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The Estonian Presidency conference “European Research Excellence – Impact and Value for Society” held in Tallinn on 12 October brought together high level experts to discuss the value of research, and to build a case for investing in research and innovation with the final goal of strengthening the political commitment for ambitious long-term public investment in European research and innovation need to increase the impact of research.
Estonia’s Prime minister Jüri Ratas handed over The Tallinn Call for Action 2017 with the aim to ensure broad public trust towards research, as well as political commitment for increasing research and innovation funding. It outlines the role and responsibilities of the stakeholders in increasing investments, trust and the impact of research.
“In the framework of current negotiations over the next EU programming period, the Tallinn Call for Action precede by broad international consultation provides an ideal basis for increasing research funding,” said Estonian Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps. “As the president of the council of the EU, we work hard to make the messages of Tallinn Call for Action to be heard in EU policy making,” assured Reps.
The Tallinn Call for Action stresses the responsibility of policy makers, researchers, businesses and journalists in ensuring that research would be a real priority in EU policy making, and increasing trust in research. The document calls for both the EU and national governments to increase expenditure in research and underlines the responsibility of politicians and businesses to ensure the required investments in research and innovation.
“The Estonian government’s decision to increase investments to research and innovation sets great example, as budget allocations for research and development has been decided to increase the in 2018 by 11% and they are estimated to reach 0,8% of Estonian GDP that is above the EU average,” Reps said.
Researchers should be more active in communicating the impact of their results in order to build confidence in research and researchers to general public. Their expertise and scientific advice should be made to be heard by policy makers and businesses.
Universities and research institutions need to promote actively excellent R&I ecosystems that support co-creation, interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange and encourage the mobility and career development of researchers. Therefore, increased and more stable funding should be guaranteed for universities and research institutions.
Tallinn Call for Action 2017 final text is published on the website of Estonian Presidency.
Original post by the Republic of Estonia Ministry of Education and Research
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