Innovator 2026

Objective

To recognise innovative Estonian companies that have implemented or launched an outstanding innovation that offers significant value to clients or society and that invest their sales revenue in research, development or innovation activities.

Who can apply?

Estonian companies that have successfully implemented a technology development project or launched a new product or service solution in the last three years that improves the company’s competitiveness are invited to apply. The applicant company belongs to sectoral and/or international collaborative networks and the company’s research and development expenditure in 2025 was at least EUR 450,000.

Evaluation criteria and process

The following economic indicators are evaluated (comprising 30% of the final result):

1. Compound sales growth 2023-2025 (10%)
2. Compound growth of value added per employee 2023-2025 (10%)
3. Research and development expenditure 2025 (minimum €450,000 to qualify for this category) (10%)

The enterprise must show a significant achievement in the following areas over the last three years (comprising 70% of the final result):

1. A significant technology, (production) process or business model development compared to the general level of the market, accompanied by a significant change in the company or an impact on the financial results (20%)
2. A unique or innovative product/service that gives the company a competitive advantage in foreign markets. The company protects its competitive advantage with a well-thought-out intellectual property strategy (20%)
3. Collaboration with universities and/or researchers and the number and role of researchers employed or involved in the company. (30%)

Definitions

Value added per employee = (operating profit + expenditure + labour costs) / number of FTEs

Compounded growth = (2025 result / 2023 result) ^ (1/2) – 1

Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a type of property that includes intangible objects created by the human intellect and mainly comprises copyrights, inventions and trademarks. Intellectual property refers to types of intangible assets controlled by the enterprise or other parties, both covered and uncovered by intellectual property rights, both physically presented and stored in people’s competences and experiences. For example, data, algorithms, trained and untrained language models, trade secrets, knowledge, skills and know-how, inventions, literary and artistic works, software, design, etc. that have commercial value to the enterprise. The most well-known types of intellectual property protection are trademarks (protects the enterprise’s brand), copyright (protects literary and artistic works), industrial designs (protects the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of articles) and patents (protects new and innovative solutions and inventions). All of these types of protection, with the exception of copyright, require the registration of intellectual property with the relevant authority in the respective country or territory where protection is sought.