Estonian conference analyses the research decisions of last 20 years

Press Release - January 2011

On January 27, the conference “20 years of research evaluation in Estonia” held in Tartu analyses the decisions made during the four research evaluations carried out in Estonia.

In 1991, Estonia decided that for transferring smoothly from one research system to another, the resources need to be reallocated and research activities need to be concentrated in the universities. To enable that, the first international evaluation of Estonian research was carried out. ”As a sick person is not able to diagnose himself, likewise we need someone external to evaluate the research,” academician Peeter Saari wrote back then. The evaluation of 1991 was carried out by Swedish experts and funded by the Swedish government.

Since then, three more evaluations of Estonian R&D have taken place – in 1994, 2000-2003 and 2010. The upcoming conference will analyse the four past evaluations, introduce similar experiences from other countries, discuss the methodical and technical aspects of evaluation and view the perspectives of research evaluation in Estonia.

The conference is opened by Richard Villems, president of the Academy of Sciences. The presenters include prof Peeter Saari, head of Estonian Science Foundation in 1991; prof Roland Axtmann, head of the 2010 evaluation committee and Paul Hubbard, head of the Research Policy department in the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The conference is organized by Archimedes Foundation in co-operation with the Ministry of Education and Research. Additional information about the conference (in Estonian) can be found at the website http://archimedes.ee/evalveerimiskonverents