Congratulations on your appointment as Managing Director of Lithuania's Innovation Agency. What's your vision for the organization?

My vision for the Innovation Agency Lithuania is firmly anchored in delivering measurable impact through the successful implementation of our 2026–2030 strategy. This strategy is built around four core pillars that will guide our efforts and define our success:

Innovation Breakthrough – by 2030, we aim to increase business investment in R&D to 1.3% of GDP, strengthening Lithuania's position as a competitive innovation-driven economy.

Export Transformation – our goal is for high value-added exports to reach 50% of total exports of Lithuanian origin, reflecting a structural shift towards more sophisticated and knowledge-intensive products and services.

Productivity Growth – we are committed to enabling Lithuanian businesses to achieve 90% of the EU average productivity, enhancing competitiveness and long-term economic resilience.

Value-Creating Organization – internally, we will ensure excellence in service delivery, targeting a Net Promoter Score (NPS) above 70, demonstrating strong client trust and satisfaction.

Achieving these ambitions requires a highly coordinated, ecosystem-wide approach. I see the Agency as a central platform that unites business, academia, and public sector stakeholders to unlock Lithuania's full potential. We have exceptional talent, strong scientific capabilities, and a rapidly maturing innovation ecosystem. The key priority now is to align efforts, scale collaboration, and accelerate transformation — ensuring sustained growth and global competitiveness.

You co-founded and led Caszyme, a deep tech company born out of academic research. What would it take to accelerate more spin-offs from Lithuanian academia?

Accelerating the creation of academic spin-offs in Lithuania requires both structural and cultural transformation.

First, we must evolve the mindset around the role of science. While academic excellence remains fundamental, a significant share of research outcomes should be oriented toward tangible societal and economic impact. As a relatively small country, we must be strategic in how we allocate resources — prioritizing areas where Lithuania can build global competitiveness and leadership.

Second, it is essential to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry. There is often a structural gap: academia generates knowledge, technologies, and early-stage insights, while business is responsible for product development, scaling, and commercialization. Bridging this gap requires more effective mechanisms for joint experimentation, pilot projects, and co-development, allowing innovations to move from laboratory to market in a structured and risk-managed way.

Third, both sides must demonstrate greater openness and adaptability. Successful spin-offs emerge when academia and business actively seek common ground, align incentives, and engage in continuous dialogue.

The Innovation Agency plays a critical enabling role by facilitating R&D collaboration programs, supporting joint initiatives and knowledge transfer, providing capacity-building and training, and integrating Lithuanian actors into international innovation networks.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a systemic pipeline where scientific excellence consistently translates into commercially viable ventures and broader societal impact.

Zooming out to the broader startup ecosystem — where should the Innovation Agency focus its efforts?

From a systemic perspective, the Innovation Agency should focus on strengthening the entire innovation lifecycle, ensuring that ideas can scale efficiently from concept to global markets.

Priority areas include early-stage support — fostering high-quality deal flow through pre-acceleration, talent development, and entrepreneurial education — alongside improved access to capital across all stages, particularly for deep tech ventures that require longer development cycles. Scale-up support should enable Lithuanian startups to internationalize faster and integrate into global value chains, while the regulatory and business environment must ensure Lithuania remains an attractive jurisdiction for innovation-driven companies.

In parallel, we must enhance ecosystem connectivity — linking startups, corporates, research institutions, and investors into a cohesive and collaborative network.

The Agency's efforts should remain strongly aligned with Lithuania's Smart Specialization priorities, where we see the greatest potential for competitive advantage: smart manufacturing, lasers and photonics, defense and security technologies, space technologies, ICT and digital innovation (including AI and data), fintech, biotechnology and life sciences, and bioeconomy.

At the same time, it is essential to broaden our reach beyond established hubs — activating regional potential, identifying and supporting emerging innovators and exporters across all regions and sectors. This means strengthening regional innovation ecosystems, supporting SMEs in improving their innovation capacity and productivity, expanding export readiness and internationalization capabilities, and ensuring that innovation-driven growth is inclusive and geographically balanced.

In essence, our role is to ensure that innovation is not concentrated but diffused across the entire economy — unlocking untapped potential and driving sustainable national growth.

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