Lithuania is a relatively small country of just under 3 million people that only regained independence in 1990. It’s also only started taking tech transfer seriously over the past decade, but in that time has seen exponential growth.

Vilma Purienė is the director of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Centre at Vilnius Tech, having started the office from scratch in 2014. She joins the podcast to talk about the lessons she has learned to date, particularly in those first years, and why membership in the European Union has been incredibly important for her work and the country overall.

She ponders both the opportunities, like fintech and space tech, in Lithuania, and the challenges that are ongoing, like building more of an entrepreneurial culture among citizens and halting a brain drain to other countries in Europe.

Vilma also reveals what attracted her to the tech transfer profession after nearly eight years of working for the Ministry of Economy, and what she would still like to change if given a magic wand.

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“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)