The National Round Table in Estonia: Supporting Shift in EU Research Funding

On 2 December 2019, the Alliance4Life working group at the University of Tartu organized a national round table. The presentation of project main ideas and outputs was followed by discussion:  "Free from Catching Up - How to Support a Shift in EU Research Funding?"

The aim of the event was to present Alliance4Life project outputs and discuss how the findings could be implemented to improve the Estonian scientific environment. The first part of the meeting was devoted to the “White Paper,” which included policy recommendations to the European Commission, national governments, universities, and research institutions. The questions regarding how to bring these recommendations effectively to the target groups were addressed. In the second part of the round table, participants discussed effective ways to use synergies between different funding sources for increasing mobility and skill development, and shared their own examples of attracting talents and experiences in knowledge and technology transfer. It was noted that in order to make beneficial changes, one has to think about how to become more independent and how to not always fall into the catching-up mentality.

The Estonian round table was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, Estonian Research Council, other universities, and individual scientists.

The project "Alliance for Life Sciences: Closing Research and Innovation Divide in the European Union" received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 779303.