After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, Estonia has been preoccupied with both the challenges of protecting its security and modernizing its economy. While the threats to its security are only potential and could be managed through membership of international security alliances, Estonia would have to take on the urgent tasks of making its economy modern and competitive largely by itself. The country is confronting these tasks mainly through a robust Research and Development (R&D) drive in science and technology. Successful innovations in these areas that can be applied to fighting the new security threats within societies can allow countries like Estonia to make a far greater contribution to global security relative to their size or national defence budgets. In this paper, I will review Estonia's R&D strategy, its implementation and the lessons learnt.