support amount necessary for implementation of projects (LTL 1,25 billion) which by 16 times exceeded the amount the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania could concluded an agreement upon for 2004–2005. Within the period of time mentioned there were concluded 26 support agreements for allocation of financial support for LTL 198,9 million amount, of which 4 were concluded with the companies-beginners. Major part of companies‘ projects (57%) were related to company‘s modernization and the implementation of innovations. Projects connected to scientific research and technological development as well as relations between industrial and business subjects amount to 17% of total number of applications submitted in 2004–2006. In the first half of the year 2006 51 modernization and innovation projects, 8 projects connected to scientific research, technological development and cooperation were being implemented. Within 2004–2005 the demand for the EU structural funds‘ means for the infrastructure and service business projects was comparatively small (17 applications submitted), taking into consideration that in 2005 there were established no any new the service business network institutions, and existing institutions implemented the programmes connected to business services and other projects financed by the national budget, Phare EUS 2002 means and other sources. Number of applications submitted regarding implementation for other activities connected to the GPD means , Improvement of Business Environment‘ was not large as well: 7 applications were submitted for creation of industrial zones and promotion of a ‘smooth plot’ investments, 5 - for the science and technology parks activities, 6 – for improvement of the image of Lithuania products and services, 3 – for associate business structures. Total number of applications submitted for improvement of the business environments is 39. Within 2004–2005 17 projects related to the business environment improvements were started to implement, 11 of which were projects connected to public small and middle-size business support system. Total amount of support provided is LTL 29 million. When implementing the aforementioned projects it is planned to provide services to 14479 SVV enterprises, to create 1 cluster, provide support for creation of 1 industrial zone and 1 science and technology park. In 2006 there was an increased number of the business environment improvement projects: 92 appropriate applications were submitted, most of which (37%) were related to improvement of the small and middle-size business support system. It is necessary to note that in 2006 the associated business structures were active in submission of appropriate applications (28& of total number of applications submitted).

100

2.3.9

THE PROJECTS OF SPD „THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AND INFRASTUCTURE“

The list of the projects represented for the competitions “The development of information technology services and infrastructure” of Lithuanian 2004-2006 General programming document 3.3, with the claimants of which the agreements were signed. [IPDC, 2006]: The projects of the call "Electronic infrastructure" №.

The name of the project

1. „The creating of the

The executor of the project

Public institution

The date The The value Comments of duration of agreement of the appropriate signing project, expense, in in hundreds months of litas 2005-01-24 33 16,442 The main purposes of the project: to create the Safe national data transfer network

trunk part of the safe „Infostruktura“

(SNDTN), to which Lithuanian authority institutions will be joined; to certify SNDTN and

national data transfer

to connect it with administrative institutions’ network TESTA - ES.

network (SNDTN) “ 2. „The creating of broadband data

The administration 2005-08-31 32

6,676

of the municipality

During the fulfillment of the project in the territories of the municipalities of Lazdiju and Alytaus districts there will be created the infrastructure of broadband data transfer network

transfer network in the of Lazdiju district

, including the decisions of „the last mile“, as well as public administration, education and

municipalities of

medical institutions of Lazdiju and Alytaus districts will be connected to the integral

Lazdiju and Alytaus

computer-based network.

districts“ 3. The development of

The Ministry of

2005-10-21 29

9,763

During the fulfillment of the project the network of existing public Internet access points

the network of public Home Affairs of

(PIAP) will be expanded to distant rural areas establishing 400 new PIAP and modernizing

Internet access points the Lithuanian

83 working ones on purpose to provide better conditions for all the residents of the country

Republic

to use information technology and information sources accessible with a help of it.

4. „The broadband

Mathematics and

2005-09-13 30

53,422

In the project there is specified to equip in rural administration centers Internet junction

network of the

Informatics

points from which high-speed internet would be supplied to residents, different institutions

information

Institute

who will pay for it a small price.

technology of the rural areas RAIN“ 5. The safety of national The Ministry of

2006-04-12 18

9,921

The project is intended to implement modern integrated safety means of information

informative systems

Home Affairs of

systems in the main national information systems. The implementation of the project will

(SNIS)

the Lithuanian

make prerequisites to provide safe public Internet services for natural and legal persons of

Republic

Lithuania on the ground of the principle of “one window“. The projects of the call "Electronic authority and electronic services"

Nr.

The name of the project

6. „The creating and implementing of

The executor of The date The The value Comments the project of duration of agreement of the appropriate signing project, expense, in in hundreds months of litas Public institution 2005-04- 40 5,671 The purpose of the project: to provide conditions for forehand declaration of cargo and The directorate of 15

goods, for the order of loading works as well as for the control of other processes taking

information system of Klaipeda’s cargo and goods

place in Klaipeda’s port with a help of solid information system.

national port

carrying through Klaipeda’s national port (CAGIS) “ 7. „The public electronic Public institution 2005-04service of realty contracts (PESRC)“

Register centre

29

30

5,082

The purpose of the project: to create electronic service involving the introduction of the information of the realty register and the cadastre through the Internet to the notaries and participants of contracts, computer-assisted preparation of data and documents of a contract and the registration of changed juridical facts and contracts themselves in the realty register.

102

8. „The development of Public institution 2005-05geographical

The centre of

information

remote researches

infrastructure of

and

Lithuania“

geoinformatics

32

17,539

18

The purpose of the project is to create a modern geographical information transfer system within the whole country, which will guarantee the inter-responsiveness of different collections of geographical data as well as geographical link of national registers.

„GIS-Centras“ 9. „Internet tool of the translation of

The university of 2005-06-

30

5,586

Vytautas Magnus 30

The purpose of the project: to create interactive means of translation from English to Lithuanian of Internet pages which will convey miscellaneous English content of Internet pages on purpose to enable people who do not know English to understand the content of

information"

the pages. 10. „The creation of the

The

2005-07-

23

19,495

The purpose of the project: to create and to implement the united coordinated among towns

informing system of

administration of 11

public transport control system and the system of the payment for passengers’ carriage by

passengers and

Vilnius

electronic means the purpose of which is to decrease the expense of town administration

electronic tickets in

municipality

institutions as well to guarantee favorable conditions of the usage of the system for the

public transport" 11. „The creating of integral virtual

passengers independent of their social and geographical position. Lithuanian

2005-08-

30

14,526

national library of 30

use free of charge documents accumulated in public libraries, archives and museums of

information system of Martynas libraries“ 12. „Forehand patients registration system“

During the fulfillment of the project there will be created a possibility for the residents to Lithuania which are transferred into digital format and accessible by the Internet.

Mazvydas Public institution 2005-09-

23

7,350

During the fulfillment of the project the created system will connect the registration systems

Santariskiu clinic 03

of separate medical institutions what will enable: patients to reserve time of the

of the hospital of

appointment with a doctor by the Internet; to choose doctors from different medical

Vilnius university

institutions; to inform patients automatically about the state of the appointment, about the cancellation of the appointment and so on; to improve the administration processes of medical institutions.

103

13. „The development of Public Purchase

2005-10-

29

13,385

The purpose of the project: - to reduce the expense of public purchases stimulating

the information

Office attached to 12

competition among suppliers ; - to improve the processes of public purchases; - to enable

system of public

the government of

purchasing organizations to use different means of purchasing; - to use human resources of

purchases “

the Lithuanian

purchasing organization more effectively ; - to improve accountancy and control

Republic

possibilities of public purchases; - to improve the clarity of public purchases.

14. „The system of the

The Department 2005-11-

27

6,712

The project is intended to implement electronic services corresponding to the forth maturity

reception and

of national social 25

level of the transposition of public services to the Internet network for assurers who

processing of

insurance fund

obligatorily insure employees with national social insurance.

electronic SD forms“ 15. „E-medical services“ The Ministry of Health of the

16. „The modernization

2006-02-

30

19,078

27

The purpose of the project is to create electronic services which: will improve the quality and accessibility health care services and information related with health; will provide

Lithuanian

conditions to improve the competence of medical employees and the efficiency of their

Republic

work, planning and operating possibilities of heads and administrators.

Public institution 2006-02-

30

4,096

The main purposes of the project are: to modernize information systems of the Legal Acts’

and expansion of the

Juridical

registration of legal

information

Legal Acts’ Registry and after complementing Legal Acts’ Registry to integrate it to the

acts “

centre

Internet portal of EU national law NAT-Lex.

23

17. „The expansion of the National territory 2006-02creation and

planning and

implementation of

construction

27

Registry and data safety means; after replacement of storage format of the documents of

30

3,590

The purpose of the project – to create the electronic service of the delivery of building permission of the third level on the territory of the Lithuanian Republic. After reaching this goal it is expected: to implement the delivery of public services (the delivery of building

public services supply inspection

permissions and other compulsory documents related with projection of buildings and

with a help of remote attached to the

building processes) by electronic means; the united information system of construction state

link and of

in the country integrated with other information systems and register of the country will

Department of the

information system of Environment

exist; the waiting upon the receivers of services will be improved, the abuse (possibility of

building permissions

corruption) of public sector employers will be reduced to a minimum and there will be

implementing the

implemented the principle of „one window” during the supply of mentioned public services.

concept of electronic

104

authority (according to programme documents of the EU) 18. „The creating of

Informative

2006-03-

inter-responsiveness

community

28

(the capacity of

development

29

6,424

The purpose of the project is to create the central (national) portal of electronic services (further – Portal), which as a participant of data exchange through the united link will become the intermediate between business, residents and services providing institutions.

systems’ interaction) committee

Such a Portal would guarantee the organization of the proving of 20 electronic services

of the information

attached to the

recommended and controlled by the EU, as well as authentication of users providing the

systems of public

Government of

services of the III and IV maturity level. The Portal could also provide the services which

administration

the Lithuanian

are not attributed to any institution or complex services which could appear in future

institutions “

Republic

(composed from already providing electronic public services).

19. „The creating of

Public institution

23

10,923

The provided project will allow to fulfill the mission of LRT– „To provide Lithuanian

virtual library of tele- Lithuanian

community with exact, objective and well-balanced information, with qualitative, educative,

production which will national radio and

cultural and entertaining programs; to make prerequisites for harmonious development, for

guarantee public

the development of democracy as well as for consolidation of the valuables of an honest

television

electronic access to

society in the Lithuanian Republic “— not only with a help of the broadcasting of the

audiovisual heritage

programs on TV, but also providing the society with electronic public services with a help

of Lithuania

of information technology.

perpetuated in Lithuanian television programs, and the warranting of the continuous digitizing , saving and accessibility of this heritage to the community “

105

The projects of the call "The support for the preparation of projects" Nr. The name of the project

20. „The creating of E-

The executor of The date The The value Comments the project of duration of agreement of the appropriate signing project, expense, in in hundreds months of litas Public Institution 2005-06- 9 78 In the provided investment project there will be analyzed the possibility to implement the

ambulatory health

15

care system and its

Seskines

implementation in

policlinics

project the intended purpose of which is to reduce medical and administrative expenses and to provide qualitative healthcare services in emergency healthcare institutions in Vilnius.

emergency health care institutions of Vilnius ("EHealth"): the preparation of an investment project (the analysis of possibilities) a technical project“ 21. „The implementation Custom’s

2005-06-

12

136

In the provided investment project there will be analyzed the possibility to implement the

of public service

Department

„Custom’s

attached to the

electronic environment as well as its light and stepped-up accessibility to all business objects

declarations“ in

Treasury

of Lithuania will appear.

electronic

Department of

environment; the

the Lithuanian

preparation of

Republic

21

project thanks to which public service related with custom declarations will be transferred to

project-based documentation“

106

22. „The preparation of Lithuanian the documentation of language

2005-06-

9

74

21

possibility to prepare the project thanks to which the functioning of the Lithuanian language

the project „the allocation of

The project is intended for the investment project in which there will be analyzed the in computer environment would be guaranteed.

Institute

software “ 23. „The integration of

Public company 2005-06-

vehicles registration "Regitra"

9

91

The project is intended for the investment project in which there will be analyzed the possibility to prepare the project thanks to which public service related with the registration of

23

services and their

vehicle, when physical survey is not essential ( the delivery of new registration documents

transfer to electronic

and state number plates), would be completed by the Internet.

environment“ 24. „The preparation of Statistics

2005-06-

12

160

The prepared investment project will give a prerequisite to implement the main project thanks

the documentation

Department

necessary for the

attached to the

supplied by the Internet. E-service should include the preparation and presentation of all

implementation of

Government of

business data obligatory to give to Statistics Department as well as collecting of agriculture

the project

the Lithuanian

data from farmers and Agricultural societies.

„Electronic

Republic

27

to which there will be created E-service thanks to which statistical business data would be

preparation and transfer statistical business data“ 25. „The preparation of Auto roads the investment and

direction of

technical projects of Lithuania the project

2005-0628

15

125

In the supposed investment project there will be analyzed the possibility to implement the project thanks to which road traffic conditions would be supervised as well as information about them would be supplied to the society.

attached to the

„Information system Ministry of of road traffic of the communication state importance“

routes

107

26. „The support to the

Semiconductor

2005-06-

9

66

Preparing investment project will evaluate the project thanks to which there will be provided

project „The supply physics institute 28

conditions to all citizens of Lithuania and to the business subjects to use modern ITT means

of electronic

effectively during communication with authority institutions – the supply of authorized time

authorized juridical

marks related with coordinated time scale of Lithuania to the supplies of public e-services.

power having coordinated time marks of Lithuania to the executors of electronic authority projects “ 27. „The preparation of Public company 2005-06documentation

12

91

"Registry center" 29

Preparing investment project will evaluate how to implement the project thanks to which there will be created electronic service allowing to register legal persons by the Internet or to

necessary for the

complete part of these procedures by the Internet. The service will include the delivery of

implementation of

licenses necessary for the work of a legal person using the Internet.

the project „The transfer registration procedures to electronic environment“ 28. „The preparation of The central necessary

2005-06-

national archive 30

11

75

The prepared investment project will give a prerequisite to implement the main project which will provide a possibility to encipher with a help of information technology and to supply to

documentation of the of Lithuania

the user the Lithuanian documentary films heritage, connecting the data of catalogues with a

project „Lithuanian

view.

documentary films in the Internet “

108

29. „The preparation of National the investment

Information

2005-07-

12

106

01

The preparing investment project will evaluate the project thanks to which there will be created the optimal model of electronic signature infrastructure which will influence the

project (the analysis technology

effective and safe development of different economic activity services supplying by the

of possibilities) of

Internet.

institute

the project „The creating of the infrastructure of electronic signature in Lithuania “ 30. „Public electronic

The

2005-07-

9

37

Prepared investment project will provide a prerequisite to implement the main project thanks

services for the users administration of 01

to which there will be created electronic service of the forth level of interactivity in the water

of public utilities“

supply and run-off elimination sector for the community Telsiu municipality.

the municipality of Telsiu district

31. „The preparation of Lithuanian labor 2005-07documentation of the exchange

9

160

01

The project is intended for the investment project in which there will be analyzed the possibility formulate the project thanks to which public services and information related with

project „The supply attached to Social

work offers as well as work search will be supplied to the public, business subjects and

of electronic public

safety and Labor

institutions more effectively and qualitatively with a help of information technology.

services to

Ministry

employers and residents (e-labor exchange)“ 32. „The information

National

2005-07-

9

56

The preparing investment project will evaluate the project which will create accessible to

system of national

medicine control 07

everyone public service guarantying the availability of information about medicines with a

medicine control

office attached to

help of information system.

office “

the Ministry of health of the LR

109

33. „e-Parliament“- the The chancellery 2005-07development of

10

107

of the Parliament 08

underlying functions to project future electronic service (further e-service) intended for

electronic democracy of the Lithuanian means in the

The purpose of the supposed investment project is after naming the most actual and expansion of the information system of the Parliament.

Republic

Permanent of the Lithuanian Republic“ 34. „The implementation Public company 2005-07-

9

107

The project is intended for the investment project in which there will be analyzed the

and development of Vilnius academic 08

possibility to work out the project thanks to which with a help of the tools of information

information

emergency

system and using the Internet infrastructure there will be guaranteed the company’s link and

technologies of

medical service

the possibility to exchange data with a patient, other medical institutions, public institutions

Vilnius academic

hospital

and other information sources.

emergency medical service hospital (VAEMSH)“ 35. „The preparation of National taxman 2005-07the documentation of attached to the the project “The

9

160

08

The prepared investment project will provide the prerequisite to implement the main project which will create effective, safe, authorized electronic communication system between the

Treasury

taxman and taxpayers.

creation of educative Ministry of the and consulting

Lithuanian

system of taxpayers” Republic 36. „The preparation of The Department 2005-07the necessary

of the

documentation for

Environment of

the implementation

the Lithuanian

of the project „The

Republic

08

10

157

In the supposed investment project there will be analyzed the possibility to implement the project thanks to which there would be created e-service intended for the delivery of environment protection licenses to business subjects.

creation of E-service

110

- „The delivery of environment protection licenses“ 37. „The preparation of The

2005-07-

12

160

The preparing investment project will analyze the integration and transfer of social insurance

the documentation

administration of 11

services supplied by the administration of National social insurance fund (further - NSIF) and

necessary for the

national social

of social services supplied by the administrations of the municipalities situated in Siauliu

implementation of

insurance fund

district to electronic environment, creating e-service which will include all social services

the project "The

supplied by the administration of NSIF and the administrations of the municipalities of

integration and

Siauliu district.

transfer of social insurance and social services for the into electronic environment" 38. „The preparation of The Ministry of project-based

2005-09-

Home Affairs of 20

12

160

Prepared investment project will provide the prerequisite to implement the main project thanks to which there will be created an electronic service which will relieve and hasten the

documentation of the the Lithuanian

procedure of the declaration of residence as well as hasten its accessibility to all the residents

transfer of public

of Lithuania transferring it into the Internet environment.

Republic

service "The declaration of residence" into electronic environment“

111

39. „ The preparation of The Ministry of project-based

2005-09-

12

160

Home Affairs of 20

The project is intended for the investment project in which there will be analyzed the possibility to prepare the project thanks to which a public service related with the delivery of

documentation of the the Lithuanian

personal documents would be transferred into electronic environment, thus relieving and

transfer of public

hastening this procedure as well as improving its accessibility to all the residents of Lithuania.

Republic

service „Personal documents“ into electronic environment“ 40. „The preparation of The Ministry of the investment

2005-09-

12

107

Home Affairs of 20

In the supposed investment project there will be analyzed the possibility to implement the project thanks to which the documents of the citizens of the Lithuanian republic would fulfill

project of the issue the Lithuanian

the functions of electronic person’s identification and electronic signature apart from their

and using of

usual intended purpose.

Republic

multifunctional microprocessing personal documents“ 41. „ The preparation of The Ministry of project-based

2005-09-

Home Affairs of 20

12

160

The preparing investment project will evaluate the project thanks to which a public service related with the delivery of certificates will be transferred into electronic environment. If this

documentation of the the Lithuanian

service is transferred into the Internet there will be satisfied the demand of the citizens of

transfer of public

Lithuania to get these certificates expeditiously without visiting the registry offices of

service „The query

Republic

municipalities.

and delivery of certificates (birth, marriage registration) “ into electronic environment“

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42. The preparation of

Mathematics and 2006-03-

the documentation

informatics

necessary for the

institute

27

12

215

The purpose of the project is to fulfill the analysis and to prepare the documentation for the project which would be the continuation of the project „ The broadband network RAIN of information technologies of rural areas“ enabling the structure of broadband network, and to

implementation of

extend it in such a way that the Internet services of high speed would be accessible to the

the project RAIN2

institutions and individual users of rural areas.

(The broadband network of information technologies of rural areas: the access stage of „the last mile)

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2.3.10 PUBLIC ELECTRONIC SERVICES Information public development committee attached to the government of the Lithuanian Republic in April of 2004 m. fulfilled the analysis of electronic services model [IPDC, 2004], necessary on purpose to implement the resolution № 2115 of the Government of the Lithuanian Republic from the 31st of December, 2002, which confirms the concept of Electronic authority in which there is provided that by 2005 all public services which are administrated by public administration institutions and which could be supplied with a help of remote means, should be transferred into the Internet. In the concept there are defined four maturity levels of electronic services (table 37): - The first level – public services of informative character. The institution delivers public information by the Internet. - The second level - partial transaction. The institution delivers to the user through its website partly computer-assisted forms and questionnaires which the user can fill, print and use (for example, to give data to the institution). - The third level - partial interactivity. The identity of the user is determined in the system. He can give inquiries and the institution on the base of electronic inquire answers to this inquire. However, public service (for example, certificate) is delivered in non electronic form. - The forth level - complete interactivity. The user with a help of electronic channels gives a request and gets a valid electronic public service. Electronic public service in this research of IPDC [IPDC, 2004] is determined as a service providing a person with a possibility to complete different procedures meeting his demands and to get information in his residence in digital form with a help of public computer network. Table 37. Measurement levels of electronic public services (source: [IPDC, 2004]) Measureme Criterions Percents Explanation nt levels 0 Information is not provided 0 1 Information is published 25 The information in the Internet is essential to on-line start the procedure of the receiving a service 2 Interaction (the sending of 50 Interaction: to send or print fitted forms forms) necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service 3 Bilateral interactivity 75 Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are (processing of forms, given electronic forms; when you fill them the including authentication) procedure of the receiving a service begins. 4 Transactions take place in 100 Transaction: a possibility to complete the Internet including procedures fully with a help of electronic means delivery and payment and to get a service (for example, resolution, certificate, payment)

Considering programme documents of the European Union, among them and eEurope+, as well as the concept of Electronic authority, there were determined the main public service groups for citizens and business subjects [IPDC, 2004] (table 38). Fulfilling the research of electronic public services [IPDC, 2004], there was calculated a total index of the main public services accessible by the Internet, which is calculated as an average of accessibility (in percentage terms) of all evaluated public services. Total index of public services = 47,5 %

Comparing electronic public services for business and citizens (tables 39-40), it was notices that more attention is given to business: The index of public services for citizens =45,83% The index of public services for business =50%

Table 38. The groups of public services supplied to the citizens and to the business subjects (source: [IPDC, 2004]) To the citizens To the business subjects a. Income declaration i. Annual declaration of income-tax; ii. Income declaration of the citizens of the Lithuanian Republic who have bought or are buying expensive property; iii. Personal property declaration; b. The search of vacant work places (the services of Labor exchange, state services). i. The registration of unemployed; ii. The payment of unemployment compensation; iii. Placement. c. Social pays and compensations (unemployment compensations, compensation for medical services, student grants, allowances for large families). i. The commitment of family allowance; ii. The commitment of large family allowance; iii. The commitment of onetime allowance for the birth of baby; iv. The commitment of social allowance; v. The commitment of burial allowance; vi. The commitment of the allowance to the children of national defence soldiers; vii. The commitment of compensations for heating of dwelling houses, hot and cold water and solid fuel; d. Personal documents: i. The delivery/change of ID cards; ii. The delivery/change of passports; iii. The delivery/change of driving licenses. e. Vehicle registration (new, second-hand, importable). i. The registration of a vehicle; ii. The striking off the register of a vehicle; iii. The delivery of the certificate about belonging of a vehicle. f. The licenses to build buildings. i. The delivery of a license to build and destroy buildings. g. Reports to the police. i. The rendering of the reports about paid administrative punishments. h. The search of publications, editions in public libraries. i. The search and order of publications; ii. The presentation of full-text electronic publications. i. Birth and dearth certificates. i. Birth registration, the delivery of certificate; ii. Death registration, the delivery of certificate. j. The declaration of place of residence. i. The declaration of place of residence, the delivery of the certificate about the place of residence; ii. The delivery of the certificate about family structure. k. Interactive consultations of doctors and registration in policlinics. i. The registration in policlinics for the checkup. l. Applications to study (to study at university, to raise qualification). i. The registration of application to study; ii. The rendering of allowances to students s; iii. The payments of fees for study.

m. Company taxes (declaration, report). i. The registration of a tax-payer; ii. The rendering of tax declarations; iii. The rendering of the certificates about budget settlements; iv. The rendering of data to the taxman; v. The rendering of information about tax payment balance. n. Value-added tax (declaration, report). i. The registration of VAT payer; ii. VAT declaration. o. The registration of new companies. i. The registration/ striking off the register of legal persons; ii. The change of registration data; iii. The rendering of information to Legal persons Registry. p. The presentation of data to the Statistics Department. i. The rendering of statistical reports. q. Public purchases. i. The rendering of public purchase; ii. The rendering of information about public purchases. r. Social pays to the employees (social pays for the employees). i. The declaration of social pays for the employees. s. Custom declarations. i. The rendering of import/export declarations. ii. The rendering of tax declarations. t. Certificates which should be coordinated with Environment Protection Offices. i. The certificates to build and destroy buildings; u. Work places registration at Labor Exchange. i. Vacant work places registration.

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Table 39. The level of the transfer of the main public services into electronic environment for the citizens (source: [IPDC, 2004]) Public service

Executor

Measurem ent level

Notes

Tax declaration

The National Taxman attached to The Treasury Department

3

The search of vacant work places Social compensations

Lithuanian Labor Exchange attached to the Social Protection and Work Ministry Municipalities and Social Protection and Work Ministry

2

Personal documents

The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Lithuanian Republic

1

The registration of vehicles

The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Lithuanian Republic

1

Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are given electronic forms; when you unload and print them the procedure of receiving a service will begin. Filled in forms could be sent with a help of e-mail. Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service. The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service

2

Licenses to build The Ministry of the buildings Environment, National territory planning and construction inspection attached to The Department of the Environment Reports to the Police Department attached to police The Ministry of Home Affairs

1

The search of publication, editions in libraries Birth and Death certificates

The Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Lithuanian Republic

3

Civil Registry Office of the Municipality

1

The declaration of the place of residence

The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Lithuanian Republic

2

Interactive consultation of doctors and registration in the policlinic Applications to study, to raise qualification

The Ministry of Public Health of the Lithuanian Republic

3

Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are given electronic forms; when you fill them the procedure of the receiving a service begins.

The Ministry of Education of the Lithuanian Republic

2

Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service

1

The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are given electronic forms; when you fill them the procedure of the receiving a service begins. The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service

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Table 40. The level of the transfer of the main public services into electronic environment for the business (source: [IPDC, 2004]) Public service

Executor

Company taxes

The National Taxman attached to the Treasury Department Value-added taxes The National Taxman attached to The Treasury Department The registration of The Ministry of new companies Economics of the Lithuanian republic The rendering of The Government of the data to the Lithuanian Republic Statistics department Public purchases The Ministry of Economics of the Lithuanian republic Social pays to The Social Protection and employees Work Ministry of the Lithuanian Republic Custom Custom Department declarations attached to the Treasury Department of the Lithuanian Republic Licenses which The ministry of should be Environment of the coordinated with Lithuanian republic environment protection offices

Measureme Notes nt level Interaction: to unload and print fitted 2 forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Interaction: to unload and print fitted 2 forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service 1 3

1 2

3

2

The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are given electronic forms; when you fill them the procedure of the receiving a service begins. The information given in the Internet is necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service Bilateral interaction: in the Internet there are given electronic forms; when you fill them the procedure of the receiving a service begins. Interaction: to unload and print fitted forms necessary to start the procedure of the receiving a service

2.3.11 ELECTRONIC SERVICES SUPPLIED BY BUSINESS COMPANIES Lithuanian companies often use their websites to present their products; it is especially relevant for big companies (Pic. 60). In the websites in the Internet companies often place the catalogues of their products as well as pricelists (25,1 % in 2006). The supply of digital products and the offer of guaranteed services in the websites of the Internet are not used very intensively by the companies.

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Picture 60.

Purpose of enterprises web pages (source: Statistics Lithuania)

In 2006 according to the data of the Statistics department of Lithuania the most frequent electronic services supplied by the companies were information about activity, the offering of consultations by the Internet and the security of a possibility unload different forms (Pic. 61).

Picture 61.

E-services in 2006. (per cent of respective institution groups) (source: Statistics Lithuania)

According to the research of public services the main level of the transfer of public services into electronic environment in Lithuania reaches only 44 percent to date. (An average of EU countries is 67 percents). The services intended for business (53 percents) are transferred into electronic environment more quickly than services intended for citizens (35 percents). The same tendencies (accordingly 79 percents and 58 percents) are noticed among EU countries. As in many of the EU countries in Lithuania the information of the websites of authority institutions is accessible through centralist authority portal which is registered at the Internet addresses: www.govonline.lt, www.evaldzia.lt, www.epaslaugos.lt. At the end of 2004 it was possible to get 750 electronic authority services – it means that nearly a half of all public services in Lithuania were provided by the Internet, too. The index of the transfer of the main public services into electronic environment in Lithuania reaches 59 percents (the highest index is in Sweden – 89 percents) – on that score we overtake the closest neighbors Latvia and Poland and European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia). In the EU countries the level of fully interactive public services is slightly lower and moderately reaches 40 percents. The best developed cycle of the receiving services is in Sweden (74 percents), Austria (72 percents) and Finland (67 percents). According to this index Lithuania ranks the 17th place from 28 and approaches to the EU average – 40 percents. Implementing „e-Authority“ Lithuania within 1.5 years reached the same as Europe within three years.

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At the moment in Lithuania the best developed electronic public services are related with tax declaration of the citizens and legal persons, with social insurance fees, with the rendering of custom declarations and statistical data, with employment services, with the services of public libraries. According to the data of other research public services of Lithuania are evaluated slightly better: According to the data of the fifth annual research of electronic authority services in Europe fulfilled by the European Commission, the index of the transfer of the main public services into the Internet in Lithuania reaches 59 % (the highest index is in Sweden – 89 %). With this index Lithuania overtakes the nearest neighbors Latvia and Poland and European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia) (Fig. 62).

Fig. 62: The level of the transfer of the main public services into electronic environment ES %, in 2005 According to the data of the company „TNS Gallup“ in 2005 the level of the transfer of the main public services into electronic environment in Lithuania reached 64,65 %. In the report of the evaluation of information society introduced by the European Commission in December of 2005 Lithuania ranks the 13th place among all 25 EU countries according to accessibility of the main public services by the Internet. It is necessary to indicate that in 2006 appeared more services of the 3rd and 4th level as well as there is anticipated fast growth of the amount of better quality services. For example, in the field of statistical data collection. (Fig. 63-64 )

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Fig. 63: The level of public services in the field of statistical data collection (Source: [Statistics department, 2006b]

Fig 64: The level of public services in the field of statistical data collection (Source: [Statistics Department, 2006b]

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2.4

2.4.1

OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTED BY NTP

TECHNOLOGIES

BUSINESS

SECTOR’S

THE MAIN COMPANIES

There are given four national technological platforms of information technology sector:  National technological platform of software and services  National technological platform of mobile and wireless communication  National technological platform of built-in systems  National platform of public informing, communication and electronic technologies On the ground of these platforms there id made the presentation of companies. Total number of workers of this list of companies is about 7 hundred; annual turnover is about 3 billions LTL, export extent is over 200 millions LTL. On the ground of the data of these companies and with reference to integral indexes of IT sector there is completed the analysis of a sector. 2.4.1.1

UAB „Algoritmų sistemos“

The main fields of activity:  The creation of high quality, effective and reliable information systems for big and average organizations as well as for computerization of programs intended for business processes  Training and consulting of users of information systems and administrators  The integration of technical and programmable tools, data bases, equipment, networks and others into information system  The maintenance and renovation of used controllable information systems. 2.4.1.2

AB „Alna“

The main fields of activity:  It is one of the biggest IT companies in Baltic countries which creates individual programmable decisions for the clients form all over the world;  The creation and implementation of individual programmable decisions according to the demands of a particular client  The integration of programmable systems and the rent of programming services. 2.4.1.3

UAB „Arcus novus“

The main fields of activity:  Closed Joint-Stock company Arcus Novus provide its client with voice and data link services through the satellite  It specializes in the field of broadband Internet access; it also transmits radio and TV programs and implements satellite communication projects of any extent. 2.4.1.4

UAB „Aservis“

The main fields of activity:  Closed Joint-Stock company „Aservis“ is a daughter company of Closed Joint-Stock company „Busto modernizavimo grupe“ which was founded in the middle of 2006, so it refers to the experience and possibilities of its mother company.

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2.4.1.5

UAB „Axis industries“

The main fields of activity:  Closed Joint-Stock company „Axis Industries“ administers the companies of the group „Axis Industries“ which has been working in the field of management of biofuel energetics, heat engineering as well as in the field of the maintenance and supervision of engineering, industrial and energy equipment intended for industrial and energy objects for more than 15 years.  „Axis Industries“ offers different engineering decisions in automation and electrical engineering fields – the projection and mounting of computerization systems, the computerization of technological processes in different field of industry, the projection and mounting of electric distributing board, electric power substations, transmission lines  It also supplies automatic and electro technical equipment of the famous producers as well as industrial pumps. 2.4.1.6

UAB „Baltic Amadeus“

The main fields of activity:  The decisions and systems of work organization data management  The decisions and systems of business management and analytics  The creation of single-purpose systems and their integration into the general work market  The decisions and systems of IT safety the decisions and systems  The decisions and systems of IT infrastructure 2.4.1.7

UAB „Baltijos programinė įranga“

The main fields of activity:  Closed Joint-Stock company "Baltijos programine iranga" (BPI) is one of the advanced IT companies in Lithuania the decisions and advices of which are appreciated by the big Lithuanian banks, telecommunication companies and the biggest IT companies of Lithuania.  The creation and technical maintenance of the product MagicDraw UML which received global recognition  The consultation of IT specialists and trainings  The creation of software according to individual orders. 2.4.1.8

UAB „B.G.M.“

The main fields of activity:  The integration of systems on the ground of reserved stations and personal computers produced by Closed Joint-Stock Company "B.G.M."  It is possible to divide the products of the company into some categories: the line of reserved stations Elitas®, the line of personal computers Elitas®, and from 2005 – the line of small clusters. 2.4.1.9

UAB „Blue Bridge“

The main fields of activity:  The main specialization of „Blue Bridge“ is infrastructural decisions and services. It fulfills the analysis, projection, implementation of the different parts of IT infrastructure of the company (data transfer networks, data centers and other) as well as provide their management and maintenance services.

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The other field of activity of „Blue Bridge“ is the management of the activity and business of companies and institutions. These are decisions and services related with the computerization of business processes, with the formation of IT politics of the company as well as with the management of IT services The company sells IT equipment, maintains it and fulfills repair.

2.4.1.10 UAB „Bitė Lietuva“

The main fields of activity:  Closed Joint-Stock company „Bitė Lietuva“ is the operator of public mobile telephone connection supplying mobile connection, data transfer and Internet services.  Integrated decisions of electronic content transfer  The services of electronic content to the users. 2.4.1.11 UAB „Elgama-Elektronika“

The main fields of activity:  The projection and production of electric power meters and electronic devices  The calibration and control of electric power meters  The systems of automatic data reading  The assembly of printed fitting panels (PFP) using the technologies of surface and outlet assembly. 2.4.1.12 UAB „Elinta“

The main fields of activity:  The operating systems of production and technological processes and computerization: projection, production of technical equipment and software, installation, operation-adjustment, maintenance  The trade of industrial automation elements including electronics, electrotechnics and operating techniques apparatus as well as software related with them  The trade of measurement, calibration, testing devices and systems, consultations  The projection of measurement and operating devices, production, installation and technical maintenance. 2.4.1.13 UAB „Elsis biuro sistemos“

The main fields of activity:  The company works in the field of IT and office equipment - it sells and maintenance office equipment, computer equipment and software  It implements computer-based, phonic and data transfer networks, telecommunication and protective systems  It also provides office equipment rent services. 2.4.1.14 VšĮ „Europos technologinių platformų ir pramoninių klasterių nacionalinis biuras“

The main fields of activity:  The company organizes the joining of scientific researches and experimental development (SRED) sector of Lithuania and of the companies of separate economy branches to the SRED and economic environment of the EU with a help of the creating of clusters and technological platforms (NTP)  It prepares study in business, science, law issue and juridical fields  The supply of business consultations, the preparation of the applications for the receiving of national and EU structural support in the field of project implementation

123

  

The preparation of international and national exhibitions, discussions, seminars, conferences and other events It works in the publishing field. It took part in international organizations, international projects in the field of international connection.

2.4.1.15 UAB „ImPro“

The main fields of activity:  Technical equipment and software NewTek, SGI (selling, installation, maintenance, warrants, post-warranty service)  The rent of digital camera DVW-790 WSP Digital Betacam  The rent of digital PAL video-assembly systems (DV, DVCAM, MPEG-2)  Change of the format of video materials  DVD preparation. 2.4.1.16 UAB „Informacijos tinklas“

The main fields of activity:  Consultations in the field of information and media technologies  Strategic, project management consultations  Investment activity in the companies creating scientific products in the fields of information technologies, media and mechatronics-material science. 2.4.1.17 VšĮ „Kauno technologijos universiteto regioninis verslo inkubatorius“

The main fields of activity:  It is a company which rents premises to the business subjects under favorable conditions; it also supply office and business management services (information, consultations, training and so on); it intermediates during the receiving of financial support and implementing new technologies and scientific innovations in business.  The main purpose of its activity is maintain newcomer businessmen, to encourage the creation of new work places, to reduce the risk of existing companies and to help having good business ideas, but ailing companies to reach such a level when they will be able independently engage in economic and commercial activity and to compete in the market. 2.4.1.18 VšĮ „Lietuvos kabelinės televizijos asociacija“

The main fields of activity:  The purpose of the association is represent and to protect the interests of the members of the Association in national and other institutions concerning the problems of TV and radio programs broadcasting and (or) the problems of rebroadcast, the supply of information public services and electronic connection services, including the problems of taxes set by the state, charges and other fees, the problems of legal regulation and other questions. 2.4.1.19 AB „Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos centras“

The main fields of activity:  Digital TV programs transmission  In parallel the company builds digital television network using for this purpose DVB-T and MPEG-4 technologies; by 2010 it is planning to cover with this network all the territory of the Lithuanian Republic

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Using this network the company will supply other different services such as statistic programs multiplexing, provisory access, electronic programs guide (EPG), highspeed teletext, radio program transmission, information messages service, small speed video and sound transmission, interactive services. The company is a member of international WiMAX forum; it actively takes part in the creation of one of the newest technologies of WiMAX. In the closest time this technology and especially its mobile version will become the base for personal broadband access.

2.4.1.20 UAB „MitSoft“

The main fields of activity:  The creation of software according to individual demand  Electronic signature decisions  Consultative activity – the preparation of the investment projects and possibility study. 2.4.1.21 VšĮ „Mokslininkų sąjungos institutas“

The main fields of activity:  The researches of spontaneous formation of artificial systems and the application of sun elements and fuel cells in technologies  Social and economical aspects of shifting energetics  The applications of management methods of collective knowledge (semantics, ontology) for the development of information and Internet technologies  The transfer of cultural heritage of Lithuania into digital form. 2.4.1.22 VšĮ „Nacionalinis programinės įrangos ir paslaugų klasteris“

The main fields of activity:  The administration of national software and service technologies platform  The preparation of possibility study. 2.4.1.23 UAB „Omnitel“

The main fields of activity:  The biggest mobile connection operator in Lithuania supplying mobile connection and Internet service since 1995 and implementing different Internet and mobile decision in the market of Lithuania. 2.4.1.24 UAB „S4ID“

The main fields of activity:  The company provides consultations and orients its activity towards project directly related with public knowledge development, with information technologies services and the questions of informative politics. 2.4.1.25 UAB „Selteka“

The main fields of activity:  Digital TV reception tools  The company offers flexible EMS subcontracting services and competitive OEM products for analogical and digital television  The company is one of the biggest producers of the selectors of European TV channels.

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2.4.1.26 UAB „Sintagma“

The main fields of activity:  Information systems / decisions for the management of documents and their content, big IT projects, the creation and maintenance of software and systems intended for banking, industry, libraries and archives, mass media, public sector (for ministries, municipalities, administrations of districts)  Business management systems / the creation and implementation of company activity planning and control systems, especially accounting and financial management systems, decisions for the management of insurance (life, pension) and car selling business  Cash desks and trading systems (Sintagma technika business branch) / fiscal systems of sale places (POS), cash desk and weighting equipment, software and their implementation and maintenance services, different information technologies and equipment for trading  Conference systems (Sintagma technika business branch) / conference, public announcement, sound and video systems; the services of their projection, implementation and maintenance. 2.4.1.27 UAB „Skaitos kompiuterių servisas“

The main fields of activity:  The company supply and maintain computer equipment and software  It creates, implement and maintain special IT systems  It fulfills the installation of computer networks. 2.4.1.28 UAB „Strategic Staffing Solutions“

The main fields of activity:  The provision of professional employees in the field of information technologies  consultations  IT decisions,  The creation of software according to the orders of clients. 2.4.1.29 VšĮ „Technopolis“

The main fields of activity:  To coordinate and encourage the collaboration of companies, scientific research institutions, and higher schools  To fulfill projects encouraging applied scientific researches, experimental development and innovations.  To fulfill the projects connecting business, science and study  To create favorable environment for the establishment of small and middle business companies, information technologies companies, industrial companies, pharmacy, training, aviation, logistics and other companies based on economic principle  To provide informative, training and consulting services  To encourage and coordinate the creation of technologies and their transfer from science to business and industry  To encourage the collaboration of the companies modernizing usable production technologies  To commercialize the results of the activity of higher schools and scientific research institutions  To provide conditions for student to gain work experience, to organize the re-skilling of specialists.

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2.4.1.30 AB „Teo“

The main fields of activity:  TEO LT, Joint-Stock company (further TEO) is one of the biggest companies having experience in telecommunication business; it offers very wide variety of services for the residents and business companies - from telephone calls to integrated voice, data, Internet and IT decisions  The company expands a technical base based upon the newest technologies and upon fixed voice communication, fixed and wireless Internet communication, IPTV, DVBT platforms; it also expands the spectrum of services necessary to provide voice, broadband communication, wireless Internet, digital TV, IT services for the residents and business companies  The company creates and supplies the users with new individual interactive communication and multimedia services for entertainment, education, health care, safety, remote control and so on („Sujungti namai“ (Connected home), „Sumanūs namai“ (Smart home), interactive TV, etc.)  The company warrants necessary potential and service supply/maintenance quality. 2.4.1.31 UAB „Teltonika“

The main fields of activity:  Fast mobile Internet  Stationary mobile communication telephone  Transport traffic and control systems  Wireless protection systems  Wireless controllers  Authorization control systems. 2.4.1.32 VĮ „Valstybinis informacijos technologijų institutas“

The main fields of activity:  The creation of information and public knowledge technologies with priority to Fiscal, Nuclear, ITT safety  The researches of telecommunication systems, process management and safety systems as well as the creation of technologies  The researches of the systems and the creation of technologies in the critical objects of heightened danger infrastructure: nuclear power station, pipelines, gas pipelines, railway  The researches of environmental systems and the creation of environment protection technologies  The researches of the systems and the creation of technologies for the development of informative environment, implementing the principle „Design for all“  The researches of the safety of the systems and the creation o safety technologies in ITT sector with a priority to identification, authentication, authorization, obligations management. 2.4.1.33 VšĮ „Visorių informacinių technologijų parkas“

The main fields of activity:  The encouragement of science commercializing with a help of the creation of new technologies developing and expanding small and middle companies  The encouragement of the development of informative public  The supply of information, training and consulting services related with public knowledge development

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  

The encouragement of export of ITT business products and new technologies The encouragement the rise of new work places in ITT field The attraction of international funds, foreign capital, and domestic capital investments expanding the concentration of the companies of ITT technologies.

2.4.1.34 UAB „VTEX“

The main fields of activity:  The layout of scientific publications  Electronic publication  The creation of publishing software  Data converting. 2.4.2

THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES HAVING HIGH EDUCATION AND THEIR PART IN TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLYEES

In the table there is given the number of employees in the companies of four national technological platforms of information technologies sector: Nº Name Number of employees 1. UAB „Algoritmų sistemos“ 60 2. AB „Alna“ 120 3. UAB „Arcus novus“ 23 4. UAB „Aservis“ 9 5. UAB „Axis industries“ 662 6. UAB „Baltic Amadeus“ 122 7. UAB „Baltijos programinė įranga“ 60 8. UAB „B.G.M.“ 15 9. UAB „Blue Bridge“ 180 10. UAB „Bitė Lietuva“ 450 11. UAB „Elgama-Elektronika“ 78 12. UAB „Elinta“ 60 13. UAB „Elsis biuro sistemos“ 90 14. VšĮ „Europos technologinių platformų ir pramoninių klasterių 4 nacionalinis biuras“ 15. UAB „ImPro“ 13 16. UAB „Informacijos tinklas“ 5 17. VšĮ „Kauno technologijos universiteto regioninis verslo 18 inkubatorius“ 18. Lietuvos kabelinės televizijos asociacija 2 19. AB „Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos centras“ 362 20. UAB „MitSoft“ 5 21. VšĮ „Mokslininkų sąjungos institutas“ 4 22. Asociacija „Nacionalinis programinės įrangos ir paslaugų 2 klasteris“ 23. UAB „Omnitel“ 600 24. UAB „S4ID“ 4 25. UAB „Selteka“ 163 26. UAB „Sintagma“ 140 27. UAB „Skaitos kompiuterių servisas“ 50 28. UAB „Strategic Stafing Solutions“ 15

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29. 30. 31.

VšĮ „Technopolis“ UAB „Teltonika“ AB „Teo“

10 300 3120

32. 33. 34.

Valstybinis informacijos technologijų institutas“ VšĮ „Visorių informacinių technologijų parkas“ UAB „VTEX“ Total:

33 5 195 6979

Analyzing separately the groups of the companies of information technologies sector and of telecommunication technologies sector from the list of four national technological platforms of information technologies sector it is evident that the number of employees of information technologies group is about 2,5 thousands, and the number of employees telecommunication technologies group is about 4,5 thousands. Comparing percentage aspects the ratio of the number of employees is 34 and 66 percents. After supplementing the list of telecommunication technologies group of the companies with all other companies of this sector given indexes will increase in the limits of 10 %. It would be possible to say that the number of employees of telecommunication technologies group of the companies is about 5 thousands. Whereas, the total number of the employees of information technologies companies is about 10 thousands. On the ground of data of the companies the education of the employees of information technologies and telecommunication technologies sectors is: Education Non-university higher education (college)

Number 1500

Percents 10

Bachelor 4500 30 Master 4500 30 Doctor of Science 30 0,2 Habilitated doctor 3 0,02 Professor 3 0,02 Total number of employees in the sector: 15000 100 Note 1. Higher education diploma is equal to Master’ diploma. Note 2. The education of the employees of information technologies and telecommunication technologies sectors is determined on the ground of data of the companies of national technologic platforms of ITT sector. Note 3. Companies do not accumulate data about their employees according to herein provided indexes: non-university high education (college), Bachelor, Master, Doctor of Science, habilitated doctor, professor. The companies usually accumulate the following information about their employees:  Is education higher;  How many employees have got higher education in management, or „in management, too“ (most have two diplomas);  Personal data such as date of birth, name, surname, the data of personal documents, photo;  Official data: the name of position, official regulations, work agreement and so on. (with history);  Financial data: salaries, supplements (with history)  Career planning data: annual work evaluation, plans for coming year (special questionnaire; with history)

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Data about professional improvement of employees – information about certificates of different courses  The data of periodical certification/qualification interview with employees according to which there is determined the current salary of an employee and professional development plans are made. The attitude of the employer towards education of a new employee and his professional development in the company is based on the other system; not on that accredited in regular study. On the other, employees in ITT companies are the main resource, so the questions of the education of employees are relevant to the companies. However nowadays applicable formal features of education are inadequate and the companies do not follow them. Companies consider the conception of education of ITT sector and the problem of inadequate formal features of education relevant and important problem. According to below given in the table data of the Statistics Department about classification and indexes of the companies of information technologies sector, the total number of the companies in information technologies sector reaches 2200. It is necessary to take into consideration that Statistics Department uses the term „information technologies“ in a general sense, including such branches which are not traditionally subsumed to information technologies. Such branches are „The production of insulated wires and cables “and „The whole sale of electric household appliances and radio and TV items“. The treatment of other branches such as „The production of radio, TV and communication equipment and apparatus“, „The production of measurement, control, test and navigation devices and apparatus “ and „The production of operating equipment of technological processes“ in the context of traditional conception of information technologies is not unambiguous, however, it is correspond to the aspect of national technologic platform of built-in systems. For the branch „ The production of radio, TV and communication equipment and apparatus “ in 2004 related such companies as „Ekranas“ (Panevezis) and „Vingis“ (Vilnius). Whereas, in these latter years new generation companies come to the stage - such as „Teltonika“ which approach this branch to information technologies, otherwise speaking the extent of pure information technologies in this branch is increasing. It is important to emphasize that these evaluations involve only the companies of information technologies and the companies of telecommunication technologies. The mentioned materials of the Statistics Department indicate that computerization level of all Lithuanian companies (there are 65 thousand of them) is from 75 to 100 percents. The computerization level of the companies where 50 or more employees are employed (the major part of employed people work in such companies) is over 97 %. In such companies which do not directly belong to information technologies sector there are established rather strong information technologies subdivisions. For example, the number of employees of information technologies subdivisions in the companies of financial services sector is evaluated as about one thousand. The similar situation is the trade sector. It is possible to evaluate that the number of employees of information technologies subdivisions in the companies which do not directly belong to information technologies sector is 5 thousands. Other substantial sector in relation to work places of information technologies specialists is public sector. Only in the public company „Registru centras“ which is treated as information technologies company the number of employees is about 3 thousands. Municipalities, ministries, departments and other institutions also have their information technologies subdivisions. The number of employees working in information technologies subdivisions in public sector could be evaluated as 5 thousands. The problem is that there is no data for the more accurate evaluation of the number of employees working in information technologies subdivisions as well there is no scientific conception what is the employee of information technologies sector, and what is the information technologies sector. Till the receiving of more accurate data it is possible to consider that the

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number of the employees of information technologies sector is about 25 thousands or about 4 percents of all employed people. 2.4.3

EDUCATION OF EMPLOYEES IMPLEMENTING SRED WORKS AND THEIR PART IN TOTAL NUMBER OF THE EMPLOYEES OF THE SECTOR

THE

The number of employees of information technologies and telecommunication technologies sectors who implement R&D works: Education Number percents Non-university higher education (college) 30 0,2 Bachelor Master Doctor of Science Habilitated doctor Professor Total number of employees in the sector:

75 225 30 3 3 15000

0,5 1,5 0,2 0,02 0,02 100

Note 1. Higher education diploma is equal to Master’ diploma. Note 2. Higher education diploma is equal to Master’ diploma. Note 3. R&D – scientific researches and experimental development. ITT companies do not accumulate data according to R&D indexes and there is no clear conception of R&D which is varied from scientific novelty for a company to accounting categories when in the cycle of new product existence with a help of expressed method there is distinguished R&D phase. In many cases companies give R&D the meaning of applied scientific novelty and do not classify their activity as R&D. It is possible to forecast that after introduction of R&D conception on the analogy to other countries and after setting taxing concession for R&D activity the declared R&D level of activity will increase comparing with herein given data. Note 4: Generally 450 employees (not only NTP partners) of the IT sector are engaged in R&D activity. From them 97 work in service companies of IT sector and 353 in production companies. 2.4.4

THE

EXTENT OF EXPENSE OF THE COMPANIES FOR EXPENSES

R&D

AND THEIR PART IN TOTAL

2.4.4.1 The expense of the companies for ordered R&D in Lithuania and abroad as well as in the companies themselves

Information and telecommunication technologies companies allocate about 2, 5 percents of their employees for the fulfillment of applied researches and experimental development. Work expenditures for the employees of such category work out the main expense of the company for SRED. The main services of applied scientific researches are purchased outside the company. The works of experimental development are fulfilled inside the company. The kind of expense for SRED Extent (LTL) Percents Expenses for ordering SRED works in Lithuania and abroad 3 200 000 15 Expenses for SRED works within the company 18 000 000 85 Total expenses for SRED works: 21 200 000 100 Note: Generally the companies of IT sector (not only NTP partners) allocate for R&D 34,9 millions LTL per year. From which the companies of service sector allocate 21,3 millions LTL and production companies - 13,6 millions LTL.

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2.4.4.2 Common R&D works with Lithuanian and foreign partners In the table there are given the main work, period of fulfillment and extent: Running The name of the Works Period number company 1 UAB „Sintagma“ The consolidation of 2005-2008 competitive abilities in information technologies market 2 UAB „Axis 2006 Industries“ 3 UAB „SELTEKA“ Information technologies 2004 services 4 UAB „Omnitel“ The researches of the quality of mobile connection network (VU); The modeling of mobile connection network (VU); the researches of the quality of mobile data network (VGTU); the mobile researches of digital control decisions (VDU). 5 AB „Lietuvos radijo ir Pilot project of mobile 2007 televizijos centras“ broadband connection on the base of WiMAX technology 2.4.5

Extent, LTL 1 200 000

135 000 56 160

500 000

GOVERNMENT FOREIGN AND LITHUANIAN GRANTS RECEIVED BY THE COMPANIES

In the table there are given all periods and extents of the support received by the companies of IT sector (not only NTP partners): Nº Name Grant Period Amount 1 UAB „MitSoft“ Software Quality 1995-1997 37 000 € Assessment and Recommendations 2 UAB „ElgamaEUREKA Σ 2309 2000-2002 150 000 € Elektronika“ Production Technologies For Sensors Tailored For Applications And Their Integration In Electronic Components 3 UAB „Mediaworks“, Tele-Education 2000-2003 100 000 € KTU Software For Interactive Video Lecturing 4 PĮ „Futuremija“ A Tool To Trade 2002-2004 200 000 € Production Surpluses 5 Visorių IT parkas, MII, Endangered Cultural 2002-2005 100 000 € LR MA biblioteka Heritage: Tools For Preservation, Investigation And Copyright Clearance

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6

UAB „AGA-CAD“

7

UAB „Biocentras“, UAB „Kemek Engineering“

8

UAB „Mediaworks“, KTU, Baltijos mokymo technologijų institutas

9

R&G Co., ŠU

10

UAB „Inovasuna“, UAB „Kiberzona“, Infobalt, KTU

11

UAB „Informacijos alėja“, ŠU

12

UAB „Elinta“, KTU

13

UAB „Informacijos alėja“, UAB „Šiaulių Tauro televizoriai“, ŠU UAB „Prototechnika“, ŠU UAB „Informacinės konsultacijos“

14 15

2.4.6

Lossless/Lossy Image Compression Hardware Solution Knowledge-Based Management System For Accident Clean Ups (Oil Product Spillages) Software For Interactive Tele-Education, Virtual Communication And Collaboration Environment Control By Gaze System For The Disabled It Knowledge Internet Portal Development, Using Users Pyramidal Information Filtration And Content Formation Technology Software Platform For Remote Workstations In Editorial Offices A Computer-Aided Decision Support System For Diagnostics Of Laryngeal Diseases Intelligent Factory Production Identification System Remote Network Accounting Platform Uniting Europe Through Cost Management: Development Of Universally Applicable State-Of-The-Art Data Model

2003-2005

50 000 €

2004-2007

75 000 €

2004-2007

150 000 €

2004-2007

100 000 €

2005-2007

280 000 €

2005-2008

120 000 €

2006-2009

120 000 €

2006-2008

210 000 €

2007-2009

160 000 €

2007-2009

70 000 €

NUMBER OF REGISTERED ABROAD PATENTS OF THE COMPANIES

According to international classification of patents information technologies branch does not have a separate section in the classifier, so there is no systematic information about registered patents in the information technologies branch. On the other, software as the main product of information technologies sector is not the object of patenting. However there are many opinions according to this issue and it is possible to keep this question open that is in future software could become the object of patenting. In Lithuania most possessors of patents are universities and institutes. Meanwhile for the companies patent activity is more episodical, related with the enthusiasts working in the company.

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The national patent agency of the Lithuanian Republic provide two data bases – the data base of patents of the Lithuanian Republic and the data base of European licenses effective in Lithuania. The total number of registered patents of Lithuanian companies related with information technologies is several tens. In the table there are given registered in Lithuania and abroad patents: Nº The name of the Patent Period Country company 1 UAB „Axis Ultrasonic flow sensor 2006 EU Industries“ 2 UAB „Omnitel“ The system of electronic 2004 LT documents signing with qualified electronic signature 3 UAB „Omnitel“ The account replenishment 2003 LT method with a help of electronic forward payment of services and a multiple-use replenishment card of the forward payment of a service 2.4.7

THE NUMBER OF LICENCES PURCHASED AND USED BY THE COMPANIES

The conception of a license is ambivalent– these are licenses for the activity and licenses for products. The activity of information technologies is not licensed, however for telecommunication activity there is necessary to have licenses given by Lithuanian radio and TV commission, which enable to establish and exploit one’s electronic connection networks. Licenses for products according to their character are divided into the licenses for software and the licenses for other products. The peculiarity of the licenses for software is that in practice it is accepted to use not the number of licenses for software, but the sum spent for the licenses of software. Running The name of the License Year/Number Country/Sum number company UMTS/GSM license for 1 UAB „Bite Lietuva“ 2005 Latvia mobile connection services

2

3

UAB „Omnitel“

The equipment of mobile connection and service technology platforms, The equipment of general computer systems, special computer programs for projection and maintenance of the network VĮ „Lietuvos radijo ir Licensed products televizijos centras“

100

4

250 000 LTL

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4

AB “Teo”

2.4.8

For motive project – „the prompter“ of services and remote connection to the equipment of a client for the remote diagnostics and elimination of breakdowns and „Self service“ system – for the self-service of clients

2 000 000 LTL

VOLUME OF THE SALES OF THE PRODUCTION OF THE COMPANIES

According to the data given by the companies of four national technologic platforms of information technologies sector an annual turnover of the partners of the platforms alone reaches 3 billions litas. Analyzing separately then groups of the companies of information technologies sector and telecommunication technologies sector it is possible to state that the number of employees in the companies of information technologies sector is about 2,5 thousand and annual turnover is about 650 millions litas, or the number of employees in the companies of telecommunication technologies sector is about 4,5 thousand and annual turnover is about 2,25 billions litas. Comparing percentage the ratio of employees’ number is 34 and 66 percents, and annual turnover is 22 and 78 percents appropriately. Nº Name Yearly turnover (LTL Thous.) 1. UAB „Algoritmų sistemos“ 47000 2. AB „Alna“ 90000 3. UAB „Arcus novus“ 1290 4. UAB „Aservis“ 72 5. UAB „Axis industries“ 110000 6. UAB „Baltic Amadeus“ 40000 7. UAB „Baltijos programinė įranga“ 8600 8. UAB „B.G.M.“ 7000 9. UAB „Blue Bridge“ 90000 10. UAB „Bitė Lietuva“ 593400 11. UAB „Elgama-Elektronika“ 27295 12. UAB „Elinta“ 15000 13. UAB „Elsis biuro sistemos“ 40000 14. VšĮ „Europos technologinių platformų ir 700 pramoninių klasterių nacionalinis biuras“ 15. UAB „ImPro“ 1800 16. UAB „Informacijos tinklas“ 650 17. VšĮ „Kauno technologijos universiteto regioninis 100 verslo inkubatorius“ 18. Lietuvos kabelinės televizijos asociacija 100 19. AB „Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos centras“ 40000 20. UAB „MitSoft“ 1000 21. VšĮ „Mokslininkų sąjungos institutas“ 400 22. Asociacija „Nacionalinis programinės įrangos ir 100 paslaugų klasteris“ 23. UAB „Omnitel“ 900000

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24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

UAB „S4ID“ UAB „Selteka“ UAB „Sintagma“ UAB „Skaitos kompiuterių servisas“ UAB „Strategic Stafing Solutions“ VšĮ „Technopolis“ UAB „Teltonika“ AB „Teo“ Valstybinis informacijos technologijų institutas“ VšĮ „Visorių informacinių technologijų parkas“ UAB „VTEX“ Total:

1900 14721 27000 15000 1500 55000 100000 733000 1370 500 10000 2974598

In the mass [Information technologies in Lithuania 2006] in 2005 the produce of information technologies sector at the existing prices in comparison with the last year increased by 4,9 % and its comparative extent in total output of the country decreased from 5,5 % in 2004 to 5,0 % in 2005. According to forward data surplus value of IT sector at the existing in 2005 prices in comparison with 2004 grew by 9,0 %. The comparative extent (weight) of the surplus value of the sector in the total surplus value decreased from 6,3 % in 2004 to 6,1 % in 2005. In all mentioned years the growth was influenced by the rapid development of telecommunication, computer and related activities. 2.4.9

GENERAL PROFIT AND GENERAL PROFITABILITY OF THE COMPANIES

Concepts mentioned in this section: general profit and general profitability. General profit – difference between selling and purchasing price. General profitability determines, how much profit goes to one unit of net (clear) sales income.

General profitability = general profit/net sales income It explains profitability of main practice of analyzed subject. It shows if it is useful to sell the goods. Accordingly to data presented by four national platforms of technologies in information technologies sector, profitability of companies is fluctuating in a quite wide limits: from 0 to 50 percents. 2.4.10 NET (CLEAR) PROFIT AND PRODITABILITY OF THE COMPANIES Concepts mentioned in this section: net profit and net profitability. Net profit – part of received general income which is left after subtraction of (financial) expenditures of subject practice, special looses and paid taxes. This is one of financial indexes which is important while determining profitability of economy subject. Net profitability (margin of net profit) shows, how much of net profit goes to each unit of net sales income.

Net profitability = net profit/net sales income Net profitability characterizes final profitability of the whole practice (manufacturing, commercial, investment, financial) of analyzed subject. Decrease of index shows that innovations

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are necessary and warns about decrease of competitiveness of the goods. Net profitability is index showing who much net profit goes to one litas of sold production or provided services. Data of company of information technologies sector about net profitability of companies is episodically, fluctuates in quite wide limits and unable to make conclusions. 2.4.11 SHARE OF EXPORTED PRODUCTION OF THE COMPANIES Accordingly to partial data presented by four companies of national technologies platforms of information technologies, export of platform partners exceeds 200 millions litas Nº Name Export (%, Export (thous.lt) turnover) 1. UAB „Arcus novus“ 83 1070 2. UAB „Axis industries“ 25,5 28050 3. UAB „Baltic Amadeus“ 5 2000 4. UAB „Baltijos programinė įranga“ 80 6880 5. UAB „Blue Bridge“ 53 47700 6. UAB „Elgama-Elektronika“ 30 8188,5 7. UAB „MitSoft“ 20 200 8. UAB „S4ID“ 18 342 9. UAB „Selteka“ 75 11040,75 10. UAB „Sintagma“ 4 1080 11. UAB „Teltonika“ 95 95000 12. UAB „VTEX“ 99 9900 Total: 202 352 thous.lt 2.4.12 PRACTICE PRODUCTIVITY, REALIZATION SIZE AND GENERAL PROFIT OF THE COMPANIES Accordingly to partial data presented by four companies of national technologies platforms of information technologies, practice productivity, realization size and general profit indexes of year 2005 of platforms partners for one workers cases accordingly:  For one worker;  For workers, who do not implement R&D works (this is all workers of the company, except those who do not exercise R&D);  For those who work in manufacturing indirectly (all workers of the company, without those who do not participate in manufacturing directly (workers of administration, promotion, sales, researchers and similar). Case 1 For one employee For one employee, excluding involved in R&D For one employee directly participating in manufacturing Case 2 For one employee For one employee, excluding involved in R&D For one employee directly participating in manufacturing

Realization, LTL 61 082 65 136 88 679 Realization, LTL 166 000 172 000 900 000

Total profit, LTL 8 314 8 866 12 070 Total profit, LTL 6900 7150 37500

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Case 3 For one employee For one employee, excluding involved in R&D For one employee directly participating in manufacturing Case 4 For one employee For one employee, excluding involved in R&D For one employee directly participating in manufacturing Case 5 For one employee For one employee, excluding involved in R&D For one employee directly participating in manufacturing

Realization, LTL 312 539 312 539 546 943 Realization, LTL 221 000 n.d. 250 000 Realization, LTL 276 000 345 000 569 000

Total profit, LTL 79 936 79 936 139 888 Total profit, LTL 95 000 n.d. 107 000 Total profit, LTL 47 700 60 000 98 000

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2.5

2.5.1

INTEGRATION OF EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR AND WORLD WIDE BUSINESS SITUATION INTEGRATION LEVEL OF EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS

The analysis of the present situation of Lithuania in the software and services sector leads to a conclusion that, according to statistical data, the Lithuanian situation in this sector is relatively poor but has a rapid growth potential. However, such growth requires concentrated efforts of the business sector, academic community, researchers, the government and external environment. The fact that fully interactive (4th level) services are already available in Lithuania speaks about the readiness of the country for the development of software services. The existent situation of the Lithuanian software services sector could be described as a starting position, where the rapid growth could start. The projects that have fulfilled the preparatory role for ensuring the infrastructure, legal framework, interoperability and safety of services have been completed or are being implemented at the moment. Lithuanian programmers have accumulated significant experience in the development of large databases, geographical and internet systems and CASE tools. Of course, quite a few issues will still have to be tackled to achieve the level of developed countries. ICT sector has to deal with several issues: To increase investments in R&D (in particular, from the business sector.) Investments of all the fields of the business sector in research and development constitute only 0.16% of the Lithuanian gross domestic product (The figure is even lower for the IT sector.) To strengthen the link between the business sector and science institutions for the research to correspond to the needs of the business sector. Although there are many examples of successful cooperation between the business sector and institutions of higher education, the majority of R&D projects have been financed by the government and they were intended for the public or the teaching sector. ICT sector should encourage joint projects of the business sector and schools of higher education. To ensure high competence of experts and accommodate graduates with high qualification work positions. University graduates often search for better-paid jobs abroad since there is a lack of such vacant positions in Lithuania. Besides, young experts are often not yet ready to occupy the best jobs that require high qualification and experience. Therefore large part of the efforts of ICT sector should be shifted to the improvement of human resources. External conditions are favorable for the development of the sector: − The popularity of software services is growing; − The advanced information technologies are improving, there is a shift towards open standards; − The EU seeks balanced progress of its members and provides financial assistance for his purpose. There are both favorable and unfavorable internal conditions. Favorable internal conditions: − There is a large number of students and researchers at schools of higher education; − The income of the software market is growing rapidly (exceeding that of the ES); − The assessment of the public services that are already available is positive; − Government supports the integration of business and science, research development, open standards, etc. − Projects that contribute to the development of the sector have been completed or their implementation has already started.

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Negative internal conditions: − The loss of intellectual resources due to the emigration of experts; − Insufficient practical training of graduates, which no longer meets the demands of the business sector; − Consumers accepting poor-quality software products; − The growth of services which is observed at the moment has begun due to emergence of new markets and large internal needs, and it is not based on high-level technologies or high quality software products, therefore this growth may slow down; − Overly small export of the products in the sector; − Overly small foreign investments in the sector; − Only some of the services have been introduced on the internet and they are available as individual services rather combined into common activity processes; − Poor involvement of the business sector in R&D; − Insufficient cooperation with foreign partners, poor use of potential external sources of financing. The aforementioned drawbacks of the sector could be eliminated with the help ICT sector which is aimed at bringing together representatives of software services industry and the higher education for identifying and implementing purposefully the most important research and installations. By the year 2020, Lithuania has to have sufficient high-level services, knowledge, infrastructure and human resources, so that we could realistically refer to the country as a part of the global knowledge-based European ecosystem. 2.5.2

SCOPE

OF NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS AND INTEGRATION TO TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS

EUROPEAN

2.5.2.1 National software and services technology platform Lithuania is a small country and its participation in the Global Economy requires more intensive attention in comparison with large countries having stronger positions in science and business. Nowadays, the Lithuanian economy is beginning to grow. As the country entered the EU and became the subject of the overall European policy the future seems brighter than ever. Lithuanian business and life, just like in other countries over the world, are dependent on software and communication technologies. It is not enough to have IT devices, software packages, tools, middleware and infrastructure. Linking and using these tools and technologies is becoming more and more difficult. Often finding and joining two documents or linking two computational procedures from different packages even in the boundaries of a single enterprise may require incredible efforts. Today’s business is crossing organizational boundaries and changing at a great rate, complicating the integration of information and software for emergent business needs. Development, integration and adaptation of software require a lot of different knowledge – several programming languages, development environments, database management systems and CASE tools. In the current situation, service orientation, model-driven development and business intelligence are three pillars that in synergy can support the progress of software serving the business. The main challenge of NSSTP is service orientation, but it inherently pulls model-driven development and business intelligence together. Lithuanian willingness and readiness for the service orientation is proved by high evaluation of software services that are already delivered to citizens via the e-government portal: a part of these services is recognized as being of the 4th maturity level. The usage of e-services by the population of Lithuania is growing at an increasing rate: more new services are desired. Software and Services are of the strategic importance for reaching the Lisbon strategy goals to become by 2010 „the world‘s most dynamic and knowledge based economy“ emphasizing directions of “higher growth, more and better jobs and greater social inclusion”. The Lithuanian

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Software and Services Technology Platform (NSSTP) was created with the alignment to the Networked European Software and Services Initiative (NESSI) to help to mobilize the efforts of public organizations and business on the local level, raising the national performance to the European dimension and making the contribution to joint European efforts and results. Services in the NESSI context are understood in a wide sense with a special attention given to Software Services. In the developed countries the major part of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is gained from services, and the majority of employees work in services businesses. All industry sectors, from large companies to small enterprises, are embracing the service business model. The importance of services in the economy will continue to grow, and it is widely regarded as one of the most important challenges for the overall economy progress in Europe as well all over the world. The acceleration of the shift of the EU to the service economy is one of the strategic goals of NESSI that embodies the mechanism through which Europe will exploit its capabilities to the benefit of all economic sectors and all its citizens. As stated in the NSSTP Vision document, NSSTP will follow the common European goals taken by NESSI, complementing EU strategies with Lithuanian national qualities and specific needs. External circumstances are favorable for the improvement of R&D in the software services sector and of the overall Lithuanian service economy: − Increasing service orientation in all industry sectors; − Evolving advanced information technologies, open standards; − The EU strategy for balanced community progress, its financial support. Internal particularities are positive and negative. Positive internal circumstances: − Large percentage of students and researchers in the institutions of higher education (off the overall population); − Fast growth of the average revenues in Lithuanian software service companies (exceeding EU); − High assessment of some of the already implemented public services. − The government’s position towards supporting the openness, integrating of science and business, promoting R&D, etc. − Ongoing projects directly contributing to the expansion of the Software and Services sector. Negative internal circumstances: − The loss of intellectual assets as a result of inability to provide appropriate jobs (specialists are going abroad or are taking lower qualification jobs); − The inadequate preparedness of young specialists to serve the existing business needs; − The resignation of users with ad-hoc and low quality software products; − The fast growth is conditioned by the new markets and large internal needs, but not by high IT technologies and quality software products, so this growth may decrease; − The software products export ratio is too low; − Foreign investments in the software services sector are too low; − Only few and separate services are implemented in the e-environment while the processorientation is the challenge; − Very low participation of the business sector in R&D; − The unsatisfactory collaboration with external partners, the loss of potential available from the external funding. These failings require a strong attention for the profiting from the current potential possibilities. NSSTP was created with these possibilities and risks in mind. Its vision is the “Software Service-enabled intelligent Eco-system, open and interoperable within EU and the rest of the World”. It means that in 2020 Lithuania will be provided with the open software services development knowledge and methodologies, infrastructure, human resources and organisations

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enabling networked, interoperable, service-based, intelligent and individual-oriented society as the integral part of the global European Eco-system. NSSTP is a non-profit organization, endeavoring at bringing together stakeholders from the industry and the academia to define the most-important research and technological development objectives in the area of Software and Services. The strategy of NSSTP is to promote the joint actions of the Lithuanian enterprises, the academic and governmental institutions for the development of the Software and Services sector, competitive in the global IT market, enabling the Lithuanian society to become the service-enabled, intelligent Eco-system in compliance with the common NESSI European Research Agenda. 2.5.2.2 Mobile and wireless communications national technology platform Strategic activity model. The visual representation of the Lithuania MBK NTP research areas is similar to European eMobility Strategic Research Agenda. While searching for simplicity, the required flexibility of the Research Strategy is addressed by allowing expanding areas on the lower levels with new contributions that may arise. Furthermore, the MBK NTP Research Areas were directly related with the Working Groups that have arisen during the preparation of MBK NTP as the initial formations, which include the interested representatives from business and academia and can be extended in the future. It is assumed that in every MWC NTP research area the full life-cycle of R&D is covered:  Research and method development  Infrastructure development  Pilot implementation/tests  Full-scale demonstration  Dissemination  Training and education  Monitoring and improvement. Other mandatory dimension/aspects of the MWC NTP research is properties and principles defined by European MWC TP:  Trust  Dependability  Comprehensive view  Open Standards  Open Source  Process and system quality  Connectivity  Federation. Finally, the initial research priorities were identified for each of the MWC NTP research areas (these priorities were applied in the MWC NTP input to FP7 documents) Services adequate to various business models. Future systems have to support a changing and flexible mobile ecosystem. Therefore, it is predictable that multiple viable business models will coexist with the emerging new actors leading to a new supporting architecture. Indeed, the traditional stakeholder model (e.g., content provider, service provider, network operator, equipment or device manufacturer, end-user) and the stakeholders’ relationships can have significant evolutions. New stakeholders are now appearing, mainly providing value-added services for enabling efficiency and system interoperability, network monitoring and management, customer-care support and device management. Among the new stakeholders, one can identify virtual network operators, sensor network and RFID manufacturers, sensor network connectivity operators, mobile and ad hoc network operators, customer care support centres, security (e.g., certification, key distribution) authorities

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and guarantors, regulatory bodies for spectrum harmonization and even the IPR-related industry and community. In particular, mobility and mobile e-commerce will require radically faster processes for setting up new business relationships. Time-to-market for a new type or instance of a value network must be cut down to a fraction of what it is today. This requires a streamlined approach for taking into account, e.g., automated service provider discovery, negotiation processes and contracting, as well as adoption of micro-payments and streamlined pricing. The research priorities that need to be considered are:  Consolidating the modeling approach and practices  Network operators and service providers must maintain their security domains  Research into value networks based on non-monetary compensations. Service of contents control. The agenda for future services includes creation, adaptation, hosting, provisioning, configuring, and their role in improving the quality of life of the individual(s) who are part of a dynamic and interacting society. In order to realize this, a four orthogonal but complementary research challenges are identified as research priorities and explained in more detail in the rest of this chapter:  User services that change the quality of life of the individual in a sensor networks. 

Communication environment becomes ever richer and is generally composed of various terminals that may vary (e.g., PDA Personal digital assistant, Laptop, PC, Mobile, embedded computer, communicating objects) dynamically depending on the user’s context (e.g., home, work, leisure, vacation, static or roaming)  Service Creation process Environment (SCE): realize and ease the creation of services and decreases the time-to-market. While it is foreseen that more and more companies will get involved in the service creation business, it is obvious that for profitability concern, the proposed services are going to target the largest audience possible, ignoring then services that are of interest for just a few people. Easy-to-use creation environments (at home or on the move) are therefore needed to enable all users making their own customized services. At the same time, while competition increases, it becomes more and more crucial to decrease drastically the time to market.  Content and Media Creation (CMC) and adaptation: improve information and content and make available services instantly on various terminals. Improved and extended multimedia communication services (e.g., richer, higher quality, ubiquitous, context-aware and affordable) will be a key driver for eMobility and the future communication infrastructure. Multimedia communication services use digital techniques for capturing, encoding, transporting, storing and rendering information of any form (e.g., voice, sound, image, video, graphics, and structured data). If technology allows, a new level of multimedia communication services will emerge that is richer, of higher quality, ubiquitous, context and access aware while being affordable. This new level of multimedia communication services improves the life of the individual, but it will also improve the efficiency of the European business.  Service Execution Environment (SEE): realizes the heterogeneous service execution platforms and takes into account the IT and telecom convergence, multi-domain operation, network and technology heterogeneity, global roaming and specific requirements for adoption by the industry. In terms of innovation for mobile services and service architecture, the objective is to bring it to reality and to take advantage of the progress achieved in parallel in other domains such as radio and networks infrastructure, in order to contribute to a wide adoption of the mobile services. To achieve these goals, all the players in the mobile communications field have to make progress in the area of service architecture. The objective is to remove the hurdles which prevent

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the adoption of mobile services by providing the missing links in addition to the existing standards and components. Services for special interest user groups. Location based services (LBS) designates any telematics service using location information. Many different kinds of services based on the availability of location information already exist or could be implemented in the near future. Mobile operators seem not to be interested in investing to expensive infrastructures, but prefer to use Cell ID. The implementation of location-based services raises legal issues mainly connected to consumer's rights, privacy. The Emergency Call Services affects the rights for life and health protection, override right for privacy. Particular attention must be put in the location information databases management and updating and to protect user information from unauthorized access. Privacy and safety of mobile and wireless communication. Mobile and wireless communications will deliver an always-connected environment, facilitating secure services to support the private and professional life of everyone. The services, the whole environment, and their security and privacy solutions are trusted by end users as well as by the service or content providers, operators and the stakeholders in the business value net. Users are protected from security and privacy threats at an adequate protection level that takes into account of usability and cost. The use of security, privacy and trust solutions is designed in a way that as little as possible user configuration is needed. A holistic, trustworthy and interoperable security and privacy architecture, in connection with well-defined security management service as a part of mobile service life cycle management implement this vision. Adequately designed security and privacy solutions are an enabler for new mobile services. The MBK NTP strategy for trust and dependability is managed as an integrated component of an overall European Security and Dependability Research Agenda and is kept consistent and coherent with applicable developments in other European Technology Platforms. 2.5.2.3 National embedded systems technology platform EU market structure. Production of Embedded Systems is split up into the production of components and platforms, and the integration of these components and platforms – together with application-specific (hardware or software) parts – to the final product. Typically, single electronic components, such as single chip TV’s, are used by system integrators that build consumer electronics appliances such as televisions. These appliances can be distributed via retail channels or via service providers to end consumers. Fragmented production. As the functionality of Embedded Systems is largely driven by the characteristics of the environment the system is embedded in, the integration part of the production process is generally extremely application-domain specific. Therefore, unlike with management information systems, desktop software, or operating software, the production of EmS is fragmented analogously to the fragmentation of the application domains. EU market characteristics. The market for embedded platforms and their components in Europe is based on a small number of major enterprises supplying hardware complemented with a high number of small and medium enterprises (SME’s) that serve smaller and more specific shares in the software markets by developing domain and enterprise specific solutions. This also holds for large-size Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their SME suppliers. At the same time, there are tool suppliers and consulting firms mostly with a focus on specific domains or on single components. These characteristics indicate the high fragmentation of the market for EmS. Often, the combination of a big player and many SMEs leads to the emergence of clusters that grow around the big enterprises that fosters the diffusion of knowledge. End-user industries. The value added to the final product by embedded software is much higher than the cost of the embedded devices themselves. Europe is currently leading the world in industrial sectors such as consumer electronics, telecommunications, automotive, avionics, medical and industrial automation. A key factor is the increase of the share of the value of embedded

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electronics components in the value of the final product. In the next five years, this share is expected to reach significant percentages in areas such as Telecommunications (37%), Consumer Electronics and Intelligent Homes (41%), Industrial Automation (22%) and Health/Medical Equipment (33%). The market for electronic components (including semiconductors, micro controllers, microprocessors and memory, products, and passive, electromechanical, power and discrete components) is a good indication of the impact of Embedded Systems on different industries. Embedded Systems impact six major industries, namely:  Automotive - includes also electronic control units in chassis systems power train electronics, body electronics/security systems, information and computing systems, e.g. for traffic control  Aerospace - includes commercial aircraft, military aircraft, and satellite systems  Automation industry - includes manufacturing and process controls, motion controllers, Intelligent Homes, operator interfaces, robotics, HVAC and other controls, e.g. for energy distribution  Telecommunications - includes infrastructure, services and end devices  Consumer Electronics - includes set-top boxes, Internet access devices, home audio/video, and white goods  Health and Medical Equipment - includes patient monitoring equipment, medical therapy equipment, diagnostic equipment, imaging equipment, and surgical systems. Revenues by sectors. Computing, telecom, and consumer embedded devices have the majority of the revenues (see Figure below). However, the automotive industry it seems to be the most promising in terms of annual growth rate (19.5%). Unfortunately, the medical and the industrial applications have the lowest numbers in terms of revenues and growth. The telecoms and the consumer devices have high computation demands (hence they are based on state-of-the-art components) while the medical and the industrial application can be usually be supported by lower performance components. Embedded systems applications in Telecommunications. The major player in Lithuania in this field is Teltonika, a member of the national EmS technology platform. Company started with production of telecommunication devices, later expanded into design and manufacturing of electronics systems for wireless data transfer. Since 2003 Teltonika has been collaborating with Nokia. The company worked on integration of Nokia M2M technology using Nokia N12 module, and has become a leader of M2M integration solutions using EDGE not only in Lithuania, but also in Europe. Teltonika was listed on 66th place with other three Lithuania companies in the 10th annual Europe’s 500 Listing of fast growing, and job-creating European companies. The 10th annual Europe’s 500 Listing of fast growing, job-creating companies was announced by Europe’s 500 – Entrepreneurs for Growth, an independent association representing more than 2.000 panEuropean entrepreneurs, and supported by Microsoft and KPMG. Companies from all 25 EU member states, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland took part in the ranking. During the period 2002-2005 Teltonika’s relative employment growth was 1775%. Company’s relative turnover growth during the same reference period was 7132,5%. The Europe’s 500 Listing shows that high growth is not dependent on industry sector but rather is created by entrepreneurial-driven companies, which seize opportunity, take risk and motivate their staff to succeed. This shows the potential of embedded systems to create and sustain growth of high-tech enterprises. Consumer electronics. Market situation. Number of households connected to cable networks in 2005 against 2000 increased by 32 per cent, number of households with at least one TV set – 10.6 per cent, number of households with 2 or more TV sets – 22.6. New points of sale and rent of pre-recorded videotapes and DVD are being established; in 2005 as compared with 2002, their number increased by 2.7 times. The number of sold of pre-recorded videotapes has been

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decreasing each year; in 2005 as compared with 2002, their number decreased by 23 per cent. People preferred the new technology product of higher quality – DVD. In 2005 as compared with 2004, the number of sold of pre-recorded DVD increased 3.7 times. The biggest amount of DVD was sold before the holidays, by the end of the year, when more than a half of the total amount of DVD sold over the year was realized. In 2005 as compared with 2000 number of cinemas decreased by 48 units, but at the same time the number of cinema shows increased by 16.2 per cent. Year by year number of TV and radio broadcasters increased. In 2005 as compared with 2000, number of hours of TV programs services increased by 53.7 per cent and radio programs services – 2 times. Table 41: audiovisual market (source: Statistics Lithuania)

2002 27

2003 27

2004 28

2005 24

2006 32

TV programmes by volume, in hours, thous.

45,3

50,9

48,0

58,9

69,8

Number of household connected to cable networks (‘000) Number of private household with at least one TV sets (‘000) Number of household with 2 or more TV sets (‘000)

362

376

383

397

433

1275

1312

1315

1336

1394

290

311

360

374

374

Number of pre-recorded DVD sold to costumers (‘000)

-

8,5

8,7

65,3

243,8

Number of software for video games consoles sold (‘000) Number of outselling prerecorded videos, unit

-

-

-

369,1

306,5

-

137

164

307

374

Number of TV broadcasters

Embedded systems applications in Consumer electronics. Although consumer electronics sector is almost non-existent, there is a huge potential her for commercialization of technologies especially in the area of computing systems for smart house applications which have been developed by Prof. Egidijus Kazanavičius from Kaunas technological university, a member of the national Embedded systems technology platform. KTU has been collaborating with Axis Industries, another member of the national Embedded systems technology platform, on a project which is dedicated to creation of intellectual system of home comfort improvement, centralized management and control of public utilities, automation, signalization and other installed systems and development of functional possibilities for a dialog between residents and organizations rendering services to their homes in the modern integrated information society. One of the project goals is to develop a new computerized system of a future home, to select equipment, to plan a flexible and convenient connection between a consumer and a computerized system of the house, to create a computerized accounting system that would ease payments for public utilities, to prepare a service system of a future home. The main tasks solved in the project are creation of home embedded computer (HEC), projecting of consumer connection, data collection from various subsystems securing the feedback between a consumer and the system, management of the house subsystems, creation of computerized accounting and payment for public utilities system and supply of information to the interested parties. Automation industry. The industrial automatics is a rapidly developing sector of the Lithuanian industry. International companies like ABB or Danfoss are the main actors in this sector. Danfoss is a leading player in the production of mechanics, electronics and control products, manufacturing industrial automatics of the following types:  Industrial vacuum valve (flexible, durable and energy-saving solution for the industry using high level vacuum);

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Pressure and temperature sensors with integrated transmitters (used in the oil industry, in locomotives);



Contactors and engine starters. Fima is one of the electronic engineering enterprises working in the field of the systems of high-intensity software. Fima, which operates in the field of system integration, offers automatics, data protection and transmission, telecommunications, safety, building system management and other solutions. Fima has also accumulated extremely valuable experience in the transport and energy sectors, by offering complex process management and traffic management solutions. The list of the clients of the enterprise includes largest Lithuanian companies and public institutions. The main barrier for entering the sector for embedded systems application is the low level of ICT penetration in manufacturing industry. This industry is lagging behind other sectors in adopting ICT for production and processes A recent survey conducted by Statistics Lithuania showed that the main barriers to maximizing the benefits of ICT for manufacturing industry as well as other sectors were high ICT costs, lack of ICT skills in workforce, lack of financial resources, mistrust of e-security. Manufacturing industry identified production as the most profitable part of their business for ICT investment (see table below) compared with financial services sector which placed more value in investing ICT in sales departments. Embedded systems applications. Embedded Systems can address all those issues as they increase added value, extends functionality of products and makes processes more efficient. Embedded Systems can deliver:  Reducing the time to decision and action  Engineering for maximum performance  Reducing risk through high integrity automation  Integrating information for improved visibility  Improving batch production profitability, consistency, and traceability  Optimizing plant asset availability and performance  Delivering Control and I/O to meet automation and safety needs  Extending installed system capabilities through seamless evolution. Embedded Systems can provide enabling technologies such as Digital enterprise technologies which are defined as the collection of systems and methods for the digital modeling of the global product development and realization process, in the context of life cycle management. Five main technical areas can be outlined as the cornerstones of such digital enterprises:  distributed and collaborative design  process modeling and process planning  production equipment and factory modeling,  digital-to-physical environment integrators  enterprise integration technologies. However, the management and optimal, or near-optimal, exploitation of the huge amount of available information cannot be imagined without the effective application of the methods and tools of machine learning techniques. The development and application of more reliable and flexible ICT and intelligent decision-support systems will help enterprises to cope with the problems of uncertainty and complexity, to increase their efficiency, and to improve the scope and quality of their supplier- and customer-relationship management. Embedded systems for automation industry (especially as concerning for energy user sector) has been expanding recently with the consolidation of few companies under Axis Industries, a leading provider of engineering solutions in automation and electro-engineering equipment. Axis Industries is providing the a number of solutions in this area, including data collection and

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transmission systems (SCADA systems, radio modems and telemetric modules), signal instruments (signal devices, signal blocks), regulators, digital indicators and programmable logic controlers of temperature and other industrial processes. Elgama-Elektronika, a member of the national EmS technology platform, is currently exploring a possibilities of designing a system which would enable end-users to gather input from various meters in home sector and provide them with a tool for receiving and processing electronic payments for domestic electricity, gas and central heating. Embedded systems applications Health sector. Embedded systems applications for medical equipment sector are still at their infancy. There are only few companies working in that area. But there is a potential for successful application of EmS in sport medicine devices; Biomedical Engineering Institute at Kaunas University of Technology is currently working on a number of projects which are directly related to EmS. The completed and ongoing projects at the Biomedical Engineering Institute cover the following areas of innovation:  algorithms and system for digital processing of optoacustics emissions  telemedicine solutions for home-based care and medical treatment for 24-hour real-time medical monitoring  wireless system for evaluation of cardiological patient condition by via GPRS device  telemetric system for monitoring the training of canoeists. A group of scientists from KTU under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Arminas Ragauskas have been actively exploring a new area of EmS application in health sector, namely brain-to-computer systems as part of a larger international research network Brain+Information Technologies (BrainIT), www.brainit.org which brings together over 132 scientists from 37 countries working in this area. The achievements of Lithuanian scientists have been highly regarded; Prof. Ragauskas has been elected to the Steering Group of this network together with other 12 scientists from the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden and Spain. The multisensor system laboratory of the Telecommunications and Electronic Factory of the Kaunas University of Technology carries out research on complex build-in systems and designs applications. Dr. V. Deksnys (member of the national technology platform of build-in systems) is the head of the laboratory. Cooperation with companies Siemens, WAPO, FESTO (Germany), Consolis (Finland), Bona-Sabla (France) and Lithuanian enterprises KGGI, SPI, Selteka, Sportine Aviacija, Technopolis, Vittamed Technologijos, which specialize in build-in systems, has resulted in the development of several applications:  Process and mechatronics equipment control;  Wireless means of communications;  Measurements for flight diagnostics;  Digital television;  Electronic card systems. The projects were developed using Linux OS platform, FRGA processor and ARM nucleus. The Telecommunications and Electronics of Kaunas University of Technology offers BS and MS degree programmes in build-in systems. Students have to complete a course of study on the following subjects:  Microprocessors;  Build-in systems;  Digital signal processors;  Computer communication;  Design of digital systems.

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This study programme is completed by 50 BS students and 20 MS students annually. The study material, which is always up-to-date and covers many different types of printed matter (monographs, text-book on laboratory research, course books), is related to companies Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, ST Microelectronics, Altium and National Instruments. The majority of ideas that researchers elaborate in their theses are implemented in the industry. The area of interest for BrainIT in general and Lithuanian BrainIT group in particular is to develop intensive therapy technologies for brain-injured patiens and thus to decrease the rate of mortality and a number of post-injury disablement. Brain injury is the global problem which is regarded by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a spreading epidemy. Brain injury is the most frequent cause of death for people under 45 years old. According to WHO estimates, within the next five years brain injury will become the major cause for death in the developed countries. This injury causes huge losses to developed economies. In Lithuania the level of brain injuries is the highest in EU. R&D tasks for BrainIT international network and the Lithuanian group are as follows:  To develop new international standards for the receiving, handling and analyzing data from multimodal physiological monitoring of intensive therapy patients with the aim to individualize treatment of intensive therapy brain injury patients, to lower mortality rates and increase effectiveness of medical treatment  To develop information technologies and the respective Embedded Systems for long-term handling and retrieving of data from patient monitoring and to develop new informational instruments and new, more advanced clinical data analysis methodologies  To develop new patentable non-invasive monitoring technologies for brain injured patients which can help to make quick decisions on optimal and individualized medical treatment  To develop the first of its kind in the world a multicentral brain monitoring infrastructure in the European Union bringing in at least 30 Centres of Excellence/Competence in the EU. In general EmS can help tackling the following issues which affect health situation in Lithuania:  through traffic control systems to lower mortality rates from rate from motor vehicle traffic accidents  to improve long-term care through Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology  to make geriatric care more efficient and less cost-demanding through implementation of remote monitoring and sensing systems (for example through integration with smart textiles)  to improve management of chronic diseases with embedded systems, IC cards (smart cards) systems and internet appliances  to provide better support for Intensive Care Units with embedded systems for a MultiParameter Patient Monitoring. 2.5.2.4 NTP „Networked and electronic media“ The main objective of NEM NTP is rapid implementation of modern audiovisual and multimedia content, services and applications by means of modern broadband networks for achieving benefits of Lithuanian citizens and organizations, and, therefore:  To promote business development in Lithuania and economic growth in the country  To attract direct internal and foreign investments  To increase the efficiency of enterprises in the country, created surplus value and international competitiveness. The main tasks set for the NEM NTP are oriented to development of Lithuanian economy:  To increase competitiveness of the economy of Lithuanian networked and electronic media in the European Union and global marketplace

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To attract the long-term resources necessary for formation and enlargement of competitive advantages of the economy of Lithuanian networked and electronic media  To establish prerequisites for science and business sectors of the economy of Lithuanian networked and electronic media to occupy the competitive niches in the European Union and global marketplace  To ensure compatibility of strategic aims of development of the economy of Lithuanian networked and electronic media with the strategic development of networked and electronic media of the European Union which is programmed on European networked and electronic media platform (The NEM Initiative – European Initiative on NETWORKED and ELECTRONIC MEDIA) as well as in other strategic documents of the European Union  To accumulate organizational and lobbying resources necessary for the representatives of the economy of Lithuanian networked and electronic media to occupy one of the leading positions in the European networked and electronic media platform  To take actions related with the opportunities of education and refresher courses to retain and improve specialists with high qualification able to ensure the effective technology development in this sector. To enhance the dialogues among various participants on the market (as well as customer organizations, financial market participants, cultural representatives, etc.) to identify their needs and expectations as well as to take them into considerations by developing and implementing strategic research agenda. 2.5.3

WORLD WIDE BUSINESS SITUATION AND TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT

2.5.3.1 Software and services subsector In 2000, the Lisbon strategy for Europe to become by 2010 „the world‘s most dynamic and knowledge based economy“ was set. Within this strategy, directions of “higher growth, more and better jobs and greater social inclusion” were emphasized. However, the process of achieving these objectives was too slow. In 2004, the Lisbon strategy was revised. Insufficient management of the financial funding of science and technologies, insufficient participation of business were the main reasons behind the creation of new structures – Technology Platforms for the organization of process chains for transforming knowledge to new products and technologies. Technology platforms are aiming at the concentration of financial resources for the investigation of problems that are closest to a market demand. They must create possibilities to bridge the gap between research and business needs while not providing funding for the research per se. Technology Platforms are intended for giving guidelines and recommendations (based on the thorough analysis and open discussions) of how to make the research serve business needs, and how to involve the business in the research. Through Technology Platforms, the funding of research should grow and access the most critical problems of business, science and our living. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are playing an extremely important role as they are serving all of the remaining platforms by creating ICT services and processes for the knowledge transformation into products and technologies. In summary, ICT has the potential for contributing to all Lisbon objectives: “Higher growth” – acceleration of transformation from knowledge to products and technologies in all business sectors, thus driving the transformation of the European economy towards a dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy; “More and better jobs” – creation of ICT-enabled, intelligent and more productive work places in ICT and other sectors;

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“Greater social inclusion” – creation of adapted, context-dependent possibilities for employees of large and small enterprises; town and country people; healthy and disabled; young and old; different social, cultural, national groups. The key role of ICT in Europe is represented by the Networked European Software and Services Initiative 2 (NEESI) – the Technology Platform aiming at 3 : – The provision of new approaches to developing services in an open environment; – Efficient delivery of these services through networks and devices as a distributed system; – Becoming a key player in the transformation of the European economy into a knowledge economy through service-oriented business models. Due to the global “service-orientation” of information and communication technologies, the strategy of European research in ICT must be focused on the development of secure and reliable software and service-oriented architectures. The lack of a holistic development methodology and infrastructure of service-oriented software is recognized all over the world and EU. Fragile and uncoordinated development of software services may turn back with unthinkable after-affects. As the creation of software services from existing software is easy, software developers are often producing them whenever needed and underemphasizing this fact at the same time. Unmanageable software services can lead to a critical situation, which could even be worse than before the emergence of the “service orientation” concept. Openness of software services as well as their compliance with the security and privacy requirements are the necessary conditions for the sustainable progress of the society. Citizens, business and government enterprises will benefit from the user-friendly services, guaranteeing their privacy and security. The software service concept is inherently associated with the Web, though services may be produced, delivered and consumed in other environments. One of the NESSI ambitions is the enabling of new services that will “transform the Internet to service our lives”. To achieve this goal open standards, infrastructure, “core” services and processes for the production of high quality services are required. Advanced, intelligent computations and computing processes are becoming more and more dependent on the social, economic and cultural context in which we evolve. In the global economy, services must be adapted to the local and individual needs. Ultimately, NESSI wants to change the relationship we have with our computer – it aims to make computers and devices invisible, as service utilities. Lithuanian Software Services Technology Platform was created to support the formation of the overall value chain from ideas to knowledge and the transformation of service development knowledge into technologies, processes and services for all industrial sectors. It must help mobilize the efforts of public organizations and business on regional and national level, raising the national performance to European dimension, simultaneously making the contribution to joint European efforts and results. 2.5.3.2 Mobile and wireless communications subsector Mobile communication services became accessible to the absolute majority of Lithuanian residents. 2005 saw the highest rates of mobile communication penetration in the world in Lithuania. Number portability service was finalized and made the competition between mobile communication service providers even more active. The opportunity for customers to switch to

2

NESSI Strategic Research Agenda, Vol. 1, 13 Feb 2006

3

http://www.nessi-europe.net/Nessi/

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another service provider while retaining their telephone number not only urged current service providers to attract new customers, but also made them work hard to retain the old ones. 175

153,4

150

119,2

125

99,9

127,7

89,2

25

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0 2001 01 01

2003 01 01

2003 07 01

2004 01 01

2004 07 01

2005 01 01

2005 07 01

2006 01 01

Penetration by the number of active subscribers Penetration by the number of all subscribers

Fig. 65. Public mobile telephone communication penetration rate per 100 residents. 2002-2006 Source: RRT

Mobile communication services became accessible to the absolute majority of Lithuanian residents. 2005 saw the highest rates of mobile communication penetration in the world in Lithuania. Number portability service was finalized and made the competition between mobile communication service providers even more active. The opportunity for customers to switch to another service provider while retaining their telephone number not only urged current service providers to attract new customers, but also made them work hard to retain the old ones. Prices of public mobile communication services in 2004 and 2005 were either one of the lowest or the lowest ones in the EU [1,2]. Based on the data contained in the 11th Report of the European Commission, Lithuania continues to have lowest mobile communication prices in retail segment (residential). Medium segment and wholesale segment (business) are noteworthy for the lowest prices as well (respectively No.5 and No.8 in terms of cheapness in the EU) [3,4]. In 2005, compared to 2004, the electronic communications market revenue, received from provision of public mobile telephone communication services grew by 8.19 percent and reached LTL 1176.47 million (LTL 1087.44 million in 2004). Although in 2005 the mobile telephone communication market share within the total revenue structure of the sector reduced by 1.69 percent, the share is still the largest. 1400

55% 50,51%

1275

51,05%

50,95% 49,28%

48,23%

48,97%

1150 1247

1148

1097

1035

984

1044

45%

1025

40%

2nd half of 2005

1st half of 2005

2nd half of 2004

1st half of 2004

2nd half of 2003

35% 1st half of 2003

900

50%

Total electronic communications market revenues, LTL million Mobile communication sector revenue part, percent

Fig. 66. Revenue part of public mobile communications market, 2003-2005 Source: RRT. .

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The mobile communications market revenue dynamics shows an especially rapid growth of mobile communication segment revenue; compared with 2001 the mobile communication segment revenue, received in 2005, grew by 2.16 times. At the beginning of the analyzed period the average mobile communication revenue growth each quarter/half-year reached more than 27 percent, while the revenue from mobile telephone communication in 2003–2005 grew in average by 5.24 percent. (see Fig. 67). Such slow-down of mobile communication revenue was a result of the rapid reduction of mobile telephone communication service prices that became available due to an intensified competition in the mobile communication segment. 1200

41,57%

1000

35%

1087

1002 772

25%

15%

545

600

1176

29,77%

800

400

45%

8,54%

8,18%

2004

2005

5% 2001

2002

2003

Fig. 67. Mobile communication market revenues, LTL million and growth dynamics, percent in 20012005 Source: RRT.

Upon liberalization of the electronic communications market and abandonment of electronic communications activities licensing, apart of the main three operators – UAB Omnitel, UAB Bitė Lietuva (former UAB Bitė GSM) and UAB Tele2 new service providers started their operations in the mobile communications segment. The market share of the new mobile communication service providers is not especially large so far, however it grows consistently. 1,91%

2%

1,97%

2,05%

1,60% 1,12%

1% 0% 2nd half of 1st half of 2nd half of 1st half of 2nd half of 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005

Fig. 68. The new mobile telephone communication service providers market share according to the revenues in 2003-2005, percent.

At the beginning of 2005 the number of mobile telephone communication subscribers reached 3.42 million and became equal to the number of Lithuania’s residents. During 2005 the total number of subscribers grew by 52.8 percent. The mobile communications market revenue dynamics show an especially rapid growth of mobile communication segment revenue; compared with 2001 the mobile communication segment revenue, received in 2005, grew by 2.16 times. At the beginning of the analyzed period the average mobile communication revenue growth each quarter/half-year reached more than 27 percent, while the revenue from mobile telephone communication in 2003–2005 grew in average by 5.24 percent. (see Figure 6). Such slow-down of mobile communication revenue resulted from the rapid reduction of mobile telephone communication service prices that became available due to an intensified competition in the mobile communication segment.

153

4353,4

Y 2005

5228,5

3051,2

Y 2004

3421,5

2102,2

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Y 2002

1645,6

Y 2001

993,2

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508,9

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Y 1998

241,5

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165,3

Y 1996

Active subscribers All the subscribers

52,0

Y 1995 14,8 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Fig. 69. Public mobile telephone communication subscribers number dynamics in 1995–2005, thousand Source: RRT.

Lithuania’s active mobile telephone communication subscribers, using the pre-paid services amount to more than 66 percent of all the active subscribers, their share grew by 9.4 percent in 2005. The average increase of the number of subscribers, using the pre-paid services every quarter of 2005 amounted to 7.09 percent and the number of subscribers, paying under the bills grew by 2.89 percent.

33,67

30,48

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2004

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2004

1st quarter of

2003

2ndhalf of

1st half of 2003

0

The subscribers, paying against the bills The subscribers, using the pre-paid services

Fig. 70. The active subscribers structure according to the selected way for paying for the provided services in 2003-2005, percent

The trend of increase of calls, originated in the mobile communication networks may be continuously observed in the market (see Figure 71) Comparing with 2004 the total duration of calls, originated in the mobile telephone communication networks in 2005 grew by 24.28 percent and amounted to 2966 million minutes. The statistical trend shows the further growth of traffic, originated in the mobile telephone communication networks.

154

833,77

4th quarter of 2005

801,38

3rd quarter of 2005 2nd quarter of 2005

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490,34

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1200

1000

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413,65

Fig. 71. The dynamics of traffic, originated in public mobile telephone communication networks in 20032005, million minutes Source: RRT.

The annual increase of the roaming traffic in 2005 amounted to 21.92 percent. The increase of the calls traffic, originated by Lithuania’s mobile telephone communication subscribers, visiting foreign countries, amounted to 19.09. The calls traffic received by the subscribers, visiting foreign countries grew by 25.39 percent. Compared with 2004 the share of calls, received by Lithuania’s subscribers, visiting foreign countries within the roaming services structure in 2005 grew from 45.56 to 46.86 percent. The dynamics of roaming communication traffic is presented in Figure 72. 10

3,44

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0

Terminated by the subscribers, visiting foreign countries Originated by the subscribers, visiting foreign countries

Fig. 72. Roaming communication traffic dynamics in 2003-2005, million minutes Source: RRT.

The number of short messages, sent by Lithuania’s mobile telephone communication subscribers continues to grow rapidly. The increase of the average number of SMS by separate quarters of 2005 reached 45.86 percent. The annual increase of short messages amounted to 355.95 percent (totally 4.94 billion SMS was sent during 2005). In 2005 one mobile telephone communication subscriber sent 90.6 short messages each month in average. The dynamics of the number of short messages in Lithuania in 2003–2005 is presented in Figure 73.

155

4th quarter of 2005

1929,24

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1341,75

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Fig. 73. The dynamics of the number of short messages (SMS), sent on the public mobile telephone communications market in 2003-2005, million *average Source: RRT

In 2005 the number of multi-media messages (MMS) in Lithuania grew by 27.98 percent – 3.33 million MMS have been totally sent during 2005 i. e. 0.06 messages in average by one subscriber per month. The average increase of the number of MMS in 2005 per quarter reached 35.3 percent. In 2004–2005 the number of subscribers, using the packet data transmission services, provided by mobile telephone communication networks (GPRS and/or EDGE) was growing rapidly. Totally the number of such subscribers grew by 6.54 times during 2004, and 2.34 times during 2005. At the end of 2005 the number of such subscribers reached almost 800 thousand (Fig.74). 799,37

4th quarter of 2005 536,99

3rd quarter of 2005 2nd quarter of 2005

431,40 383,22

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341,12

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Fig. 74. The number of subscribers, using packet data transmission services (GPRS and/or EDGE), provided by public mobile telephone communication network in 2003-2005, thousand Source: RRT

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At the end of 2005 19 undertakings had the right to engage in the public mobile telephone communication network and/or service provision activities (presented notifications on the commencement of activities). Out of the said number 9 undertakings did not execute the activities. As the competitive pressure made by the operators and service providers on the market grows, i. e. with the increase of the number of undertakings, executing public mobile telephone communication sector activities (the number of such undertakings in Lithuania grew from three in 2003 up to ten in 2005), the market share of the largest mobile communication operators in almost all the EU member states continuously decreases. The indicator, showing the concentration of the mobile communication market in Lithuania is one of the highest in the entire EU. For the purpose of development of the 3G service in Lithuania, on 17 of November, 2005 a tender for granting of radio frequencies/channels in the UMTS networks was announced. On 22 of February, 2006 UAB Bitė Lietuva, UAB Omnitel and UAB Tele2 were awarded the winners of the public tender for granting the right to use radio frequencies (channels) in the third generation mobile radio communication (UMTS) networks. UMTS services launched at the beginning of 2006 in Lithuania. 2.5.3.3 Embedded systems subsector The embedded systems market is made up of both hardware (integrated circuits and boards) and software. The majority of the revenue comes from the embedded IC industry (see table below). In 2004 the revenues was almost 40$ billions while it is estimated that by 2009 it will reach 79$ billions with a 14.2% AAGR. However, the highest growth rate in terms of revenues comes from the embedded software (operating systems, design automation and development tools). Hence, it is estimated that by 2009 the overall embedded software revenues will reach 3,448$ million. Comparing for example the AAGR of the market for embedded software (14%) with the estimated growth rates of GDP (about 2%) shows the crucial relevance of the EmS industry for Europe’s economic development. Table 42: Global Embedded Systems Market ($ Millions), Source: BCC, Inc.

2004

2005

AAGR%

Embedded software

1,641

3,448

16.0

Embedded IC

40,536

78,746

14.2

Embedded boards

3,693

5,950

10.0

Total revenues

45,873

88,144

14.0

In 2004 the size of the global electronic component market, including components for personal computers and monitors, sensors, semiconductors, etc., totaled EUR 257 billion. Europe, Japan and Americas occupied 19% of the market, meanwhile the Asian-Pacific Ocean region remained the largest rapidly growing economy, covering 43% of the market. In 2003-2004 the output of electronic components in Europe grew about 7%. The sector created 226 000 new jobs. In terms of regional distribution, the Americas (US mainly) has almost half of the total revenues. The other regions, Europe, Japan and Asia/Pacific equally share the rest. The Asia/Pacific region has the highest growth rate (22.7%) followed by Europe with 13.2%. The US has the lowest growth rate of 11.0% (see figure below).

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2004 2009 AAGR%

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Europe

Japan

Asia-Pacific

Region

Fig. 75: Global Embedded Systems Revenue by Region, Source: BCC, Inc.

Embedded Systems increasingly profit from the integration of highly specialized interfacing and signal processing capabilities with the flexibility and computational power of general-purpose computing. By combining techniques from domain engineering and computer engineering, Embedded Systems can improve the production of solutions both concerning cost and time. Reduction of production cost: Today, even in domains like automotive, electronics already account for more than 23% of the production costs. At the same time, specific hardware becomes an increasing cost factor in production; e.g., the costs of the design of a specific SoC are in the order € 10 million, while the costs of the production of a single SoC are in the order of € 10. By moving from specific hardware to commodity hardware (like a PowerPC-based ECU) and combining specific (software) solutions with more general-purpose hardware, thus production costs can be drastically reduced. Reduction of time to market: By using general-purpose hard- or middleware abstracting from the domain-specific platform, the development of new (and especially customized) solutions can be drastically reduced. This is especially influential in domains requiring a wide range of individualized products as, e.g., in mobile communication. For example, by using the P2002/APOXI platform, the development time for vendor-specific version of mobile phones can be reduced by 25% to 50% compared to traditional development with vendor-specific hardware. This possibility to deliver systems with new functionality or improved quality within a competitive time frame has ensured substantial market shares for the European economy in domains like automotive (37% in 2002), industry and energy (30% in 2002), or defense and space (30% in 2002). Japan dominates the market of consumer electronics and America is continuing the domination in PCs. Across all sectors, the US has a share of 35% of the world electronics market compared to Europe with 26%. But the European microelectronics industry is weak in IT but well positioned for the secondary sectors. 2.5.3.4 Networked and electronic media subsector Global achievements in the fields of media, communication, and electronic technologies: Services and applications:  e-Learning and e-Health will be the main e-Applications in the future  It is likely that, in case of e-Learning, the key issues are the seamless interoperability and use of any kind of end devices

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    

The main requirements in terms of birth of new services will be set by the needs of organization and management of online communities, communication in communities and personal communication. There is move from services provision for individuals to services provision to communities and their members DRM issues are increasingly important. The well-balanced solutions will be necessary in the future in order to change the current system for user's benefit One of the key aspects of e-Services is opportunities of content creation technologies: content creation and adaptation, management, search and distribution in multiple environments and also on fixed and mobile multimedia devices The widespread broadband access used for provision of e-Services implies for the user an overflow of information Semantic aspects of the contents will become the prerequisite for usage of content The intelligent agents and other smart service discovery mechanisms are needed to allow users to have personalized services.

Content Creation:  It is important to keep in mind that the media industry consists of the chain of processes of content creation and changing of value: producing; storing; adapting; aggregating; delivering; consuming  Earlier the major producers of the content were large-scale companies. Currently, the main producers are SMEs. There are an inevitable changes going on: a consumer becomes a prosumer is a person who is simultaneously a producer and a consumer. In future, small users will be the main producer of the content  The other future attribute in terms of NEM is content availability from any source everywhere, at any time. That could be done through interactive platform and format available to all users. This requirement shows that in addition to physical delivery networks the focus should be on content adaptation, personalization and retrieval processes. All these processes share the same feature – they are based on semantic technologies  The main requirement of the content production is the realization of more easily usable and more economical tools for content production. One example of such requirement is the gaming industry  The content becomes unavailable, if there is not developed metadata creation system. Semantic description mechanisms is increasingly important prerequisite for accessibility of the content. Both manual collaborative methods of content creation online and automated methods of metadata creation are used for metadata creation  The integration of personal communication and content distribution plays a key role  One of the main prerequisites of successful content creation by simple user is the open formats with great support to open-source. Semantics technologies:  The biggest problem. Semantic resources need to be easily accessible on the network (most often in state organizations): o Which even now have big value to organizations, that created the resources; o Yet they will become more costly, if they will be described semantically, and if they will be "opened" they will be widely or even globally used;  Communities need to identified, which already have such structured resources and to persuade them to enrich the resources with semantic meaning. Presently experts are aware of three fields that can be candidates of early successful intervention:

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o Compilers and owners of information (geographic and statistical) in a public sector, as this information when enriched semantically could be used more widely than it is done now by responsible organizations; o Organizations that accumulate very big databases of experimental results and data (e.g., in such sciences as genetics and molecular biology), as their inventions are often a comparison of experimental data from researchers of different fields; o Publishers of very technical and structured literature (as for example, scientists), as this enables them to become famous and be better informed in their field; In order to “live” successfully in the semantic network, the following problems need to be solved: indexing of audiovisual content, content discovery problem, automatic content summarizing and similar problems. To solve them it is necessary: o to develop and foster the semantic infrastructure (language dependent things): annotated dictionaries, taxonomies, domain specific ontologies o to develop and use general and specific domain ontologies; It is likely that such huge problems can only be solved by the global community of science. However, there exist specific (especially language dependent) technical and scientific problems, which can and must be solved on the national level.

Technologies and Equipment: Even now, a person with a mobile device capable of receiving and transmitting information can (maybe not everywhere and not completely):  Get personalized information  Transmit multi-content information  Generate multi-content information  Manage own finances  Monitor and manage engineering systems of own flat or house  Transmit health-related data  Watch entertainment programs (live or recorded)  Vote  Order services  Buy tickets, etc.

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3

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE AIMED STATE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

3.1 SUGGESTIONS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S STUDY SYSTEM Information technology studies are the key factor, which drives Lithuania‘s competitiveness and possibilities to become and equal member of EU. If Lithuanian IT studies (just like any other higher education studies) want to join European higher education area (EHEA), a list of conditions must be fulfilled:  higher education institutions must have necessary autonomy to implement reforms agreed;  higher education institutions must receive continuous and sufficient funding;  higher education evaluation system must change radically;  lecturer expertise evaluation system must be more flexible;  higher education administration system must be flexible, dynamic and ensure sufficient curriculum, study form and manner variety;  Lithuanian study institution communication must be stimulated, while preparing curricula, organizing practices and taking part in common projects;  effort must be taken to stimulate rational international and transnational studies [Internationality of higher education, 2007], which do not increase „brain drain“;  higher education institutions must create conditions for informal communication between students and lecturers and long-term relationship cultivation with their graduates;  bachelor and master practices must be organized in a better way;  business representatives should contribute more in order to make studies better correspond to business needs. Higher education development policy must solve a range of controversies, most important from which are:  education adaptation to business needs and decrease of theoretical potential, because of reduction of fundamental disciplines;  development of higher education internationality and decrease of intellectual resources, which is caused by „brain drain“;  necessity to increase curriculum dynamics and requirements to ensure their quality. One of the main study quality improvement factors is study information collection, analysis and feedback development:  between education institutions and students and graduates later;  between education institutions and business representatives. Information about study process is formed by using information technologies, but it is isolated in institution databases and it is not accessible for analysis using modern methods. Every time, when any data is required, it is collected from the beginning, from many sources, with different forms, therefore the data is often distorted. A lot of time is wasted for this, and acceptable results are still not available. AIKOS system is a progressive act, but it only provides instantaneous information, which is often outdated; only a primitive search is available, information about past periods is inaccessible (it might not be archived at all). By using modern data analysis tools (Data Warehouses, OLAP, Data Mining), a useful analysis of present and past data could be carried out, and trustworthy information would be obtained, which would enable conclusions, based on facts. More information should be archived, than it was until now, considering data analysis. For example, student response about their lecturers, disciplines, value of knowledge gained in further activities, educational gaps, etc.

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Education institutions should support any possible informal relations with students, in order to better understand their needs and shortcomings in their own activities. One of the possibilities to expand such relations is providing a permanent student email. It would be a substantive possibility to find the graduates, learn about their further career, receive response about the quality of the knowledge gained and make conclusions. In order to sustain relations with business, a project „Portal of scientific research practical application stimulation“ (VU, KTU), where post graduate students will find an information system of possible research activities, offered by business representatives. Business representatives should proactively take part in specialist preparation. First of all they could help more in practice organization. Practice locations should be offered by companies, which have things to teach – create new software, install sophisticated business management systems and carry out large projects. Companies, which need specific specialists, could offer preparation topics requiring a small number of specialists (even a single person), which could be joined by student tutor lecturers. In such a way business and educational correspondence would be reinforced and practical lecturer experience would be stimulated. Objective specialist preparation could be started from the third or fourth year and proceeded in post graduate studies. On the other hand, practice problems are partially solved by the students themselves. Most them are employed during their studies and practice is only a formal affirmation of an existing fact. However students, which find it hard to get practice locations, request universities to organize the practice for them. This problem should be solved in a flexible manner, and it should not be forgotten, that study organizations do not have authority to „designate practice locations“. 3.1.1

LONG-TERM SPECIALIST DEMAND AND FUTURE VARIATION TENDENCIES

There is no unanimous opinion, how IT specialist demand should grow, but this sector is assumed to be a knowledge-intensive one, therefore specialist demands should grow [Institute of public policy and management, 2006]. In order to determine specialist demand tendencies, various sources were analyzed, but only a bit of information was found in national platform suggestions concerning predicted labor power demand changes and in a Information technologies sector study [Sector of information technologies‘, 2004]. According to the data of National audit office [LRVK, 2007], student employment research, carried out in jobcentres and accessible in AIKOS system, do not correspond to the real situation (there are no unemployed people in IT sector, according to these studies). According to the data of National software and service technology platform (NSSTP) [NPPTP, 2006], this platform was represented by more than 5000 employed specialists working with software services: ~ 600 researchers, who have doctor degree or seek on, ~800 upcoming masters; annual number of people starting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) studies is equal to 2000. As the average salary growth in Lithuanian software service companies was higher than the respective growth in EU, specialist demand should also grow faster. The goal, predicted by NSSTP is ~ 10 percent yearly specialist number growth (10 000 employees in 2013). According to the data of E-mobility platform [MBK NTP, 2007], the same number of employees maintaining mobile and wireless infrastructure is expected, i.e. about 4500 people, but the number of people creating and maintaining the services should grow. Currently very few people work in service development sector (200 employees). Dynamics of service developers is given in a diagram form below.

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1000 500

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0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Dynamics of employees, responsible for service development

Other platforms, associated to IT sector do not provide specialist demand information. According to an IT study [Sector of information technologies‘, 2004] pace of IT employee number growth is slower, than NSSTP is indicating, but the specified employee count is much higher, than in shown in NSSTP study, not even taking official statistics into account: IT sector prediction according to sub-sectors (PI – software, KI – hardware) Sub-sector

Official statistics data Variation

Study data

Variation

According to the research carried out by this study, over 1300 information technology specialists were prepared in 2006, a part of whom (over 500) continue their studies, another part (800) had to add up to the labor market. If aforementioned study data was invoked, it would seem, that specialist excess is being prepared, but the total number of specialist count does not reach [Sector of information technologies‘, 2004] prediction, furthermore, qualified specialist shortage can be felt, according to proclamations and remarks made by business companies. The absence of actual excess can be explained by the fact, that most of the graduates are already employed during their studies and another part emigrates. As there are no data, proving, that IT sector specialist number growth should decline, we do not make any assumptions, we only state, that if Lithuanian education and studies followed the path of progress, IT specialist numbers (maybe unlike other sectors) should grow, in opposition to all demographic predictions. At the time being, because bachelor studies are very ineffective (high bachelor wastage), the path of study quality development should be followed: number of accepted students into bachelor studies should be gradually decreased, but a lower wastage and a higher number of graduates should be the goal, also increasing the number of accepted to post graduate studies. Specialists with higher qualification would be prepared this way. Number of accepted to post graduate studies should be increased, because only students with a master degree can match the ever growing requirements for IT specialists, who are welcome in companies, developing IT software, and other large enterprises, which have sophisticated information systems. Undergraduate students mostly start working in smaller or non-IT companies, and only after getting the master degree or by improving the knowledge themselves they can make a career. Employment possibilities often depend on personal qualities and the attitude towards the studies. On the other hand, both graduates, both employers should not require, that fresh graduates

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could accomplish the work, which requires the highest expertise, or take important positions. Experience is necessary, and it is gained during practical work, which nor the studies, nor the practice, done during them, can replace. By considering this, the employers should pay more attention to specialist adaptation. Acceptance to doctoral studies should be enhanced and conditions, which help academic institutions attract young researchers should be created. First of all, this is associated to salary increases and the possibility to engage the doctoral student into the university work during his studies, so that the student is not financially disadvantaged, comparing with his master colleagues working in business institutions. Analysis proves, that as the time passes, the number of doctoral students increases. As the aging professors are capable of preparing new researchers, preparation of new doctors should be encouraged, because the level of expertise can seriously decrease in a few years due to retirement of present habilitated doctors and professors. Further qualification development of doctors should be encouraged. 3.1.2

EXPERTISE, KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITY REQUIREMENTS

 The qualification achieved should be more differentiated. At the time being many fulltime, part-time and extramural curricula are offered, which have the same duration and provide the same degrees. Bachelor degrees are also provided by colleges. It is obvious, that the qualification of these studies is different.  The qualification achieved, knowledge and abilities must have two sides: theoretical preparation as good as possible, which could be applied in any area or technology; practical preparation as good as possible, which normally is more specific and constricted.  Information technology curriculum modules should be complemented with material, which provide relevant organizational, economical, psychological an management knowledge. At the beginning of each module, students should be introduced to it’s application.  Curricula should be constantly updated in according to 3.1.3 section‘s offers, changing technologies and business needs.  Lecture attendance must be guaranteed. As student polls show, mostly students, who do not attend their lectures or have bad marks are not happy with study quality. And vice versa, students who finish with good grades feel like they gained knowledge. As most students are employed, the lectures should take place in the evening. 3.1.3

CURRICULUM UPDATES AND CONTENT REFORMS

 Curriculum organization system should be changed radically. In order to validate a new curriculum, bureaucracy is met, which delays programme validation for no lees than the preparation of the teaching material itself. Study direction regulations limit curriculum proposition freedom and do not let the universities to react into environmental changes in a flexible way. It is extremely bad for IT studies, where everything changes rapidly.  A stepped-up preparation of very relevant or objective curricula should be ensured. For example, according to an identified business demand a short-term programme could be created (for a few years), which would suit that demand.  Cross-institutional and international curriculum possibilities should be foreseen and stimulated.  Projects with extra financing, which update curricula, should be carried out regularly. At the time being a lot of curriculum updating projects, sponsored by structural funds:  Information technology sector master degree curriculum creation, modernization, expansion and mobility assurance, 2005-2008 (KTU, VGTU, VU);  Usage of innovative learning methods, during informatics teacher preparation, 2006-2008 (KU, KTU, VGTU);

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 Expansion of informatics and mathematics doctoral studies (InMaDra) (VU, MII, KTU), 2007-2008, etc. Joint cross-institutional curricula are being prepared in these projects, also the participants exchange their experience. Such projects are a big assistance for the studies and should be carried out regularly. However administrating procedures for such projects should be simplified.  In order to improve curriculum contents, two tendencies must be taken into account: fundamental research and business needs. Curricula could be differentiated by these directions, one of them would be oriented to future researchers, others – to application areas. Basic fundamental preparation would be necessary for specialists of both directions. A similar approach is already used, for example KTU has master curriculum „Informatics“, which is oriented more towards theoretical knowledge, while „Software system engineering“ and „Information system engineering“ are more of engineering nature. However, as engineering sciences curricula are more popular, better students choose these studies, and lately weaker students choose „Informatics“, who are not going to continue doctoral studies.  In consideration of business representative opinion and worldwide tendencies, information technology curricula could be complemented by such modules:  IT project management;  Data Warehouses, Data Mining, Business Intelligence;  Business management tools deployment;  Software architecture engineering;  Database administration;  Information systems and software quality management and testing;  Information system security;  IT system audit;  Computer networks administration;  User interface design;  Design of automated hardware and integrated systems;  Information database management;  Internet and multimedia design;  Specific operating system and platform (LINUX, UNIX and other) administration, etc.  Any curriculum should at first consider application, business relations and economical feasibility questions. Such demands reflect in requests from both business representatives and students.  Any curriculum should have as many as possible practical engagements and individual assignments. It is worth to increase the number of group assignments with different member responsibilities. A very useful form of assignments is group projects, however, as many students are employed and do not participate in the lectures, organizing such projects is unreal. When lecturer workload is counted, more attention should be paid not only to work done during lectures, but also consulting activities when tutoring course works, thesis or other projects. 3.1.4

UPDATES OF STUDY PROCESS’S METHODICAL AND MATERIAL BASE

Methodical study base should be seriously updated. Studies in information technologies should significantly improve in this area. Course book writing could be encouraged by such means::  Course book and methodical material preparation should be an alternative to scientific article publication, when lecturer, curriculum and institution competence are evaluated during their attestation. Some lecturers, while being great educators, dedicate all of their time to teaching process and writing articles is not their favorite activity. Writing a good course book and reading quality lectures is no less important than taking part in scientific research. Therefore lecturers should have an ability to choose: take part in research or prepare course books.

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 Course book and other teaching material sponsoring should be a common practice. A lot of projects, sponsored by structural funds are being carried out, where preparation of textbooks and electronic teaching material is intended, but such projects should be carried out regularly, until study system becomes suitably financed.  IT sector‘s hardware and software should be constantly updated. At the time being IT studies hardware and software is at a reasonable level, but maintaining this level requires constant effort. New programming languages are being trained, the same tools are being used as the ones used worldwide. Big problems can arise because of software license acquisition. Some business companies often help solving this problem, by providing academic software licenses, but such supply is only based on lecturer initiative and companies‘ good will. Study institutions should be better protected from lack of software licenses. Open source programs cannot solve license problems, because Lithuanian economy needs are not limited to open source software.  Suitable software maintenance should be ensured, so the equipment works through the learning process and during experiments. For the time being universities do not have staff for this matter. Software maintenance requires high expertise operating personnel, whereas such work is mostly done by students, employed for a short term. After they reach the required expertise in a few years, they leave the university, because technical personnel salaries are very low.  The big part of IT studies institutions, like all Lithuanian institutions, material base (buildings, hostels) are in a very bad condition; according to National audit office, 90 percent of them must be renewed [LRVK, 2007]  IT studies institution, like all Lithuanian institutions, lecturer salaries must be raised. This topic is broadly discussed and it is agreed in the press and in official institutions. 3.1.5

IMPROVEMENT OF LECTURER AND SCIENTIST PEDAGOGICAL COMPETENCE

This section interconnects with issues associated with improvement of scientific research. Main suggestions to improve scientific competence:  Lecturers should have less pedagogical work, so they pay more attention to research.  Infrastructures, which recently have been called “IT greenhouses”, “IT incubators” or “IT clinics” should be established at the universities. Such infrastructures would on one hand be meant for student practice and young specialist adaptation, on the other hand – to improve lecturer skills, apply their theoretical and practical knowledge. Pilot projects could be carried out in them, where business representatives, lecturers and students could take part together.  Flexible possibilities to improve the expertise should be created, with no need to go abroad, which many lecturers refuse because of personal qualities, familial circumstances or fear of loosing their workplace. Cross-institutional and international study and research vision should be developed, which would include distant common activities, program, specialist, methodical material and other exchange.  English language and other courses should be available in an acceptable form excluding the learning process. One of the possible forms – intensive short-term objective lecturer group improvement.  Key IT area information sources should be available – Lecture Notes in Computer Science, ACM portal and other. Partial access, when a limited number of articles are available, and it is not known in advance what is accessible, only wastes time. In order to improve pedagogical competence, it is offered to:  Apply an internal system of pedagogical competence improvement and control: attend colleague lectures, organize lecturer courses, arrange regular student surveys and lecturer rating system.  Young specialists must be attracted in order to improve the potential of intellectual resources, doctoral students, who have successfully defended their thesis, should be employed in

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study institutions. In order to solve this problem, first of all lecturer salaries must be raised and young people should get better future possibilities. 3.1.6

DEMAND FOR SPECIALIST

TRAINING ABROAD

The demand of specialist training abroad is not high both from the side of students and study institutions, if Lithuania’s interest to improve and enlarge competitiveness in IT sector is considered. Firstly, overseas studies are a welcome thing, but for the time being they create many problems. In many cases student departure from Lithuania ends in loss of the best students. Secondly, often overseas studies misbalance scientific activities and prolong study time, because students do not always get a chance to improve, they are just included into works falling behind or they are marooned. The number of students leaving to partial studies is not big, and it can be concluded, that it reflects the demand for such studies, as a possibility to leave still exists, with the help of Erasmus programs, and they should not be reduced in any way. A similar ratio of outgoing students should be kept in the future. However, as it has been mentioned, higher education internationality and trans-national qualities should be encouraged, so that Lithuanian studies become equal to European and other global university studies. Study internationality is a broader concept, than student exchange, and first of all it includes international importance and quality of the educational content, also abilities to introduce the institution in an international level. Studies could be expanded in a trans-national direction, without doing any damage to Lithuanian intellectual resources, in such ways:  the best international level must be followed when curricula are prepared;  foreign language curricula should be created;  distant learning international and trans-institutional studies and other derivative forms should be applied;  Information spread and marketing means should be developed, which would introduce the educational system in an international level;  courses, concerning international topics should be organized, also curricula about international perspectives and curricula with foreign lecturers as well as other means should be taken.

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3.2 3.2.1

SUGGESTIONS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S SCIENCE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT OF COMMON IT RESEARCH AREA

At the moment Lithuania does not have common IT research space (see Section 2.2.1). On the one hand, this space has partially fragmented by itself; on the other hand, it has been destroyed by the poor Lithuanian science policy. In our opinion, this space has to be rebuilt and developed; otherwise, we will not only fail to accumulate efforts for solving any major scientific issues, but also fail to integrate the majority of Lithuanian scientists in the single European research space. We believe that in order to rebuild the common IT research space in Lithuania, it is necessary to: a. Restore the status of national conferences, in particular, the KUT-hosted conference Information Technologies and conferences of the Society of Lithuanian Mathematicians. On the one hand, the research article reviewing procedures should be improved significantly at these conferences; on the other hand, these research articles should be recognized to be fullfledged scientific publications (incidentally, publications of international conferences, even those of the most important ones, where research articles are reviewed by 5-6 critics, and there are 10-20 articles competing for the right to be published, have been devalued in Lithuania.) These conferences have to regain the status of fora where the most important research conducted in Lithuania is discussed, the unanimous terminology is shaped, etc. b. Promote in every way possible the research and projects conducted by different Lithuanian study and science institutions, the regular seminars and publications, in particular, the ones that involve Lithuanian scientists working abroad and other foreign partners. c. Prepare and sign regularly cross-border agreements (which is similar to the practice that is common in Portugal) on the versatile cooperation in the field of the IT research between science and study institutions of Lithuania and foreign countries, primarily, the most developed EU member states, and to encourage and support such cooperation in every way possible. d. Encourage and support financially the organization of large international conferences in Lithuania (which at the moment depends basically on the initiative of individual people.) 3.2.2

NEED FOR SCIENTISTS AND OTHER RESEARCHERS

With reference to the data and conclusions provided in the analytical part of the study, one could claim that the severe deficit of scientists and research workers, working in the field of information technologies, will become obvious within the next 7-10 years. There are three reasons why this is to happen: a. Since only a very insignificant part of the current research in Lithuania is related to the most relevant issues of the IT sector (see Section 2.2.1), we believe that the lack of scientists with the expert knowledge of the theoretical background of the most modern information technologies, who would manage to research these technologies and help business structures to assimilate them also train relevant experts, will be felt already in the next couple of years to come. Business structures will most likely not be able to deal with these issues on their own, even with the help of foreign consultants. Therefore, in our opinion, the present situation is rather threatening and it is necessary to fix it right away. First of all, it is necessary to change the existent one-sided system for the assessment of performance of science and study institutions and the certification system of research workers. The system should encourage the innovation and collective interdisciplinary research rather than impeding them, which is what happening at the moment. In our opinion, for this purpose, we have to:

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i. Give up the system for the assessment of the performance of institutions and persons that is based on quantitative criteria (the number of research articles published in prestigious science publications, etc.); ii. Apply different assessment criteria to scientists to whom research is only an additional activity next to pedagogical work and those to whom research is the main activity, in particular, researchers who work in large researcher groups; iii. Grant more authority to institutions themselves in decision-making concerning research career of their employees by allowing reorientation of some of the scientists for work in the new fields of research where we may expect the first serious publications no sooner than in three years’ time. Besides, it is necessary to initiate programmes for supporting relevant, innovative and risky research. We should bear in mind that such research requires not only human resources but also modern equipment, journals and books, traineeships, opportunities to take part in international events, etc. b. Science and study institutions employ very few scientists and researchers, aged 30-40. The age gap is very clear. It is necessary to quickly deal with the issue of who will replace the researchers of the older generation when they will have finished their professional career. c. Many (or even the majority) of the present doctoral candidates do not intend to continue their scientific career at Lithuanian science and study institutions. Such a possibility is completely unattractive due to financial and a number of other reasons. Of course, consequences of the lack of the pedagogical personnel may be not as serious as expected due to the fact that according to present forecast, the number of full-time students will in the next 3-5 years decrease about two times due to unfavorable demographic changes. On the other hand, the number of remote students is expected to go up 1.5 times. Besides, in the light of developing information society, decreasing importance of the agriculture in the European Union and the shift of production to the third countries, the importance of science and also the IT research will inevitably grow and the demand for scientists and research should increase, too. 3.2.3

POSSIBILITIES AND DEMAND FOR INVITING AND GETTING EXPERTS AND SCIENTIST BACK FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES

It is necessary to have at least some of the experts and scientists who have left for foreign countries return to Lithuania; however there are basically no practical possibilities of doing this at the moment. We believe that:  Remuneration of scientists and research workers should be raised by several times; they should be subject to specific goal oriented annual bonuses (e.g. for taking part in conferences, publishing articles, etc.) (which is a common practice in other countries);  The status of associate scientist should be reconsidered by providing Lithuanian science and study institutions with realistic possibilities of cooperation with Lithuanian scientists working abroad;  A special grant for scientists who had worked abroad and resumed their career in Lithuania should be established (similar to Marie Curie Grant awarded to scientists returning to the EU). 3.2.4

TENDENCIES OF R&D DEVELOPMENT

The time intended for the study was too short and the funds allocated for this purpose were insufficient to make more detailed and well-founded forecasts. However, in our opinion, one could say that in the next couple of years to come:  The fields of research, provided for in the 7th Framework Programme and European technology platforms, will be developed;

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     



Much greater attention will be brought to the issues of the use of build-in systems and computerization of the living environment; Problems related to computer networks (including sensor networks, domestic networks, networks of computerized equipment, etc.) and mobile computations will remain relevant; Research associated with the development of digital libraries, content management systems and cognitive systems will become very important; Research in the fields of medical informatics, transport informatics and construction informatics will be increasingly relevant; The importance of research related to the safety, protection and reliability of computer systems, as well as confidence in such systems, will grow; Research, related to the presentation and availability of services (including public services), also the improvement of the simple use of such services, will become increasingly relevant; Research into the enterprise engineering and development methods as well as eBusiness and eCommerce engineering will be developed further. 3.2.5

DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH TOPICS IN LITHUANIA

All the topics mentioned in the section above should be developed in Lithuania. In addition, there should be at least a couple of small but highly qualified groups of scientists who would carry out the so-called “peripheral” and fundamental IT research. 3.2.6

NEED FOR R&D PROGRAMMES COVERED FROM THE STATE BUDGET

In our opinion, Lithuania needs R&D programmes. These programmes should be drawn up following the example of EU programmes, by selecting the most relevant topic to Lithuania. Involvement in the programmes of national level, which operate under the same or very similar rules to those of the programmes of the EU level, would not only help tackle many problems relevant to Lithuania and contribute significantly to the integration of science and business, but would also help a much larger number of Lithuanian scientists to get ready for successful participation in EU programmes. 3.2.7

NEED FOR RENOVATING, BUILDING AND DEVELOPING R&D INFRASTRUCTURE

Many issues related to the renovation, building and development of infrastructure are now tackled with the help of the EU structural funds. However, these funds alone will not help deal with all the problems of the infrastructure:  Many science and study institutions lack premises for creating work places for scientists and accommodating research equipment. Due to the lack of premises at scientific laboratories, it is impossible to employ new staff. Separate rooms should be provided to research workers and doctoral candidates so that they could share such premises by working in pairs at least, instead of being forced to work in large groups. The total area of the premises at the KUT alone should be expanded by at least 400 square metres.  The issues of the regular update of hardware and software have not been solved (EU structural funds help deal with the problem of the one-off acquisition only.) 3.2.8

NEED

FOR UPDATING LIBRARY RESOURCES, NEW ACCESS TO DATABASES OF SCIENTIFIC PERIODICALS

A systematic collection of library resources has not started yet. There is a lack of not only scientific journals and monographs but also text-books. In the field of IT, text-books become outdated in 3-4 years’ time therefore there should be an annual budget set for this.

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3.3

3.3.1

SUGESTIONS FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR DEMAND FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INCUBATORS AND TECHNOLOGICAL PARKS

In year 2005 on the 22nd of November in National strategy of Lisbon and in Lithuania strategy of EU support utilization of year 2007-2013 confirmed by decision of Government No. 1270 and in programs of actions there are line of planned purposes and tasks, which should help to increase competitiveness of Lithuania in global markets. In these strategies big attention is paid to improvement of national science researches and experimental development system, it is sought to increase investments in science researches not only of public but especially of private sectors, to promote cooperation of business and science, to develop innovations, to increase productivity of working places, to create and implement better system of state administration. While implementing 14 measure of 1 purpose of 92 paragraph of National Lisbon strategy implementation program confirmed by Government of the Republic of Lithuania in year 2005 on the 22nd of November by decision No. 1270 (Žin., 2005, No. 139-5019), 1.3 article of measures of plan of Lithuania higher education system development first stage of year 2006-2010 confirmed by Government of the Republic of Lithuania in year 2006 on the 17th of November by decision No. 1133 (Žin., 2006, Nr. 126-4789), in year 2007 on the 21st of March Government of the Republic of Lithuania by decision No. 321 „Creation and development conception of integrated education, studies and business centers (valleys)“ states, that states‘ institutions of education and studies, municipalities, companies of business susceptible to knowledge have arranged projects of significant territorial saturation of education and studies potential in Vilnius and Kaunas cities. Representatives of state regions and of separate sectors of economy of education, business and local self-governments emphasize demand to link (concentrate) development of business susceptible to science, studies and knowledge. It is necessary to support these initiatives in order to reach the best matching of system of Lithuania education and studies with economy and innovation development strategies, in order to promote increase of industry and business susceptible to knowledge, to form attractive conditions for International investments. In general meaning information technologies (IT), as including communication technologies, is the most universal and horizontal sector of higher technologies, which results can be used in many other sectors, therefore it is very attractive for implementation of mentioned tasks. IT sector can by characterized by the fact, that it‘s created services and products almost in all cases are goods, and both measure for creation of innovations, surplus value and for increase of productivity in other spheres. Contribution of IT as no other sphere of technologies to social life of community changes communication, education and cultural expression and political life forms, increases productivity of working places. By provided e-government services IT products are directly used while improving system of state administration and while decreasing administration load. Europe Commission rates IT as one of the main factors which influences innovations and increase. Sector itself in Europe increases by 6 percents per year, and it‘s influence to productivity of other sectors reaches up to 20 percents and is consistently growing. One of the main tasks in program of year 2010 confirmed by Europe Commission and complementing Lisbon strategy is to increase investments in science researches in this sphere by 80 percents. Despite available human potential (IT branches of studies are chosen by 2000 new students each year) and qualified labor force in IT sphere (Lithuanian IT specialists are well rate all over the world), Lithuania is still significantly standing behind other countries of Europe and especially in the back of leader of IT market - USA. One of the reasons is insufficiently developed innovation promotion system in the state (both in financial, and non-financial measures), that blocks

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innovations in the sector itself and does not allow to implement innovative IT solutions in other sectors. These problems are tried to solve by establishing such measure of business, education and studies integration as parks of technologies, National platforms of technologies (NTP), integrated centers of science, studies and business (valleys), R&D projects implemented by companies and financed by EU resources. Sector of information technologies supports these state initiatives and pays attention to the fact, that while seeking further successful development of these initiatives it is necessary clearly determined underlying branches of sector development, science and technologies parks must be specialized accordingly to business demands and already formed innovative potential, it is necessary to pay attention to spheres of perspective researches. Visions of integrated centers of science, studies and business are prepared. Working groups have coordinated draft of vision of integrated centre in Vilnius city. Accordingly to this vision, Sauletekis valley is understood as umbrella structure joining specialized clusters – integrated centers of science, studies and business. The similar objectives are pursued in the vision of Kaunas University of Technology High Technologies Valley, in which IT sector occupies one of the most important positions in integration of Kaunas IT research and studies resources with business needs as well as in applying IT research results for development of other sectors. In order to reach competitive (in International level) national researches of IT sphere, technologies, innovative projects and investment to it, such specialized IT cluster – integrates centre of science, studies and business is naturally forming in Visoriai, integration of this centre with analogical centers in Vilnius cities can be noticed. There are 700 specialist of information technologies (among them 250 of explorers and graduate students in Mathematics and informatics institute – more than other representatives in Visoriai representatives of higher technologies) working in Visoriai IT core. 20 percents of here produced IT services are exported to EU countries and USA. Here already for 15 years tradition of business, science and studies cooperation of IT sphere is developed, close relations with Vilnius university are supported. Hundreds of students of universities had professional practice and found working places in the companies of Visoriai IT core. In order to improve interaction of studies of information technologies, researches and innovative business, informatics specialty students of Vilnius university Mathematics and informatics faculty are moving to geographically close accommodations in address Didlaukio 47. It is quite significant concentration: to three programs of informatics bachelor studies go more than 400 students, including that in program of informatics studies go 250 students, to studies program of programs systems – 125 students and to program of Bioinformatics studies – 30 students. This geographical closeness is important not only for students and companies, but also to teachers. New phenomena can be notices – big part of teachers are working in leading companies of information technologies and in the same time they are participating in process of the studies. For example, in academic year 2006-2007, two thirds of 30 workers of Informatics cathedral are working in IT companies, they are disposing the newest technologic information and implementation practice of IT projects, and they pass this knowledge to the students. Absolutely the same situation now is in Programs systems cathedral. In further academic year 2007-2008, personnel of teachers will be complemented by ten new workers, who will be coordinating work in IT companies and in process of studies, and it will make about 50 teachers, who at the same time are participating in manufacturing in IT companies or in institutions of IT departments. It is supposed, that master studies of Mathematics and informatics faculty informatics branch will be moved (in bigger part) to Visoriai IT core. So, in Lithuania sector of information technologies it is sufficiently significant factor: to informatics master studies of three studies programs go 150 studies, including that in Informatics studies program there will be 60 studies, in Programs system studies program – 50 students and in Computer modeling studies programs – 40 students. Although at present demand of IT companies for academic sector in main is for IT specialists, but the most progressive companies, especially those, which practice is oriented to production of innovative products, already now are

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determining tasks of researches for academic sector. This demand will only increase. In this way participation of VU MIF in component of studies forms a real base for establishment of integrated centre of science, studies and business in Visoriai. In year 1985 Mathematics and informatics institute (MII) was established in Visoriai. From year 1988 companies of information technologies are establishing in Visoriai - VTEX, TEV, Baltic Amadeus, they are established by MII workers. At present taxes of these companies paid in budgets of the country more than two times exceeds state financing provided to MII. Close science relations of MII with these companies are still further developing, specialists are arranged for the companies, analyzing projects are implemented. In year 2002, while developing cooperating of IT companies, science and studies organizations in Visoriai, Public institution Visoriai park of information technologies was established. VITP accepted new members such as joint-stock company „Ex Datum“, joint-stock company „ImPro“, joint-stock company „IRI verslo konsultacijos“ („IRI business consultations“), individual company „IT sistemos“ („IT systems“), joint-stock company „Patikimi sprendimai“ („Reliable solutions“), IRT association of companies „Infobalt“, association „Infobalt EPA“. Partners of VITP members while implementing IRT sphere projects are Lithuanian and foreign universities and researches institutions and companies (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Jacobs University Bremen, Cambridge University, The University of Bath, Unilever, European Patent Office, Institute of mathematical statistics (USA), American statistics associations, Springer Verlag (Germany), Elsevier (Holland), Wiley (USA)). While further developing of center of integrated science, studies and business in Visoriai companies are planning to concentrate their practice in Visoriai by attracting to this district more than 1000 IT specialists, to invest and contribute by attracting investments to infrastructure creation and practice of International level science researches and experimental developments. Companies together with organizations of researches and studies will arrange development vision and development program of this integrated centre. Companies of IT sector can utilize limited development zones in the limits of the city in the best possible way – in the same territory IT companies establish many labor places, and their practice doesn‘t influence environment. While implementing further concentration of IT sphere business and researches in Visoriai it is sought to:  To form possibility for IT companies, which have experience of export marketing and for companies which have export potential and can saturate this experience work together in geographically determined territory (besides working organizations of researches and studies). In this way create Lithuanian IT business capital core, which in the future would become export brand of Lithuania IT sector and would be of service while attracting to country applied researches, development of technologies and experimental manufacturing of large foreign corporations.  To make a possibility to settle critical mass of companies of different IT branches in geographically determined territory, to create social and to develop infrastructure of researches, which will promote exchange by technological and business ideas, development of new market niches, timely creation of products and services for these niches and establishment of new companies.  To form conditions to implement complete and fast sending of services and products to market cycle in geographically determined territory: from idea to trial party to trial use of product (while implementing Living Lab model). In this way it is sought to provide for Lithuania IT business competitiveness advantage in global market which is susceptible for innovations.  To make a possibility for critical mass of companies of different IRT branches, which will work in export markets with high competition conditions to work together in geographically determined territory, and in this way will help for Lithuania science and researches institutions form: (i) perspective tasks of researches, which co financing would be agreed by business subjects, (ii) programs and models of necessary studies

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while ensuring timely arrangement of new workers of necessary specialization and the ability of these workers to work in global competition conditions. In this way competitiveness of Lithuanian business subjects, Lithuanian researches and studies institutions, IRT sphere workers, and at the same time of Lithuanian IRT brand competitiveness will be increased.  To create conditions for IRT companies, institutions of researches and studies in geographically limited territory develop practice, which is connected with application of IRT in other spheres of economy and life (industry of lasers, biotechnologies, transport, publishing, education and etc.). While seeking for these purposes benchmarks of practice are determined:  While developing concentration of IT sphere business and researches in Visoriai and while promoting competitiveness of Lithuanian IT sector in global market, cooperate with all NTP and contribute to creation of National complex program.  To create such model of practice which would allow effectively, by complementing each other cooperate with establishing analogical integrated centers in Vilnius city and Lithuania. To determined concrete niches of market, concrete products and services of surplus value, which creation would be implemented together with subjects of business, researches and studies; to predict concrete amount of necessary specialized new workers and necessary ways and equipment for their arrangement; to determine teaching programs of additional learning for present workers; to initiate arrangement and implementation of relevant projects, to contribute to their financing and to attract sources of public financing (ES SF, 7-oji General program, National financing). Accordingly to offers of companies, indexes of development of IT clusters in Visoriai are presented: Direction of practice Companies Demand for Workers in Workers in year and researches infrastructure year 2007 2011 (m2) TP direction of national software and services

Baltic Amadeus, Patikimi sprendimai, ImPro, Algoritmų sistemos New methods and software VTEX, TEV, Ex measures in science Datum publishing and information searching spheres Integrated digital and Teltonika mobile technologies BOD Group DVD authoring/ programming, manufacturing and programming of new generation digital disks HDDVD Business establishment and Business incubator, incubation, accommodation equipment of of common use researches, laboratories, presentations, and conferences

8000

250

500+

4000

250

300+

23000

300

1000+

5000

100

130+

5000

10

≈200

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3.3.2

FOR ORGANIZATION, JURIDICAL, FINANCIAL AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES TO ESTABLISH „SPIN-OFF“ COMPANIES

DEMAND

Concept. Accordingly to [Scientific researches of financial drives‘ 2006], each bigger university creates such called „spin-off“ companies for commercialization of own technologies and for maintenance of these technologies in the period of „germinal“ stage. These are new companies, which are established by universities in order commercial received results of researches and new technologies in university of science researches on in other organization of science researches. Universities themselves participate in practice of such companies, although their participation level are different. Universities license technologies, receive particular stabile charge of percent from profit gained by company. Usually in such company in one or another way university is represented by inventor or by group of inventors, whose technology is desired for commercialization. Establishment and practice of „spin-off“ companies and licensing of intellectual practice products is one of the main ways to demise technologies. Talking of policy of commercialization action of business and science cooperation, the exceptional attention must be paid to generation and development of companies which are susceptible to science. Countries which are leaders of economy all over the world usually take care with such practice. Usually „spin-off“ companies demand for separate policy of intellectual property rights protection. In establishment stage „spin-off“ companies in general are small and must prove their competitiveness in quickly developing and competitive environment, while they don‘t have nor work experience neither international acknowledgment. They also need authorized capital. So institutions, universities and others financed by state usually willingly are financing and supporting their „spin-off“ companies, if they see, that such company have technologies, new products, which will be well sold. For such company not only it‘s available licenses are important but also it‘s exclusive rights to technologies, because only in this way such small companies can become competitive in compare with members which are anchored in the market for a long time. Researches had shown that such „spin-off“ companies, which are leaning only on protection of licenses, despite the fact of it‘s importance, a at very risk of failing. Main strategy of such business in order to avoid failing, should be implementation of „portfolio“ of intellectual ownership rights in order to be as less as possible dependant on some particular sphere of business. Such scheme, accordingly to which technologies are created and developed together with other partners of industry, does not fit to „spin-off“ companies. „Spin-off“ companies which are created based on particular technology, usually seeks to sale strictly determined products, their applications or other solutions. They are working very close to the market. University or other institution of state researches must in advance make decision if go in the way of „spin-off“ company or commercialize technologies in other ways – by dividing costs and ownership rights with partners. If the way of „spin-off“ company is chosen, costs for development and commercialization of technology can be received from university or their organization of researches, by complementing it with support received from state funds, which purpose is to promote regional or local development. Organization aspects. State should provide an opportunity for companies to get acquainted with R&D production, which is created in universities or other state organizations of science researches. Besides name cooperation forms in this process we can find very important factor which makes it easer for companies to purchase R&D production or to get in connection with it‘s creators. Agents participating in process of technologies transfer now are often called organizations of technologies transfer. They can be subdivisions of technologies transfer established in universities (for example: in Spain or United Kingdom); holding companies (for example in Sweden); companies of technologies transfer (for example in Israel). Often functions of organizations of technologies transfer can be implemented by subjects financed by state, such as business incubators or parks of technologies. Subdivisions. At present organizations of technologies transfer, especially subdivisions of technologies transfer, are interested to use intellectual property by licensing or creating „spin-off“ companies.

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Often these organizations are implementing consultations and forming contracts of science researches. In the last decade of past age in all sectors of state science of West Europe one or another kind of organizations of technologies transfer were working. Most countries even had established associations of organizations of technologies transfer, in order organizations could exchange best practice and could develop methodology of technologies transfer. These associations are also useful because it can influence policy of national states and EU in their needed direction, and also it can better seek for international partners, represent state creators of new technologies in foreign countries. Some of these associations, for example AURIL (UK), CURIE (France), NetVal (Italy), RedOtri (Spain) are members of ProTon net, which united various national associations on Europe level. Some of them are ASTTP (Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals) members. Financial aspects. Often these organizations are implementing consultations and forming contracts of science researches. In the last decade of past age in all sectors of state science of West Europe one or another kind of organizations of technologies transfer were working. Financial drivers applied in the state can provide desired results if, firstly, applied financial and non-financial measures are used in a complex way, and secondly, if it is used in all stages of creation, realization of innovations based on science: firstly, possible measures are matched with each essential stage of creation of innovations based on science from birth of idea till realization of new product, by accentuating case, when new “spin-off” company is created for business plan realization, further offers are provided due to measures, which are important both in before mentioned stages and to improvement of R&D practice in business sector in general. Juridical aspects. In order to promote science researches, including establishment and working of „spin-off“ companies, it is offered to complement and/or to change Law of Science and studies No. I-1052 of year 1991 on the 12th of February: Support and financing of science researches in public and private sectors:  Financing of national R&D programs by declaring open contests of different projects for public and private sectors;  Financing of general science and business R&D projects;  Complementation of financing methodic of science and studies institutions with fourth group of indexes related with development of business susceptible to science: - number of established „spin-off“ companies; - number of licenses of new institutions; - number of sold licenses.  State financed services of researchers consulting due to company establishment questions  Financing of establishment of business incubators susceptible to science in science and studies institutions or integrated centers of science, studies and business and financing of practice.  Forming opportunities of preferential rent for establishing „spin-off“ countries.  Unrepaid state grant of fixed amount for business start for each persona who intends to begin R&D practice.  Decrease of registration and notary taxes for juridical persons implementing R&D practice. Organization measures forming opportunities to implement fiscal incentives It is offered to complement and/or to change: Law of the Republic of Lithuania of Science and studies No. I-1052 of year 1991 on the 12 th of February:, Law of the Republic of Lithuania of state and municipalities property management, utilization and disposing No. VIII-729 of year 1998, on the 12th of May:  To provide to INVEGA or for this purpose specially established institutions (for example, for agency of technologies) commission to determine if projects implemented in business company are referable to R&D, to determined amount of costs, to evaluate practice of separate investigators, and to evaluate how much this practice satisfies requirements applied to R&D practice.

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Specify juridical acts which regulate status and practice of science and studies institutions in order to provide to science and studies institutions independent right to establish „spin-off“ companies and dispose of stocks and ownership rights of established „spin-off“ companies. 3.3.3

IMPROVEMENT OF BUSINESS RELATIONS WITH SCIENCE AND STUDIES INSTITUTIONS

Real situation of business is such, that because of one or another reasons in main cases companies are solving R&D by own abilities. On the other, communication of representatives of academic and business sectors, especially in NTP form, contributes and promotes business to form ordered NTP works, which require qualification not disposed by business. But companies of information technologies particularly accentuate important of studies component in the sectors. By initiative of companies of information technologies while seeking to increase arrangement of qualified IT specialists, general plan of business and academic sectors actions was prepared, by providing measures of there levels: 1. Global measures 1.1. Diversion of higher education and system of studies towards effective work. 1.2. Concretization of university purpose and determination of teachers evaluations criterions which are adequate to university purpose. 1.3. Determination of adequate tariffs of teachers salaries. 1.4. Establishment of IT cluster. 1.5. Establishment of informatics clinics. 1.6. Establishment of private IT institute. 1.7. Establishment of IT competence centre. 1.8. Integration with IT sector NTP. 1.9. Integration with valleys and parks of technologies. 1.10. Determination of concept of associated universities companies and introduction of status. 2. Direct measures 2.1. Ordered long-termed R&D projects 2.2. Opening of special branch (specialization) of studies program 2.3. Establishment of studies quality improvement system based on feedback of graduates and employers. 2.4. Creation of system „manufacturing demands for qualification“ – „learning outcomes“ – „studies program“. 2.5. Creation of informatics regulations. 2.6. Regulation of students work (for example in Denmark not more than 15 hours per week). 3. Local measures 3.1. Management of course and final works in bachelor and master level. 3.2. Admission of students for practice 3.3. Reading of special courses 3.4. Reading of special courses by invited foreign lectors 3.5. Arrangement of ordered courses by local teachers 3.6. Assignment of scholarships for the students 3.7. Inventory of new themes of final works 3.8. Inventory of themes of implemented final works 3.9. Inventory of working places and it‘s changing of the graduates. 3.10. Creation of special information website 3.11. Performance of IT projects with wide participation of the students 3.12. Exchange with information about process of the studies and demands of manufacturing.

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3.3.4

DEMAND FOR INTEGRATED SCIENCE, STUDIES AND BUSINESS INFRASTRUCTURE

In accordance to [Scientific researches of financial drives‘ 2006] one of the main factors in competition all over the world is improvement of science researches and higher education capacities, promotion of their relations with economy and society needs. In present competitiveness strategies of EU countries especially important role is intended to territorially integral centers of interaction of science, studies and innovative business, for it‘s development. In these centers the most powerful institutions of science researches and higher education are concentrated, the infrastructure of knowledge and technologies transfer from public sector of private business is created, conditions for establishment of researches subdivisions of business companies are formed, basing on commercialization of science researches results to form base for business companies which are susceptible to knowledge. In advanced countries of the world such centers have begun establish in a spontaneous way still in the sixth decade of past age (well known example of Silicon valley in United States of America). A little bit later, especially from the eighth decade of past age, due to purposeful financing of states‘ governments, such centers have spread in West Europe, Scandinavia and Japan, and in recent times are especially quickly establishing in China, Far East and other regions of the world where science and technique progress can be noticed. Promotion of sector and regional interaction of science, studies and business, and of establishment of valleys is one of the main directions of policy of EU science researches, studies and innovations. It is implemented by using programs of clusters, technologies platform, united initiatives of technologies, regions of knowledge, learning regions and by other support programs and measures. In recent time Europe Commission have raised new initiative of establishment of Europe technologies institute, by which it is sought to united potential of highest competency science, studies and innovations. Necessity of interaction of science, studies and business is also accentuated in Lithuanian long-termed strategic documents. In the implementation program of National Lisbon policy it is stated, that knowledge, abilities to use newest inventions, create knowledge and technologies is the main power not only of modern economy bus also of many other life spheres. It is also recognized, that too low investments of companies to science researches, experimental development and innovation can make harmful consequences to long-termed development and growing of Lithuania economy. In order to promote creation and implementation of perspective technologies to business of susceptible to knowledge, accordingly to decision of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania of year 2006 on the 24th of October No. 1048, program of year 2007-2013 of Higher technologies development was confirmed, and accordingly to decision of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania of year 2006 on the 24th of October No. 1050 (Žin., 2006, Nr. 114-4359), program of year 2007-2013 of development of biotechnology in Lithuania was confirmed. For promotion of science, business and studies interaction project of EU structural support utilization was prepared. For this purpose parks of science and technologies are already establishing in Lithuania, national platforms of technologies are initiated, strategies of regional innovations are arranged. State science and studies institutions, municipalities, business companies which are susceptible to knowledge have already prepared projects of territorial concentration of significant potential of science and studies. It is project of “Sauletekis slenis” (“Sauletekis valley”), which till year 2003 is performed by Vilnius and Vilnius Gediminas technical universities in Vilnius city Sauletekis avenue district; unite projects of state science institutes and subjects of business to establish in Visoriai district of Vilnius city national centre of biomedical researches; conception of higher technologies centre of Kaunas technical university; possibilities to establish Lithuanian institute of technologies are discussed. Representatives of state regions and of separate sectors of economy of education, business and local self-governments emphasize demand to link (concentrate) development of business susceptible to science, studies and knowledge. It is necessary to support these initiatives in order to reach the best matching of system of Lithuania education and studies

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with economy and innovation development strategies, in order to promote increase of industry and business susceptible to knowledge, to form attractive conditions for International investments. 3.3.5

FINANCING,

NECESSARY FOR COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

SECTOR

3.3.5.1 Software and services subsector In this section the current state of the Lithuanian Software and Services sector is analyzed. The focus is concentrated on software services though the NSSTP strategy treats software services within their overall infrastructure including associated organizational, management, legal, standard and other services from semantic to technical and operational levels. Figures from statistical documents characterize the Lithuanian state in the Software Services sector as low, but having potential to the fast growth. However, for ensuring this growth the concentrated efforts are needed from business, academia, research, government and external environment. According to the generalized evaluation of the Lithuanian Statistics Department data, in the first half-year of 2006, 7000 work places were functioning in the Lithuanian Software Services sector and in total companies in IT business account 10000 work places; the annual revenues of software and services comprised 610 Million Lt. According to Prime Investment 4 , in 2005 the annual growth of software and services revenues of 20 largest Baltic IT enterprises was 14%, and 22% during the first half-year of 2006. For comparison, the European Union currently has 5 1,7 Million work places and annual revenues of 490 000 Million €; the current growth in the Software and Services sector is at 4.4 %. In Lithuania the percentage of people with a higher education is very high in comparison to more developed countries of EU. The scientific and educational personnel of Lithuanian Software Services sector includes ~ 600 researchers with a doctoral degree or doctoral students, ~ 800 master students while the annual amount of ICT entrants is 2000. There is the enough space for the working force in Software and Services to grow. However, the graduates are often leaving the country because they can expect faster and bigger success abroad. The lack of software specialists in industry and scientists in universities is already visible. It can lead to dangerous consequences in the near future as the needs for software developers and business analysts are growing every day. The investments of business in R&D in Lithuania currently comprise only 0,16 % of GDP (this figure is even smaller for the IT sector); public sector invests 0,6 % of GDP. According to the Lithuanian National Reform Program, in 2010 the spending on R&D will reach 2 % of GDP (1 % in the public and 1 % in the business sector), in 2013 – 3 % of GDP (1 % – in the public and 2 % – in the business sector). To reach the appropriate level in the Software Services sector, the proper measures should be taken. The objectives to achieve in the Software Services sector:  The 10 % annual growth of the amount of work places (in 2013 20000 work places should be available)  The 15 % annual growth of revenues (in 2013 the annual revenues from software and services should comprise 1600 Million Lt). To achieve the aforementioned productivity and revenues indicators 240 Million Lt investments during 2007-2013 year period are needed (approximately 34 Million Lt every year). Investments will be used for the training of highly competent specialists, procurement of technologies and “know-how”, research and development of innovative products, marketing, etc. The Lithuanian business sector is able to invest about 30-40 % of the required amount. In 2013 these business investments together with public investments should help reach the objective

4

Prime Investment, the leading investment banking company, Baltic ICT Market News, 2006

5

http://www.nessi-europe.net/Nessi/

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determined by the Lithuanian National Reform Program according to the Lisbon strategy − 3 % of GDP for R&D. The support for Lithuania from the EU structural funds under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ will comprise 3800 Million Lt during the 2007-2013 period. If the required investments for years 2007-2013 (240 Million Lt) are provided by the European structural funds, to ensure the “principle of complementation”, the investments from National sources during the 2007-2013 period will have to reach about 90 Million Lt. According to the Lisbon strategy, the investments in R&D from the Software Services sector enterprises will comprise 120 Million Lt (40 Million Lt in 2013). IT sector has the potential to receive 60-75 Million Lt from the 7th framework program. The part of this funding, as well as the funding from other EU programs, may strengthen NSSTP but appropriate efforts from NSSTP participants are needed to achieve it. According to the Lithuanian 2007–2013 period program of the EU structural funds usage strategy, IT sector, through the Information Society Priority, will assimilate 800 Million Lt for the development and implementation of software and services. The aforementioned funding is devoted for the following purposes:  Development of the public services and infrastructures for citizens, government, business subjects  Development of high quality software tools and products in order to enlarge the competence of enterprises and amount of production exported  Development of the infrastructure promoting the integration of business and education  Development of infrastructures supporting the research and education institutions aiming at adapting their research and training of specialists to business needs  Integration of enterprises and researchers into the European Space for the participation in joint projects. The part of the aforementioned 800 Millions is available to enlarge the budget of NSSTP as they are directly associated with the strategy of NSSTP. The last point may strengthen NSSTP in preparation of FP7 projects and enlarge the funding from those 60-75 Million Lt available through FP7 line. Analysis of potential sources of NSSTP funding In summary, the funding of the extensible scope of NSSTP may come from the following (and, possibly, other) sources: The potential sources of NSSTP funding The potential sources of NSSTP funding: Financial source

Size (Million Lt)

Support for Lithuania from EU structural funds during 2007-2013 period

3800*

under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ National Funding 7th Framework Program Private investment EU structural funds IT sector through Information Society Priority Eureka program

90 ~60-75 ~120 800 **

* – the overall amount for Lithuanian National Platforms ** – the available amount of funding from the Eureka program is not evaluated because currently the possibilities of Eureka are not used sufficiently.

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3.3.5.2 Mobile and wireless communications subsector Investments for 2007 - 2013 – 2020 we will evaluate by three aspects. Investments are assessed in respect of number of working positions, funds for software purchase, necessary for service development, and investments into network infrastructure. At the present investments to network infrastructure amount to LTL 300 million annually. Maintaining the same annual investment amount until 2013 and until 2020, such investments by 2013 will amount to LTL 2100 million, and until 2020 – LTL 4200 million. Dynamics of network infrastructure investments is shown in Fig. 77. Investments to network infrastructure 4,50E+09 4,00E+09 3,50E+09 3,00E+09 2,50E+09 2,00E+09 1,50E+09 1,00E+09 5,00E+08 0,00E+00 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Fig. 77: Dynamics of investments to network infrastructure It is believed, that for assurance of mobile and wirelles communication infrastructure the same number of employees will remain, i.e., about 4500. The number of service developing and servicing persons should grow up. This market should belong to small and medium business enterprises. Recently in the field of service development very little people are employed (200 employees.). The dynamics of employees working in sphere of service creation is shown in Fig. 78. 3000

2720 2410

2500 2120 1850

2000 1600 1370

1500 1160 970

1000 500

800

200

250

320

410

520

650

0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Fig. 78: Dynamics of employees working as service developers Along with necessary increase of employees’ number, the investments required for service building should also grow up. At the moment in ICT sector a monthly wage is around LTL 8000. In the future wage should grow by 5% annually. Until 2013 advisable amount for wages in service building sector would be LTL 125 million, and until 2020 – LTL 492 million. Services can be developed using special software. Present investments into special software designed for service creation, amount to LTL 15 million. Amount of software designed for service building will increase by 30 percent every year. Until 2013 investments into software designed for service development should amount to LTL 72,4 million, and until 2020 – LTL 454 million. The schedule of net investments for wages and purchase of work instruments is illustrated in Figure 15. These investments until 2013 will be LTL 197 million, and by 2020 – 947 million.

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1,00E+09 9,00E+08

investments into special software

8,00E+08

Wages

7,00E+08 6,00E+08 5,00E+08 4,00E+08 3,00E+08 2,00E+08 1,00E+08 0,00E+00 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Fig. 79: Schedule of net investments for wages and purchase of working instruments

The dynamics of sector‘s net investments, including investments into network expansion and service building of development of mobile and wireless communications sector is presented in Figure 16. Net investments until 2013 should reach LTL 2300 million, and in 2020 – LTL 5150 million. 6,00E+09 Investments to network infrastructure 5,00E+09 4,00E+09

investments into special software Wages

3,00E+09 2,00E+09 1,00E+09 0,00E+00 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Fig. 80: Dynamics of the sector’s net investments, including investments into network expansion and creation of mobile and wireless communications sector services

The dynamics of percentage investment allocation is shown in Figure 18. Around 90 percent of entire investments will be devoted for development of network infrastructure. However this percentage will vary. If in 2007 investments to network infrastructure will amount to 88,5%, meanwhile in 2013 will be 91, 42%, and in 2020 - 81,61%.

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100% Investments to network infrastructure 80%

investments into special software Wages

60%

40%

20%

0% 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Fig. 81: Dynamics of investments percentage repartition IT sector is capable to adapt LTL 70 million from 7’th program, or LTL 10 million every year. These finances should be intended for wages and purchase of software for creation of services. Business sector has financed infrastructure development as yet. Thus by 2013 investments from SF should amount to 197 million – 70 million = 127 million, i.e., LTL 18 million on average annually.

No.

Table 43: Potential financial sources Source 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Support for Lithuania from EU structural funds under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ National Funding 7th Framework Program Private investment EU structural funds IT sector through Information Society Priority

Size (LTL million) 3800* 90 70 2100 127

* – the overall amount for Lithuanian National Platforms ** – the available amount of funding from the Eureka program is not evaluated because currently the possibilities of Eureka are not used sufficiently.

3.3.6

CRITERIA OF RESULTS AND POSITIVE EFFECT

The structure of results and positive impact criteria is provided following the example of the software and services sub-sector. Objectives of the software and services sector: - Annual 10% average growth of the number of jobs to 20 000 jobs in the enterprises of the sector in 2013; - Annual 15% average growth of the income of the sector to LTL 1 600 million-annual income from software and services in 2013. Analysis of resources for transition to the target status To ensure the aforementioned size and productivity indicators, it is necessary to invest LTL 240 million (approximately LTL 34 million a year) in this sector in 2007—2013. Investments will be used for training experts, for acquiring technologies and know-how, for developing research and innovative products, also marketing, other infrastructure and circulating assets. The private business sector can invest 30-40% of the required sum, the size of which will in the year 2013, together with

183

investments of the public sector, is expected to reach the target 3% of the GDP, set in the Lithuanian national reform programme under the Lisbon Strategy. Following the plan on the absorption of the European Union structural assistance for achieving the implementation goals of the Lisbon Strategy, the EU support to Lithuania under the priority measure Research and Development (R&D), Innovation and Business will reach above LTL 3 800 million. For achieving complex software and services goals of the national technology platform (human resources, technological readiness of enterprises, creation of the infrastructure at the level of Lithuania, which would encourage development of the platform and ensure its competitiveness), taking into consideration the contribution of the enterprises of the NSSTP sector into the present situation, also the available potential and development perspectives for 2007—2013, the necessary investment from the EU structural funds constitutes LTL 240 million. To ensure the principle of additionallity, national investment should reach about LTL 90 million in 2007—2013. Taking into consideration the Lisbon Strategy, the present investments of the companies of the NSSTP sector and the pace of their growth, their contribution to R&D will reach above LTL 120 million in 20072013 (about LTL 40 million in 2013.) Considering the funds allocated for the R&D projects from the EU 7th Framework Programme – EUR 2.5 billion – and the potential of Lithuania, the IT sector is expected to absorb LTL 60-75 million from this programme. Part of these funds, also funds from other EU programmes, can help strengthen the NSSTP sector but this requires efforts of NSSTP participants. According to the Lithuanian Strategy for the Absorption of the 2007-2013 European Union Structural Support, through the priority of the information society, using funds of the EU structural support, the IT sector will create and implement software and services estimated more than LTL 800 million. The aforementioned funds will be used to achieve the following goals: - To fulfill demands of residents, public institutions and business entities by developing software and introducing eServices for activities covered by the sector; - To increase the competitiveness of the business enterprises of the platform and the export of produce, by developing top quality software products; - To build and develop the infrastructure that is promoting the integration of the business sector, science and studies; - To support science and study institutions in order to adjust the research that is being carried out and the training of experts to the needs of the business entities of the platform; - To integrate the potential of business entities of the platform and research workers in the EU space by implementing joint EU projects. 3.3.7

FORECASTED

RESULT

INDICATORS

OF

INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

SECTOR

DEVELOPMENT

3.3.7.1 Software and services subsector According to data of national software and services technology platform consolidated list of current and future indicators and their values is provided in the table: NSSTP indicators Current Desired state Desired state state in 2013 in 2020 People working in the Software Services Sector in 10000 20000 38000 Lithuania Software Services annual revenues in Lithuania 600 1600 4200 Software Services percentage of GDP in Lithuania 0.75 1.3 2.3 The overall R&D percentage of GDP in Lithuania 0.16 3.0 * Software Services R&D percentage of their part of 0.1 3.0 >3.0 GDP

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Well-coordinated and purposeful activities of NSSTP will allow to concentrate available resources and to strengthen the National Software and Services Sector. The support for NSSTP from all aforementioned sources during the 2007-2013 period will enable the creation of the Software and Services sector, competitive in the global IT market. This sector will exceed 1,5% of Lithuania’s GDP in 2015 and will reach 2 % of GDP in 2020. 3.3.7.2 Mobile and wireless communications subsector Annual income from telephone communication services should remain stable, since the market is already “saturated”. Therefore revenue received from mobile and wireless communications non-voice services will grow. In 2007 that income makes 10% of total mobile communication revenue LTL 120 million and gross income amounts to LTL 1200 million. Scope of these services will annually grow n average by 20 %. The dynamics of such, not non-voice services, service scope is shown in Fig. 82. Annual income of mobile and wireless non-voice service 1,40E+09 1,20E+09 1,00E+09 8,00E+08 6,00E+08 4,00E+08 2,00E+08 0,00E+00 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Fig. 82: Dynamics of non-voice service scope Total annual income of mobile and wireless communication service sector in 2007 amounts to LTL 1320 million, in 2013 – LTL 1560 million, and it will amount to LTL 2480 million in 2020. Table 44: MBK NTP indicators MBK NTP indicators Current state People working in the Network infrastructure Sector in Lithuania Services annual revenues in Lithuania Services percentage of GDP in Lithuania The overall R&D percentage of GDP in Lithuania Software Services R&D percentage of their part of GDP Mobile and Wireless communication services

4500

Desired state in 2013/growth 5500

Desired state in 2020 (growth) 7200

1200

1560

2480

2,58

3

4

0.16

3.0

*

0.1

0,2

>0,3

1,9

>1,8

>1,7

* – will be set by the Lithuanian Government

The support for eMobility from all aforementioned sources during the 2007-2013 period will enable the creation of the Services sector, competitive in the global IT market. This sector will exceed 1,8 % of Lithuania’s GDP in 2013 and will reach 1,7 % of GDP in 2020.

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4

SUGGESTIONS

FOR THE TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

COMPLEX

PROGRAM

OF

INFORMATION

4.1 THE ORDER OF PRIORITY IN WORK The general action plan is presented below, where Strategy implementation stages are distributed according to the periods of their execution. Research and Method Development, Infrastructure development, Pilot Implementation, Full-scale Demonstration and Dissemination, Training and Education, Monitoring and Improvement Stages are common to all research areas. It is assumed that in every research area 4-5 large projects (or equivalent number of smaller projects) will be arranged. Projects will be distributed in time according to the dependencies between results of different projects. The beginnings of the corresponding stages of the early projects coincide with the beginning of every stage. Important or/and easy actions will be carried out first, unimportant or/and difficult ones will be postponed. The importance of an action may be determined by its influence (necessity) to other actions or by its social-economic impact. “Easy” actions are actions that require less special research and less extraordinary efforts. The main part of actions should be performed during the 2009-2011 year period. The part of actions initiated by the NSSTP promoted projects will last longer (to 2013, 2020 and will not stop later), but their explicitness will incrementally decrease as innovative activities enabled by the NSSTP strategy implementation will converge to daily business and industry activities.

General action plan by year

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4.2 4.2.1

WORK

SCOPE

PROPOSALS OF NATIONAL SOFTWARE AND SERVICES TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

Based on [NSTTP, 2006] proposals structured according thematic groups are provided. e.Procesas – Business Information and Process Management In the research area “e-Process” – Business Information and Process Management – the core methods for the Software and Services strategy will be elaborated. Actions of this area are of the main strategic importance for the creation of executable process management environments. The overall strategic objective of “e-Process” is to decrease the complexity of processoriented software development, automate it and support with required methodologies and tools. “e-Process” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: − Creating powerful modeling environments and tools enabling business people to model, monitor and analyze their business processes and business rules, rapidly respond to changes and maintain a rational organization of business processes and service-oriented enterprise architectures based on open standards. − Equipment of these modeling environments with cross-organizational interoperability, planning, costing, simulation, and optimization services, capable to make runtime analysis and suggest improvements to business models. − Providing model-driven software development tools with next generation services for collaborative development process automation from requirements to implementation; automated testing and verification; requirements tracing and management. The main R&D criteria in the “e-Process” area: − Focusing on business processes and service-oriented enterprise architectures, not on isolated services; avoiding fragility and short-term solutions; − Ensuring software tools with the verification, automated testing, simulation capabilities for the creation of highly-trusted business processes; − Ensuring user-centric, her/his goals-oriented process construction and tracing, enabling for the creation of processes and services according to the user needs; − Ensuring the capabilities for providing and processing of semantic annotations, ontologies and taxonomies for the unambiguous understanding of the service-based processes by human and software agents; − Adhering to the open standards, supported by EU, enabling the interaction and collaboration of business processes in cross-organizational and cross-national networks; − Providing process measurement, monitoring, evaluation and improvement capabilities, ensuring feed-back from process outputs to its management; − Automating the creation of software services and business processes from requirements to implementation. e.Services – National e-Services Platform In “e-Services”– National e-Services Platform – research area the core infrastructure for the Software and Services strategy will be created. Infrastructure related software products will be used in all other NSSTP areas, so actions of “e-Services” group are of the main strategic importance for the creation of software services infrastructure from the top – semantic – to the bottom – operational – level. The overall strategic objective of “e-Services” research area is to support the needs of the public sector (citizens, government, business subjects) for software products enabling service deployment, legalization, discovery, usage, ensuring safety and trust, semantic representation, management, composition of services into business processes and other emergent possibilities. “e-Services” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020:

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− Creation of organizational and technological infrastructure from semantic to operational level, appropriate standards and formats for every kind of service management, discovery, interoperability and usage by people and computer systems. − Creation of the next generation grids capable of ubiquitous delivery of intelligent software services by multiple devices, using powerful computing resources; effective and efficient services in the form of virtual organizations and resources. − Creation of the environment ensuring the secure, trusted and reliable discovery and reachability of services on this infrastructure by a variety of channels for various users needs. − Creation of software enabling providers to place and describe services according to standards, supplementing them with semantic annotations. − Creation of the measures for the initiation and support of the analysis of the service phenomena and its social impact. The main R&D criteria in “e-Service” area: − Enabling users to obtain services on demand adapted to her/his needs and profile; − Providing the possibility for users to define and manage their profiles themselves; − Providing the invisible services perceptible as utilities freeing users from difficulties of using the software; − Ensuring the pervasiveness and ubiquities of services, their reach-ability by different channels and devices; − Adhering to the open standards, supported by EU, enabling the usage of services by human and software agents in cross-organizational and cross-national networks; − Providing the compose-ability of service user interfaces via semantic representations with suitable descriptions of business domains, contexts and business processes based on knowledge models. e.Content – Digital Content Management In the “e-Content” – Digital Content Management – Research Area, the core content digitization software products for the Software and Services strategy will be created. The actions of e-Content group are of the main strategic importance for the digital representation and management of digital content related with the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of the “e-Content” research area is to ensure the availability of the holistic approach to content representation and preservation strategy, avoiding fragmentation and obsolescence, safeguarding the sustainability of technologies for centuries ahead, for the preservation of the cultural and scientific heritage and enabling access to it for coming generations. “e-Content” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: – Providing a content representation environment with software products, technologies, standards, policies, processes which will enable the digitalization of big amount of non-digital objects, including, but not limited to, the printed content stored in libraries, museum artefacts, archaeological sites, public records, paper/audio/video archives and other. – Developing common and simple interfaces for the public access to the digital content, respecting intellectual property rights and balancing legitimate interests of information owners and users. – Developing technologies and tools for the creation of complex ontological representations and their extraction from existing electronic assets. The main R&D criteria in the “e-Content” area: – Coordination and ensuring of compatibility in the e-Content environment with other similar national, EU and international initiatives, as well as with other ongoing national projects concerning digitalization, data collection, cataloguing and e-Services; – Provision of digital content management processes covering the full life-cycle of creation and usage of digital content; – Ensuring security, assess rights and non-obsolesce of digital resources;

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– Ensuring the required variety of kinds of content available for digitization; – Enrichment of content resources with semantic descriptions in alignment with the implementation of the strategy of knowledge-based service economy; – To investigate possibilities and look for the measures of prevention against the deterioration of the future content assets. e-Improvement – Human Resources and Production Quality Improvement in Software Services Sector In the research area “e-Improvement” – Human Resources and Production Quality Improvement in Software Services Sector – the core competence and quality for the Software and Services strategy will be evolved. Though competence and quality are inherent features for all Software and Services strategy research areas, actions from the “e-Improvement” group are of the main strategic importance for the creation of quality software services production processes and human resources for the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of e-Improvement in the Software Services Sector is the creation of the full-fledged infrastructure including research, education and business, for the intelligent resources cultivation in order to set the preparation of human resources as close to business demands as possible. “e-Improvement” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: – Development of the National IT Greenhouse − the infrastructure for execution of student practices and adaptation of young specialists. − Creation of the National IT Clinics for lecturers training, their theoretic and practical knowledge integration. − Setting up the infrastructure for the software engineering process quality assessment and improvement in the industry, implementing measures to increase industry standards for the process quality. − Implementing measures to increase the software acquisition and procurement management quality on the customer side – an improvement of the competence of users. The main R&D criteria in “e-Improvement” area: − Ensuring the non-decreasing competence and quality of young and not-young Software Services specialists, suppliers and customers. − Ensuring the interaction and feed-back from industry to education. − Ensuring the non-decreasing quality of software services development processes by setting standards, assessment and certification procedures. e.Industry – Intelligent Information Technologies for Industry Sectors In the research area “e-Industry” – Intelligent Information Technologies for Industry Sectors – the meaningful transformations of R&D results from different research areas into software services will be made. e-Industry research area software products are of the main strategic importance for the transfer of results from other research areas to users according the Software and Services strategy. The overall strategic objective of “e-Industry” is to promote the service-oriented implementation of research, responding to the specific needs of the business in its variety of sectors. “e-Industry” objectives for the medium term 2013 and the longer term 2020: − Creation of innovative processes and services by bringing the complex theoretical methods to an industrial application scope by usage and in compliance with the National e-Services Platform, European standards and engagements; − Industrialization of environments and infrastructures enabling modeling, analysis, construction, mining, clustering, recognition, processing and transformation between different representations of complex physical/engineering objects and processes, voice, images, speech, images etc;

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– Applying R&D adoption achievements to medicine, telecommunications, manufacturing, textile, energetic, biotechnology and other possible business and industry sectors. The main R&D criteria in “e-Industry” area: − Achieving the acceleration of transferring the research results to the industry practice, increasing the effectiveness of intelligent services in synergy with the next generation grids and the national e-Services infrastructure. − Finding common, reusable processes, methods and algorithms for the wider usage across industry sectors. 4.2.2

PROPOSALS

OF

MOBILE

AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

PLATFORM

Based on [NSTTP, 2006] proposals for mobile and wireless communications sub sector are provided. Implementation of new access technologies. Various technologies ensuring broadband accesses are already under implementation and will be available in near future:  UMTS/IMT200 - Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), otherwise – mobile network of generation 3 (3G), is used in Lithuania at present.  HSDPA – High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, the protocol of mobile technology 3G, which extends UMTS abilities.  HSUPA – High-Speed Uplink Packet Access, the 3G protocol, that allows performance up to 5.76 Mbps  HSOPA (LTE UMTS) – High Speed OFDM Packet Access is an extension of Long Term Evolution (LTE) UMTS technologies, also called Super 3G.  WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is an access of standard IEEE 802.16, improvement of which is ensured by WiMAX Forum, incorporating more than 400 manufacturers, operators, advisory companies, and other undertakings from all over the world.  WiBro – Wireless Broadband is a standard of Korean broadband wireless access, in the middle of 2006 started to use for business connection.  IEEE 802.20(MBWA) – Mobile Broadband Wireless Access, a standard access, which is also called Mobile Fi, is still in process of development. It is designed for building of cheap and constantly available mobile networks.  RFID – Radio Frequency Identification, identification system based on low power radio signal.  xMax – xG Technology is a technology ensuring high data transmission efficiency using a narrow band and low signal power.  WiFi – technology designed for slowly moving users is highly outspread in whole territory of Lithuania.  IMS – intellectual control system enabling user‘s session continuity when he moves between different networks. Services adequate to various business models. Future systems have to support a changing and flexible mobile ecosystem. Therefore, it is predictable that multiple viable business models will coexist with the emerging new actors leading to a new supporting architecture. Service of contents control. The agenda for future services includes creation, adaptation, hosting, provisioning, configuring, and their role in improving the quality of life of the individual(s) who are part of a dynamic and interacting society. In order to realize this, a four orthogonal but complementary research challenges:  User services that change the quality of life of the individual in a sensor networks  Service Creation process Environment (SCE): realize and ease the creation of services and decreases the time-to-market

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Content and Media Creation (CMC) and adaptation: improve information and content and make available services instantly on various terminals  Service Execution Environment (SEE): realizes the heterogeneous service execution platforms and takes into account the IT and telecom convergence, multi-domain operation, network and technology heterogeneity, global roaming and specific requirements for adoption by the industry. Services for special interest user groups:  Location Based Services. Location based services (LBS) designates any telematics service using location information.  Privacy and safety of mobile and wireless communication. Mobile and wireless communications will deliver an always-connected environment, facilitating secure services to support the private and professional life of everyone. 4.2.3

PROPOSALS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

National embedded systems technology platform [Feasibility study. Embedded systems ‘ 2006] foresees three main trends of activity: Technology transfer. The Scope and potential area of intervention are the following:  Established connection between research and its applications  Facilitate interdisciplinary approach to the different Embedded systems application areas  Provide horizontal link between thematic areas  Facilitate integration of industry aspiration into the research strategy  Identification of real innovators  Raising the research level of a company with best practice examples  Trans-sectoral workshops for discussion of topics from perspectives and experiences of different sectors  Strategic involvement of innovation deliverers (suppliers, equipment providers) in the transfer activities  Raising the research area absorptive capacity of companies. Communication. Dissemination actions aimed at policy makers, industry and end-users should include:  summarizing and showing the great possibilities for embedded systems applications in selected end-user industries, indicating at the same time the path and the envisaged strategy to firms  promoting channels of communication and discussion among stakeholders  showing the importance and the feasibility of a greater amount of R&D activities in embedded systems, technology transfer initiatives and need for a more intense training for the sector workforce as the key structural course of action for reducing the vulnerability of Lithuanian knowledge-intensive industries, especially at the level of SMEs  stimulating new methods and formats for building up effective diffusion of the awareness of all aspects of the evolving Embedded systems sector in Lithuania, so that a public support for EmS gains a momentum which is sustained in a longer run  Keeping contact with other national technology platforms in order to enable synergies and interfaces for research and applied results to form a cross-sectorial perspective. Training. The steps should be planned in the following directions:  definition of the curriculum and prospectus of an Embedded Systems engineering training. Its main purpose will be the training of highly sophisticated experts in

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“clustering” current advanced ideas in EmS technology and adapting them to the needs and improvement capabilities of SMEs in the various branches  creation of a sustainable system of dissemination of the methods and approaches at university level and at sectoral level that should take the best out of the existing practices and current projects developed in single firms or branch  progressive accumulation of data and libraries of solutions built upon the current innovation technology transfer and training initiatives, creating knowledge base for EmS applications in Lithuania. Recommendations: 1) To develop the national Embedded Systems technology platform as a full-blown TP; hence the need for further funding to prepare the SRA and the detailed Implementation Plan 2) To substantially increase research and development budget for embedded systems, from basic research to technology validation 3) To strengthen international cooperation through incorporation of LT ES players into international cooperation and/or R&D projects 4) To development and promote of educational programmes that will establish embedded systems engineering as a discipline 5) To develop collaboration models between industry and academia that allow a “systems approach” to research and favor the transfer of technology. The development of a Centre of Excellence which could link up with other CoEs in Europe, in particular application domains, is a central consideration 6) To carry out activities to enhance the innovation environment, producing a policy for standards and for open source, stimulating innovative ventures and opening new markets 7) To establish long lasting collaboration with traditional Lithuanian industry sectors providing added value for their products by incorporating EmS into processes and products 8) To carry out an communication activity that will aim at ascertaining the key role of embedded systems in modern societies and economies with a view of possible embedded systems end-user markets in Lithuania. 4.2.4

PROPOSALS OF NTP „NETWORKED AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA“

Based on [NTP „Networked and Electronic‘, 2007b] proposals structured by programmes and projects are provided. Source indicated contains also more detailed descriptions of goals, tasks, results and others attributes of proposed projects. No. Programme No. Project 1 Electronic 1.1 Integrated translation system government services 1.2 E-government everywhere and for everybody. Public authority digital TV channel 1.3 Electronics protection of persons and premises 1.4 United agricultural and information network 1.5 Public geographic information system. Services provided to residents 1.6 The system of e-cards for town-man and other objects. Identification system of a legal or natural person 2 E-business 2.1 E-business infrastructure 2.2 Informing and consulting center for e-business systems and services provided in media area 2.3 Documents e-exchange. Creation of the small volume documents e-infrastructure 2.4 Creation of center for micro-payments. Clearing center creation

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2.5 3

Electronic democracy

3.1 3.2

4

Electronic training services

4.1 4.2

5

Lithuanian language and culture

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5

6

Scientific data achieves

7

Intellectual management systems

6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7

8

9

Digital television expansion

General issues

7.8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 9.1 9.2 9.3

Business geographic information system for territorial analysis of economic facts Means of information analysis and monitoring Geographic information system related to public opinion express Training based on interactive digital TV. Aggregation, transmission and retransmission of the subject concerned Interactive teaching in electricity and electronics engineering Recognition, synthesis and application of Lithuanian speaking language The system of automated translation from Lithuanian into English Distant teaching Lithuanian as a foreign language Project regarding preservation of regional cultural heritage System of e-services related to historical heritage of Lithuanian photography in digital register of photographers The system of services related to Lithuanian scientific institutions‘ data Creation of the proteomic data system management The use of Lithuanian orbital resources (the geostationary orbit position) Applied cosmic activities Geographic information system related to extreme situations Geographic information system related to public order Geographic information system regarding land-use and land market Geographic information system regarding management and prognosis of extreme situations, risk factors in Lithuanian agriculture Geographic information system regarding transport navigation Intellectual house. Premises identification International Lithuanian TV channel for emigrants HDTV format television Creation and manufacturing application of digital TV receivers with interactive functions architecture, function methods, algorithms and software Art and technology center for new media Center for measuring of digital TV feedback Electronics person‘s identification and signing of documents System of automated production aggregation and distribution in multiplatform area of digital materials Creation of basic services related to Lithuanian semantic infrastructure

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4.3

4.3.1

MAIN PROVISIONS AND CONCRETE MEASURES WHILE SOLVING SEPARATE PROBLEMS INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL

IT sector‘s hardware and software should be constantly updated. At the time being IT studies hardware and software is at a reasonable level, but maintaining this level requires constant effort. New programming languages are being trained, the same tools are being used as the ones used worldwide. Big problems can arise because of software license acquisition. Some business companies often help solving this problem, by providing academic software licenses, but such supply is only based on lecturer initiative and companies‘ good will. Study institutions should be better protected from lack of software licenses. Open source programs cannot solve license problems, because Lithuanian economy needs are not limited to open source software. Suitable software maintenance should be ensured, so the equipment works through the learning process and during experiments. For the time being universities do not have staff for this matter. Software maintenance requires high expertise operating personnel, whereas such work is mostly done by students, employed for a short term. After they reach the required expertise in a few years, they leave the university, because technical personnel salaries are very low. The big part of IT studies institutions, like all Lithuanian institutions, material base (buildings, hostels) are in a very bad condition; according to National audit office, 90 percent of them must be renewed [LRVK, 2007] IT studies institution, like all Lithuanian institutions, lecturer salaries must be raised. This topic is broadly discussed and it is agreed in the press and in official institutions. Methodical study base should be seriously updated. Studies in information technologies should significantly improve in this area. Course book writing could be encouraged by such means::  Course book and methodical material preparation should be an alternative to scientific article publication, when lecturer, curriculum and institution competence are evaluated during their attestation. Some lecturers, while being great educators, dedicate all of their time to teaching process and writing articles is not their favorite activity. Writing a good course book and reading quality lectures is no less important than taking part in scientific research. Therefore lecturers should have an ability to choose: take part in research or prepare course books.  Course book and other teaching material sponsoring should be a common practice. A lot of projects, sponsored by structural funds are being carried out, where preparation of textbooks and electronic teaching material is intended, but such projects should be carried out regularly, until study system becomes suitably financed. Many issues related to the renovation, building and development of infrastructure are now tackled with the help of the EU structural funds. However, these funds alone will not help deal with all the problems of the infrastructure:  Many science and study institutions lack premises for creating work places for scientists and accommodating research equipment. Due to the lack of premises at scientific laboratories, it is impossible to employ new staff. Separate rooms should be provided to research workers and doctoral candidates so that they could share such premises by working in pairs at least, instead of being forced to work in large groups. The total area of the premises at the KUT alone should be expanded by at least 400 square metres.  The issues of the regular update of hardware and software have not been solved (EU structural funds help deal with the problem of the one-off acquisition only.) Established NTP is element of new type infrastructure, which form presumptions for complexity of the sector – integration and working of studies, science researches and innovative business as unite system, not as separate it‘s elements, as it was before and as it is now. At present national platforms of technologies are the only one mechanisms, which can guide in a way of IT sectors complexity. All sectors very actively recalled to NTP idea initiated by Europe

194

Commission, which in Lithuania was translated by economy ministry. This show real mature demand for complex systematic actions. On the other hand, public sector which administrates such kind of initiatives shows signs that NTP is already obsolete, non-actual thing, as there are newer and more modern things. It is questionable if would be possible to rise such movement as NTP. 4.3.2

CURRICULUM UPDATES AND CONTENT RENEWAL OR ESTABLISHMENT

Curriculum organization system should be changed radically. In order to validate a new curriculum, bureaucracy is met, which delays programme validation for no lees than the preparation of the teaching material itself. Study direction regulations limit curriculum proposition freedom and do not let the universities to react into environmental changes in a flexible way. It is extremely bad for IT studies, where everything changes rapidly. A stepped-up preparation of very relevant or objective curricula should be ensured. For example, according to an identified business demand a short-term programme could be created (for a few years), which would suit that demand. Cross-institutional and international curriculum possibilities should be foreseen and stimulated. Projects with extra financing, which update curricula, should be carried out regularly. At the time being a lot of curriculum updating projects, sponsored by structural funds. Joint cross-institutional curricula are being prepared in these projects, also the participants exchange their experience. Such projects are a big assistance for the studies and should be carried out regularly. However administrating procedures for such projects should be simplified. In order to improve curriculum contents, two tendencies must be taken into account: fundamental research and business needs. Curricula could be differentiated by these directions, one of them would be oriented to future researchers, others – to application areas. Basic fundamental preparation would be necessary for specialists of both directions. A similar approach is already used, for example KTU has master curriculum „Informatics“, which is oriented more towards theoretical knowledge, while „Software system engineering“ and „Information system engineering“ are more of engineering nature. However, as engineering sciences curricula are more popular, better students choose these studies, and lately weaker students choose „Informatics“, who are not going to continue doctoral studies. In consideration of business representative opinion and worldwide tendencies, information technology curricula could be complemented by such modules:  IT project management;  Data Warehouses, Data Mining, Business Intelligence;  Business management tools deployment;  Software architecture engineering;  Database administration;  Information systems and software quality management and testing;  Information system security;  IT system audit;  Computer networks administration;  User interface design;  Design of automated hardware and integrated systems;  Information database management;  Internet and multimedia design;  Specific operating system and platform (LINUX, UNIX and other) administration, etc. Any curriculum should at first consider application, business relations and economical feasibility questions. Such demands reflect in requests from both business representatives and students.

195

Any curriculum should have as many as possible practical engagements and individual assignments. It is worth to increase the number of group assignments with different member responsibilities. A very useful form of assignments is group projects, however, as many students are employed and do not participate in the lectures, organizing such projects is unreal. When lecturer workload is counted, more attention should be paid not only to work done during lectures, but also consulting activities when tutoring course works, thesis or other projects. 4.3.3

CARRY OUT OF RESEARCH IN CONCRETE AREAS

The range of IT sector-related research conducted in Lithuania is very broad; the research projects are very different and cover many various topics. Applied research on the use of IT in various fields (ecology, public administration, economy and commerce, energy, agriculture, living environment, data analysis, diagnosis of technical systems, control of technological processes and equipment, various protection systems, measuring systems, mechatronics systems, communication and transport systems, design, processing of audiovisual information, medicine, law, teaching and study process, construction industry, sports, linguistics, compilation of dictionaries, publishing, music, science of handling museums, etc.) prevails. The number of fundamental research studies is rather low; besides, this type of research is of a rather “accidental” nature, i.e. it has been initiated by separate scientists interested in one or another topic, who have managed to bring together a sufficient group of researchers for such research. One could say that for countries like Lithuania, which have neither large research centres with old traditions nor close partnership relations with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or other similar international corporations, such a situation is rather natural. The breakthrough is likely to happen only in narrow fields of theoretical IT research, if one succeeded to form long-term researcher groups that are strong enough for this purpose. Incidentally, it seems that there are no such breakthrough groups in Lithuania at the moment. The situation in the neighboring countries – Latvia, Estonia, also partially in Poland and even Scandinavian countries – is quite similar. Certain level of stagnation has been observed in the field of research. There is no enthusiasm to start new type of research. There has never been any research conducted in the field of quantum computation in Lithuania, there is basically no research conducted in the field of computerization of the living environment, build-in system technologies and many other relevant fields. In this respect Lithuania is increasingly lagging behind the neighboring countries. In our opinion, this has happened due to the very one-sided assessment of the performance of science and study institutions also the scientist certification system. Since research articles published in prestigious science publications are the main assessment criterion and, after starting a new branch of research, it takes 3—4 years to publish such an article, nobody is interested in starting new research. Continuing something that various institutions have been doing for many years is much simpler and involves fewer risks compared to starting new type of research. Incidentally, the present assessment and certification system is quite a large handicap for interdisciplinary research, too, because such research involves cooperation of large groups of researchers who come from different institutions. Let us consider a situation of a group of five scientists from three different institutions who have been working on a single collective publication for one year: if we divided the single publication among five people, officially it would seem that the five researchers have been doing basically nothing for one year, since this is the number of publications rather than results that count. Thus, it is more purposeful for separate researchers to work on small research articles of a relatively small significance that are suitable for publishing. Lithuania does not have a solid research space, and instead of developing one, it witnesses the split of the research space into even smaller parts. There are several reasons why this is happening, i.e.:

196

 





4.3.4

The system for the assessment of the performance of science institutions and the certification system of research workers discourage them from working on collective publications The status of research articles published by local conferences (conference of the Society of Lithuanian Mathematicians, Lithuanian Computer Society, etc.) has been devalued; such conferences have therefore become basically meaningless because researchers no longer want to take part in such events to present and discuss serious research (such research works are now intended for prestigious foreign publications), and as a result Lithuania virtually no longer has any fora for the discussion among scientists from different science and study institutions In our opinion, the Ministry of Education and Science practically does not give any attention to the development of the Lithuanian research space in general. There is only an ongoing discussion about the integration in the common European research space, however without developing such a space in Lithuania, basically without any promotion for organizing large international conferences in Lithuania and with relatively limited financing possibilities to maintain regular communication with foreign science and study institutions, only one or two Lithuanian research groups are likely to achieve this integration Beside technology platforms, the development of which started recently, there are virtually no instruments for promoting development of the common IT research space in Lithuania. INCREASE OF ARRANGED SPECIALISTS INCLUDING EXPLORERS

There are no concrete data which could show how demand for IT specialists is growing, but this sector is attributed to sectors susceptible to knowledge, which specialists demand should grow (Institute of public policy and management, 2006). It is clear fact, that more and more students of lower courses of informatics and informatics engineering studies directions are working in IT sector, and this leave no doubt that there is lack of specialist in IT sector. While determining tendencies of specialists demand various resources were examined, but some information was found only in offers of national platforms due to predicted change of labor power demand and also in study of sector of information technologies [Study of sector of information technologies, 2004]. Accordingly to data of state control [LRVK, 2007], researches of students employment performed in jobcentre presented in AIKOS system do not reflect real situation (accordingly to such researches there are no unemployed in IT sector). Accordingly to data presented by national NSSTP platform of software and services technologies [NPPTP, 2006] in year 2006 more than 5000 working software services specialists were representing this platform: approximately 600 investigators, having or going for doctoral degree, approximately 800 of future masters; number of persons who each year begin to study information and communication technologies is 2000. As during the past year increase of average income in Lithuanian companies of software services was higher than corresponding growing in EU, so demand for specialist also should grow faster. Determined purpose of NSSTP is approximately 10 percents of yearly growth of specialists number (in year 2013 at total 20 000 working people, without limiting in sub-sector represented by NPPTP). Accordingly to data of E-mobility platform [MBK NTP, 2007] it is expected that for the security of mobile and wireless connection infrastructure will be the same number of working persons, i.e. about 4500, but number of persons creating services and doing servicing works should increase (200 workers). At present there are very low number of workers working in sphere of services creation (200 workers). Accordingly to researches of this study in year 2006 more than 1300 specialists of information technologies were arranged, part of them (more than 500) are still continuing their

197

studies, another part (800) had to fill labor market. If we would refer to data of earlier mentioned studies it would seem for us that excess of specialists is arranged, but general number of specialists does not reach prognosis of [Study of sector of information technologies, 2004], besides, from appeals and speaking of business companies lack of qualified specialists can be felt. Absence of factual excess can be explained by the fact, that part of graduates are working during their studies finishing and another part of them leave the country. But it‘s only one of factors which can explain the situation. Essential problem of this phenomena explanation is absent of base for such evaluations, i.e., how much working places of information technologies there are in Lithuania in companies of IT sectors, in companies of other sectors, in public sector. Problem is that there are no data for more precise evaluation of number of workers in information technologies sphere, and at the same time, there is no clear concept, what is sector of information technologies itself. Accordingly to independently received evaluations of different experts general number of workers in information technologies companies is approximately 10 000. Number of workers in telecommunication technologies companies can be about 5 000. Working places of information technologies in companies of other sectors and public sector is evaluated in 10 000. Till there is no more precise data, it can be supposed, that number of workers in information technologies can be evaluated in 25 000 or about 4 percents of all working persons. As there are no enough data to prove, that increase of IT specialist number should decrease, we do not begin to solve it, we only state, that in order that Lithuanian science and studies would go by progress way, number of IT sphere (maybe, unlike from other spheres) specialists, contrary to all demographical prognosis, should increase. At present, because of ineffectiveness of bachelor studies (big loss of bachelors), quality of studies should be improved: gradually decrease number of students accepted to bachelor studies, but seek for lower loss of students and higher number of graduates, together increasing acceptance to master studies. In this way specialists of higher qualification would be arranged. Accordingly to newest data, companies of IT sector state, that main stopping factor in development is insufficiently intellectual resources, and companies initiate appealing due to quality and qualitative increase of studying persons in studies of informatics and informatics engineering direction by providing necessary adequate resources. Acceptance to master studies also should be increased, because only those IT specialists who have finished master degree can satisfy consistently growing requirements for IT sphere specialists, who are necessary for companies creating software or for other large companies which have big information systems. While studying in bachelor studies students usually begin to work in small or not information technologies companies, so after finishing master degree or after selfeducation they can make career. Employment opportunities usually depend on personal qualities and altitude to studies. On the other hand, both graduates and employers should not require that students, who have just finished studies, could perform the most qualified work and hold high position. Experience is necessary, and it is gained during practice, which can not be changed nor by studies, neither practice performed during studies. Accordingly to that employers themselves should pay more attention to adaptation of young specialists. Acceptance to master studies should be increased and favorable conditions for young researchers should be formed and in this way attract them to academic institutions. Firstly it is relevant to increase of salary and to opportunities to employ graduate students during studies in university, in a such way, that student would not be materially disadvantaged in compare with his contemporaries of master degree working in the business. Analysis shows, that number of students who timely finish graduate studies is increasing. Till aging professoriate is able to prepare new researchers, it is necessary to promote arrangement of new doctors, because after few years qualification level due to retirement of present habilitated doctors and professors can significantly decrease. Further qualification increase of doctors should be promoted and developed.

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4.3.5

GETTING SCIENTISTS

BACK FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES

It is necessary to have at least some of the experts and scientists who have left for foreign countries return to Lithuania; however there are basically no practical possibilities of doing this at the moment. We believe that:  Remuneration of scientists and research workers should be raised by several times; they should be subject to specific goal oriented annual bonuses (e.g. for taking part in conferences, publishing articles, etc.) (which is a common practice in other countries);  The status of associate scientist should be reconsidered by providing Lithuanian science and study institutions with realistic possibilities of cooperation with Lithuanian scientists working abroad;  A special grant for scientists who had worked abroad and resumed their career in Lithuania should be established (similar to Marie Curie Grant awarded to scientists returning to the EU). 4.3.6

PARTIAL STUDIES AND ARRANGEMENT OF SPECIALISTS ABROAD

Partial studies abroad isn‘t unambiguous thing. Studies abroad is good thing, but at present moment it rises many problems. Studies abroad are really valuable both in general-human and in cognitive sense. But in objective sense it is quite doubtful. Demand of specialists arrangement in foreign countries raising from students and institutions of studies, while referring to Lithuanian interests to improve and increase it‘s competitiveness in IT sphere, also is not ambiguous. In many cases departure of students finishes by the fact, that the best students are lost. Secondly, studies abroad often interrupt performed science works and expands studying period, because not always students have an opportunity really improve themselves. Number of leaving to partial studies is not high and it can be stated, that this number reflects demand for such studies, because through Erasmus program there are opportunities to departure and it in any case should not be decreased. Similar proportion of leaving students should be in the future. But as it was mentioned before, international and trans-national aspects and qualities of the higher education should be more promoted, in this way IT studies in Lithuania could be adequate to studies of best Europe and world universities. Internationality of studies is wider concept than exchange of students, and firstly it included international significance and quality of learning content and also abilities to present oneself in international level. Without any loss to Lithuanian intellectual resources, studies could be developed towards international direction by using other measures:  Accordingly to best International level arrange programs of the studies  Implement programs of studies in foreign languages  Apply remote learning International and inter-institutional studies and other forms  Develop information spread and marketing measures presenting system of higher education in International level  Arrangement of courses in International themes, learning programs about International perspectives, programs with teachers with other countries and similar. At present there are no system of specialists arrangement abroad, there are only partial studies of one or two semesters abroad. If partial studies abroad isn‘t unambiguous, then system of specialists arrangement abroad is very valuable and missing component of education system, it can be even rated as alternative of initiative for scientists retrieval. It is necessary to form contracts of specialists-scientists arrangement in best universities in national and university levels and accordingly to that contracts universities should send to recommended universities best students of lower course to study, special scholarships should be granted till finishing of graduate studies, and appropriately legitimate their returning conditions.

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During last 15 years majority of students who had gone to study abroad have done it own their own initiative and through their limited opportunities, and, as a rule, not in the best centers and without obligations to return in Lithuanian universities. 4.3.7

ESTABLISHMENT OF BUSINESS INCUBATORS AND TECHNOLOGICAL PARKS

In year 2005 on the 22nd of November in National strategy of Lisbon and in Lithuania strategy of EU support utilization of year 2007-2013 confirmed by decision of Government No. 1270 and in programs of actions there are line of planned purposes and tasks, which should help to increase competitiveness of Lithuania in global markets. In these strategies big attention is paid to improvement of national science researches and experimental development system, it is sought to increase investments in science researches not only of public but especially of private sectors, to promote cooperation of business and science, to develop innovations, to increase productivity of working places, to create and implement better system of state administration. While implementing 14 measure of 1 purpose of 92 paragraph of National Lisbon strategy implementation program confirmed by Government of the Republic of Lithuania in year 2005 on the 22nd of November by decision No. 1270 (Žin., 2005, No. 139-5019), 1.3 article of measures of plan of Lithuania higher education system development first stage of year 2006-2010 confirmed by Government of the Republic of Lithuania in year 2006 on the 17th of November by decision No. 1133 (Žin., 2006, Nr. 126-4789), in year 2007 on the 21st of March Government of the Republic of Lithuania by decision No. 321 „Creation and development conception of integrated education, studies and business centers (valleys)“ states, that states‘ institutions of education and studies, municipalities, companies of business susceptible to knowledge have arranged projects of significant territorial saturation of education and studies potential in Vilnius and Kaunas cities. Representatives of state regions and of separate sectors of economy of education, business and local self-governments emphasize demand to link (concentrate) development of business susceptible to science, studies and knowledge. It is necessary to support these initiatives in order to reach the best matching of system of Lithuania education and studies with economy and innovation development strategies, in order to promote increase of industry and business susceptible to knowledge, to form attractive conditions for International investments. In general meaning information technologies (IT), as including communication technologies, is the most universal and horizontal sector of higher technologies, which results can be used in many other sectors, therefore it is very attractive for implementation of mentioned tasks. IT sector can by characterized by the fact, that it‘s created services and products almost in all cases are goods, and both measure for creation of innovations, surplus value and for increase of productivity in other spheres. Contribution of IT as no other sphere of technologies to social life of community changes communication, education and cultural expression and political life forms, increases productivity of working places. By provided e-government services IT products are directly used while improving system of state administration and while decreasing administration load. Europe Commission rates IT as one of the main factors which influences innovations and increase. Sector itself in Europe increases by 6 percents per year, and it‘s influence to productivity of other sectors reaches up to 20 percents and is consistently growing. One of the main tasks in program of year 2010 confirmed by Europe Commission and complementing Lisbon strategy is to increase investments in science researches in this sphere by 80 percents. Despite available human potential (IT branches of studies are chosen by 2000 new students each year) and qualified labor force in IT sphere (Lithuanian IT specialists are well rate all over the world), Lithuania is still significantly standing behind other countries of Europe and especially in the back of leader of IT market - USA. One of the reasons is insufficiently developed innovation promotion system in the state (both in financial, and non-financial measures), that blocks innovations in the sector itself and does not allow to implement innovative IT solutions in other sectors. These problems are tried to solve by establishing such measure of business, education and

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studies integration as parks of technologies, National platforms of technologies (NTP), integrated centers of science, studies and business (valleys), R&D projects implemented by companies and financed by EU resources. Sector of information technologies supports these state initiatives and pays attention to the fact, that while seeking further successful development of these initiatives it is necessary clearly determined underlying branches of sector development, science and technologies parks must be specialized accordingly to business demands and already formed innovative potential, it is necessary to pay attention to spheres of perspective researches. Visions of integrated centers of science, studies and business are prepared. Working groups have coordinated draft of vision of integrated centre in Vilnius city. Accordingly to this vision, Sauletekis valley is understood as umbrella structure joining specialized clusters – integrated centers of science, studies and business. In order to reach competitive (in International level) national researches of IT sphere, technologies, innovative projects and investment to it, such specialized IT cluster – integrates centre of science, studies and business is naturally forming in Visoriai, integration of this centre with analogical centers in Vilnius cities can be noticed. There are 700 specialist of information technologies (among them 250 of explorers and graduate students in Mathematics and informatics institute – more than other representatives in Visoriai representatives of higher technologies) working in Visoriai IT core. 20 percents of here produced IT services are exported to EU countries and USA. Here already for 15 years tradition of business, science and studies cooperation of IT sphere is developed, close relations with Vilnius university are supported. Hundreds of students of universities had professional practice and found working places in the companies of Visoriai IT core. In order to improve interaction of studies of information technologies, researches and innovative business, informatics specialty students of Vilnius university Mathematics and informatics faculty are moving to geographically close accommodations in address Didlaukio 47. It is quite significant concentration: to three programs of informatics bachelor studies go more than 400 students, including that in program of informatics studies go 250 students, to studies program of programs systems – 125 students and to program of Bioinformatics studies – 30 students. This geographical closeness is important not only for students and companies, but also to teachers. New phenomena can be notices – big part of teachers are working in leading companies of information technologies and in the same time they are participating in process of the studies. For example, in academic year 2006-2007, two thirds of 30 workers of Informatics cathedral are working in IT companies, they are disposing the newest technologic information and implementation practice of IT projects, and they pass this knowledge to the students. Absolutely the same situation now is in Programs systems cathedral. In further academic year 2007-2008, personnel of teachers will be complemented by ten new workers, who will be coordinating work in IT companies and in process of studies, and it will make about 50 teachers, who at the same time are participating in manufacturing in IT companies or in institutions of IT departments. It is supposed, that master studies of Mathematics and informatics faculty informatics branch will be moved (in bigger part) to Visoriai IT core. So, in Lithuania sector of information technologies it is sufficiently significant factor: to informatics master studies of three studies programs go 150 studies, including that in Informatics studies program there will be 60 studies, in Programs system studies program – 50 students and in Computer modeling studies programs – 40 students. Although at present demand of IT companies for academic sector in main is for IT specialists, but the most progressive companies, especially those, which practice is oriented to production of innovative products, already now are determining tasks of researches for academic sector. This demand will only increase. In this way participation of VU MIF in component of studies forms a real base for establishment of integrated centre of science, studies and business in Visoriai. In year 1985 Mathematics and informatics institute (MII) was established in Visoriai. From year 1988 companies of information technologies are establishing in Visoriai - VTEX, TEV, Baltic

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Amadeus, they are established by MII workers. At present taxes of these companies paid in budgets of the country more than two times exceeds state financing provided to MII. Close science relations of MII with these companies are still further developing, specialists are arranged for the companies, analyzing projects are implemented. In year 2002, while developing cooperating of IT companies, science and studies organizations in Visoriai, Public institution Visoriai park of information technologies was established. VITP accepted new members such as joint-stock company „Ex Datum“, joint-stock company „ImPro“, joint-stock company „IRI verslo konsultacijos“ („IRI business consultations“), individual company „IT sistemos“ („IT systems“), joint-stock company „Patikimi sprendimai“ („Reliable solutions“), IRT association of companies „Infobalt“, association „Infobalt EPA“. Partners of VITP members while implementing IRT sphere projects are Lithuanian and foreign universities and researches institutions and companies (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Jacobs University Bremen, Cambridge University, The University of Bath, Unilever, European Patent Office, Institute of mathematical statistics (USA), American statistics associations, Springer Verlag (Germany), Elsevier (Holland), Wiley (USA)). While further developing of center of integrated science, studies and business in Visoriai companies are planning to concentrate their practice in Visoriai by attracting to this district more than 1000 IT specialists, to invest and contribute by attracting investments to infrastructure creation and practice of International level science researches and experimental developments. Companies together with organizations of researches and studies will arrange development vision and development program of this integrated centre. Companies of IT sector can utilize limited development zones in the limits of the city in the best possible way – in the same territory IT companies establish many labor places, and their practice doesn‘t influence environment. While implementing further concentration of IT sphere business and researches in Visoriai it is sought to:  To form possibility for IT companies, which have experience of export marketing and for companies which have export potential and can saturate this experience work together in geographically determined territory (besides working organizations of researches and studies). In this way create Lithuanian IT business capital core, which in the future would become export brand of Lithuania IT sector and would be of service while attracting to country applied researches, development of technologies and experimental manufacturing of large foreign corporations.  To make a possibility to settle critical mass of companies of different IT branches in geographically determined territory, to create social and to develop infrastructure of researches, which will promote exchange by technological and business ideas, development of new market niches, timely creation of products and services for these niches and establishment of new companies.  To form conditions to implement complete and fast sending of services and products to market cycle in geographically determined territory: from idea to trial party to trial use of product (while implementing Living Lab model). In this way it is sought to provide for Lithuania IT business competitiveness advantage in global market which is susceptible for innovations.  To make a possibility for critical mass of companies of different IRT branches, which will work in export markets with high competition conditions to work together in geographically determined territory, and in this way will help for Lithuania science and researches institutions form: (i) perspective tasks of researches, which co financing would be agreed by business subjects, (ii) programs and models of necessary studies while ensuring timely arrangement of new workers of necessary specialization and the ability of these workers to work in global competition conditions. In this way competitiveness of Lithuanian business subjects, Lithuanian researches and studies institutions, IRT sphere workers, and at the same time of Lithuanian IRT brand competitiveness will be increased.

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 To create conditions for IRT companies, institutions of researches and studies in geographically limited territory develop practice, which is connected with application of IRT in other spheres of economy and life (industry of lasers, biotechnologies, transport, publishing, education and etc.). While seeking for these purposes benchmarks of practice are determined:  While developing concentration of IT sphere business and researches in Visoriai and while promoting competitiveness of Lithuanian IT sector in global market, cooperate with all NTP and contribute to creation of National complex program.  To create such model of practice which would allow effectively, by complementing each other cooperate with establishing analogical integrated centers in Vilnius city and Lithuania.  To determined concrete niches of market, concrete products and services of surplus value, which creation would be implemented together with subjects of business, researches and studies; to predict concrete amount of necessary specialized new workers and necessary ways and equipment for their arrangement; to determine teaching programs of additional learning for present workers; to initiate arrangement and implementation of relevant projects, to contribute to their financing and to attract sources of public financing (ES SF, 7-oji General program, National financing). 4.4

DEMAND

AND MOTIVATION OF MEANS, NEEDED FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR‘S DEVELOPMENT

In this section the current state of the Lithuanian Software and Services sector is analyzed. The focus is concentrated on software services though the NSSTP strategy treats software services within their overall infrastructure including associated organizational, management, legal, standard and other services from semantic to technical and operational levels. Figures from statistical documents characterize the Lithuanian state in the Software Services sector as low, but having potential to the fast growth. However, for ensuring this growth the concentrated efforts are needed from business, academia, research, government and external environment. According to the generalized evaluation of the Lithuanian Statistics Department data, in the first half-year of 2006, 7000 work places were functioning in the Lithuanian Software Services sector and in total companies in IT business account 10000 work places; the annual revenues of software and services comprised 610 Million Lt. According to Prime Investment 6 , in 2005 the annual growth of software and services revenues of 20 largest Baltic IT enterprises was 14%, and 22% during the first half-year of 2006. For comparison, the European Union currently has 7 1,7 Million work places and annual revenues of 490 000 Million €; the current growth in the Software and Services sector is at 4.4 %. In Lithuania the percentage of people with a higher education is very high in comparison to more developed countries of EU. The scientific and educational personnel of Lithuanian Software Services sector includes ~ 600 researchers with a doctoral degree or doctoral students, ~ 800 master students while the annual amount of ICT entrants is 2000. There is the enough space for the working force in Software and Services to grow. However, the graduates are often leaving the country because they can expect faster and bigger success abroad. The lack of software specialists in industry and scientists in universities is already visible. It can lead to dangerous consequences in the near future as the needs for software developers and business analysts are growing every day. The investments of business in R&D in Lithuania currently comprise only 0,16 % of GDP (this figure is even smaller for the IT sector); public sector invests 0,6 % of GDP. According to the Lithuanian National Reform Program, in 2010 the spending on R&D will reach 2 % of GDP (1 % 6

Prime Investment, the leading investment banking company, Baltic ICT Market News, 2006

7

http://www.nessi-europe.net/Nessi/

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in the public and 1 % in the business sector), in 2013 – 3 % of GDP (1 % – in the public and 2 % – in the business sector). To reach the appropriate level in the Software Services sector, the proper measures should be taken. The objectives to achieve in the Software Services sector:  The 10 % annual growth of the amount of work places (in 2013 20000 work places should be available)  The 15 % annual growth of revenues (in 2013 the annual revenues from software and services should comprise 1600 Million Lt). To achieve the aforementioned productivity and revenues indicators 240 Million Lt investments during 2007-2013 year period are needed (approximately 34 Million Lt every year). Investments will be used for the training of highly competent specialists, procurement of technologies and “know-how”, research and development of innovative products, marketing, etc. The Lithuanian business sector is able to invest about 30-40 % of the required amount. In 2013 these business investments together with public investments should help reach the objective determined by the Lithuanian National Reform Program according to the Lisbon strategy − 3 % of GDP for R&D. The support for Lithuania from the EU structural funds under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ will comprise 3800 Million Lt during the 2007-2013 period. If the required investments for years 2007-2013 (240 Million Lt) are provided by the European structural funds, to ensure the “principle of complementation”, the investments from National sources during the 2007-2013 period will have to reach about 90 Million Lt. According to the Lisbon strategy, the investments in R&D from the Software Services sector enterprises will comprise 120 Million Lt (40 Million Lt in 2013). IT sector has the potential to receive 60-75 Million Lt from the 7th framework program. The part of this funding, as well as the funding from other EU programs, may strengthen NSSTP but appropriate efforts from NSSTP participants are needed to achieve it. According to the Lithuanian 2007–2013 period program of the EU structural funds usage strategy, IT sector, through the Information Society Priority, will assimilate 800 Million Lt for the development and implementation of software and services. The aforementioned funding is devoted for the following purposes:  Development of the public services and infrastructures for citizens, government, business subjects  Development of high quality software tools and products in order to enlarge the competence of enterprises and amount of production exported  Development of the infrastructure promoting the integration of business and education  Development of infrastructures supporting the research and education institutions aiming at adapting their research and training of specialists to business needs  Integration of enterprises and researchers into the European Space for the participation in joint projects. The part of the aforementioned 800 Millions is available to enlarge the budget of NSSTP as they are directly associated with the strategy of NSSTP. The last point may strengthen NSSTP in preparation of FP7 projects and enlarge the funding from those 60-75 Million Lt available through FP7 line. Analysis of potential sources of NSSTP funding In summary, the funding of the extensible scope of NSSTP may come from the following (and, possibly, other) sources: The potential sources of NSSTP funding

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The potential sources of NSSTP funding: Financial sources

Size (Million Lt)

Support for Lithuania from EU structural funds during 2007-2013 period under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ National Funding 7th Framework Program Private investment EU structural funds IT sector through Information Society Priority Eureka program

3800* 90 ~60-75 ~120 800 **

* – the overall amount for Lithuanian National Platforms ** – the available amount of funding from the Eureka program is not evaluated because currently the possibilities of Eureka are not used sufficiently.

Telecommunications subsector. Investments for 2007 - 2013 – 2020 we will evaluate by three aspects. Investments are assessed in respect of number of working positions, funds for software purchase, necessary for service development, and investments into network infrastructure. At the present investments to network infrastructure amount to LTL 300 million annually. Maintaining the same annual investment amount until 2013 and until 2020, such investments by 2013 will amount to LTL 2100 million, and until 2020 – LTL 4200 million. It is believed, that for assurance of mobile and wireless communication infrastructure the same number of employees will remain, i.e., about 4500. The number of service developing and servicing persons should grow up. This market should belong to small and medium business enterprises. In the field of service development very little people are employed (200 employees). Along with necessary increase of employees’ number, the investments required for service building should also grow up. At the moment in ICT sector a monthly wage is around LTL 8000. In the future wage should grow by 5% annually. Until 2013 advisable amount for wages in service building sector would be LTL 125 million, and until 2020 – LTL 492 million. Services can be developed using special software. Present investments into special software designed for service creation, amount to LTL 15 million. Amount of software designed for service building will increase by 30 percent every year. Until 2013 investments into software designed for service development should amount to LTL 72,4 million, and until 2020 – LTL 454 million. These investments until 2013 will be LTL 197 million, and by 2020 – 947 million. Sector‘s net investments, including investments into network expansion and service building of development of mobile and wireless communications sector, until 2013 should reach LTL 2300 million, and in 2020 – LTL 5150 million. Around 90 percent of entire investments will be devoted for development of network infrastructure. However this percentage will vary. If in 2007 investments to network infrastructure will amount to 88,5%, meanwhile in 2013 will be 91, 42%, and in 2020 - 81,61%. IT sector is capable to adapt LTL 70 million from 7’th program, or LTL 10 million every year. These finances should be intended for wages and purchase of software for creation of services. Business sector has financed infrastructure development as yet. Thus by 2013 investments from SF should amount to 197 million – 70 million = 127 million, i.e., LTL 18 million on average annually. Potential financial sources: Financial sources Size (LTL million) No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Support for Lithuania from EU structural funds under the priority “R&D, innovations and business“ National Funding 7th Framework Program Private investment EU structural funds IT sector through Information Society Priority

3800* 90 70 2100 127

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5

CONCLUSIONS

Accordingly to documents, studies of opportunities, visions of strategic development and plans of strategic researches of sub-sectors presented by four national platforms of technologies of information technologies sector:  National platform of software and services technologies  National platform of mobile and wireless communication technologies  National platform of introducible systems technologies  Platform of society information, communication and electronic technologies And accordingly to data presented by NTP partners, accordingly to concluded statistical data of information technologies sector and especially accordingly to data of institutions of academic sector, analysis of science researches and present and desirable state of business in national level was performed, data of IT sector was collected and systemized and offers for complex program was prepared. Referring to classification of statistics department of the Republic of Lithuania Information technologies are understood in a wide sense and include information and communication technologies. On the other hand, concept of information technologies applied by department of statistics is too wide and includes branches which traditionally are not included in sectors of information technologies. Performed research of information technologies sector have shown, that sector is ready for the development of innovative software based on management of practice processes and on architecture of services; such development would ensure faster growing of software services in gross domestic product. This readiness can be seen by referring to fact, that at present part of information technologies in gross domestic product is low, but growing rates of income of information technologies are high and exceed EU rates. There a lot of performed projects and projects which are planned for near years, and these projects can be rated as significant initial step toward further development of the sector. Analysis of statistical data have shown, that Lithuania is sufficiently stocked with technical and communication equipment, numbers of users of internet and computer equipment is constantly growing. Quality and amount of software services provided on the internet are also growing, completely interactive (fourth level) e-government and e-business services are already provided. Sector has sufficiently and in the perspective even excess of potential of human resources, as number of persons working in software sector is growing slower than it could accordingly to number of specialists. Survey of the companies have shown, that specialists of the sector are solving the same problems as specialists of the most developed countries. Their offered thematic of researches is covering with strategic thematic of Europe technological platforms and so it could be useful for implementation of Lithuania and EU Lisbon strategy. So in conclusion it can be stated that at present development of information technologies is important to Lithuanian business and every citizen, the size and content of development are determined and it can be implemented with available human resources by searching purposeful financing from potential sources. As the same time, while preparing study, number of clarifying problems had rose; during preparation of complex program of information technologies these problems should be solved at least partially  Information technologies as any other sector is vertical structure. At the same time influence of information technologies sector to other sectors is traditionally named in information society concept, is horizontal structure. Unite concept of information

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technologies is necessary, which should cover vertical and horizontal dimensions, including management aspects which at present are absolutely inadequate.  More concrete concept of sector of information technologies is necessary, including it‘s aspects of horizontal dimension, by concentrating base for registration of IT sector and for decisions making.  Accordingly to data it is necessary to determine working places of IT sector, size of production and other main indexes which can enable adequately evaluate significant of sector and it‘s comparability with other sectors. At present available and used statistical data don‘t make any opportunity to evaluate IT sector adequately.  Formulation of IT sector demands to system of higher education in informatics and informatics engineering studies.  Evaluation of IT sector significance to other sectors of business and to public sector.. Accordingly to present available statistical data conclusions can be made that IT sector is minor, not significant and does not influence Lithuania and isn‘t object of strategic significance. But the same available data and its‘ interpretation don‘t match experience, practical observations and general perception. The most important task of IT sector itself is adequately understand itself and objectively present itself for others.

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6

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AIKOS

- open system of information, consulting, reference

BPD (SPD)

- Single programming document.

BVP (GDP)

- gross domestic product.

EAME (AERA)

- area of Europe academic research.

ES (EU)

- Europe Union.

IRT (ICT)

- information and communication technologies.

ĮS (EmS)

- embedded systems.

IT

- information technology.

ITT

- information technologies and telecommunications.

IVPK

- committee of information society development.

KĮ (HW)

- computer equipment.

KTU

- Kaunas Technical University.

KU

- Klaipeda University.

LRVK

- Office of Government of the Republic of Lithuania.

MII (IMI)

- Mathematics and informatics institute.

MTEP (R&D)

- science researches and experimental development.

MTTP (R&D)

- science researches and technological development.

NTP

- national platform of technologies.

PĮ (SW)

- software.

SKVC

- center of studies quality evaluation.

STP (SRA)

- strategic plan of researches.

ŠU

- Siauliai University.

VDU (VMU)

- Vytautas Magnus University.

VGTU

- Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.

VPU

- Vilnius Pedagogical University.

VU

- Vilnius University.

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LIST OF REFERENCES [ATPP, 2006]

Program of higher technologies development of year 2007-2013, confirmed by decision of Government of the Republic of Lithuania No. 1048 in year 2006 on the 24th of October (Žin., 2006, No. 114-4356). [Internationality of higher education, 2007] World experience of promotion of higher education internationality and benchmarks of it‘s application in Lithuania, ISM management and economy university, monograph, ISBN 9789955-9874-5-1, 2007. [DnB NORD, 2006] DnB NORD bank, Perspectives of Lithuanian economy 2006, ISSN 1822-4806 [EKK, 2005] Communicate of Europe Commission– „Europos intelektinių gebėjimų sutelkimas: sudaryti universitetams sąlygas visapusiškai prisidėti prie Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo“ (Brussels, 20.4.2005 KOM (2005) 152 final). [EKK, 2006] Communicate of Europe Commission to Board and Europe Parliament– „Universitetų modernizavimo plano įgyvendinimo rezultatai: švietimas, moksliniai tyrimai ir naujovės“ (Brussels, 10.5.2006, KOM(2006) 208 Final). [Program of economy development actions, 2006] Project of program of economy development actions of year 2007-2013 (http://www.esparama.lt/ES_Parama/strukturines _paramos_2007_1013m._medis/veiksmu_progra mos/veiksmu_programu_projektai/files/OPEG1.doc). [Science researches of financial incentives ‘ 2006] Report of improvement studies analysis for economy subjects performing science researches of financial incentives and innovative practice, Public institution „Europos technologinių ir pramoninių klasterių nacionalinis biuras“, 2006. [Study of opportunities. Of introducible systems‘ 2006] Study of opportunities. Industry of introducible systems and science researches: demand and perspectives. National platform of introducible systems technologies, joint-stock company „Europarama“, 2006. [Information technologies in Lithuania 2006] Information technologies in Lithuania 2006. Department of statistics, ISSN 1822-2935, Vilnius 2006 [Sector of information technologies‘, 2004] Study of sector of information technologies, Center of professional teaching methodic, 2004. [Center of integrated science, studies and business‘ 2007] Conception of establishment and development of integrated science, studies and business centers (valleys), confirmed by decision No. 321of Government of the Republic of Lithuania No. 321 in year 2007 on the 21st of March.

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[IVPK, 2003]

IVPK, Review of sectors of Lithuania information technologies and science researches, year 2001-2003 [IVPK, 2004] IVPK, Analysis of present situation of public services providing and description of model, 2004. [IVPK, 2006] IVPK, List of measures of General programming document 3.3 of projects presented by Lithuania in year 2004-2006 „Informacinių technologijų paslaugų ir infrastruktūros plėtra“, for the contests with signed contracts. http://www.ivpk.lt/fondai/sarasai/projektai_saras as.html [Juodka, 2006] Practice of Vilnius University in year 2006. Report of Vilnius university rector academician Benediktas Juodka, 2006. [Juozapavičius, 2006] Juozapavičius A., Lapienis S. , Tamulienė J. Distributed and parallel calculations in Lithuania already Elektronika.lt, 2006. [EU structural support for Lithuania in year 2007-2013] Project of strategy of EU structural support utilization in year 2007-2013 in Lithuania. (http://www.esparama.lt/ES_Parama/strukturines _paramos_2007_1013m._medis/veiksmu_progra mos/veiksmu_programu_projektai/files/NSRFLT2.doc). [Provisions of LRV 2006-2008 m. program] Provisions of program implementation of Government of the Republic of Lithuania of year 2006–2008, confirmed by Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania by decision No. X-767 in year 2006 on the 18th of July (Žin., 2006, No. 80-3143). [LRV, 2003] Government of the Republic of Lithuania. PROGRAM OF HIGHER TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT. Vilnius, 2003. [LRV, 2006] Year plan of Lithuania higher education development of year 2006-2010, confirmed by Government of the Republic of Lithuania by decision No. 335 in year 2006 on the 5th of April (Žin., 2006, Nr. 39-1394). [LRV, 2006] LRV, Program of Lithuanian information society development of year 2006–2008, 2006. [LRVK 2007] Control of the Republic of Lithuania. Organization of studies in universities and utilization of resources intended for studies and education and investments. Report of state audit. Year 2007, the 15th of May, No. VA-50-4P, Vilnius [MBK NTP, 2007a] National platform of mobile and wireless technologies (MBK NTP). Study of opportunities, Lithuania, 2007

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