Minister of education and research: Evaluation has kept Estonian research competitive
27 January 2011 - 27 January 2011
Estonia
In 1991, Estonia decided that for transferring smoothly from one research system to another,resources needed to be reallocated and research activities needed to be concentrated in the universities.
To enable that, a first evaluation of 1991 was carried out by Swedish experts and funded by the Swedish government to evaluate Estonian research. ”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.
Tõnis Lukas, Estonian minister of education and research said "International media, including the Nature journal, has emphasized Estonia’s quick changes in the organizating its research policies, which made our research internationally acknowledged and its results quality-based. International evaluation was one of these bold steps that has kept Estonian research competitive."
Andres Koppel, the vice chancellor of education and research stresses the immense impact of the first international evaluation on developing Estonian research system. "We took the advice of our Swedish colleagues very seriously, which helped us build a research system oriented on Western values. We can realize the scope of this today, comparing our current position to that of similar countries who started on the same level" Koppel said.
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.More(opens in new window) information from: Andres Koppel, vice chancellor of the Ministry of Education and Research, ph +372 735 0211, e-mail andres.koppel@hm.ee.
To enable that, a first evaluation of 1991 was carried out by Swedish experts and funded by the Swedish government to evaluate Estonian research. ”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.
Tõnis Lukas, Estonian minister of education and research said "International media, including the Nature journal, has emphasized Estonia’s quick changes in the organizating its research policies, which made our research internationally acknowledged and its results quality-based. International evaluation was one of these bold steps that has kept Estonian research competitive."
Andres Koppel, the vice chancellor of education and research stresses the immense impact of the first international evaluation on developing Estonian research system. "We took the advice of our Swedish colleagues very seriously, which helped us build a research system oriented on Western values. We can realize the scope of this today, comparing our current position to that of similar countries who started on the same level" Koppel said.
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.More(opens in new window) information from: Andres Koppel, vice chancellor of the Ministry of Education and Research, ph +372 735 0211, e-mail andres.koppel@hm.ee.