Open Science in Estonia

Development of the approach to open science

A number of documents have been developed in Estonia, where open science is mentioned, but the national policy on open science has not been clearly formulated so far.

 Estonian Strategy for Research and Innovation 2014-2020

Knowledge-based Estonia states: “Encourage open access to public-financed research results and research data. Support extensions to open access in research institutions and research libraries, and ensure access to the most important research databases.

In early 2016, the Open Science Expert Group at the Estonian Research Council published the principles and recommendations for developing the national policy Open Science in Estonia, paying attention also to research data. The document formulates the Estonian strategic objective for 2020:

The academic community is familiar with and accepts the principles of open science and open data. Research data collected with the support of public funding are freely accessible and re-usable to all, if not restricted by legal requirements. Research data are preserved in open repositories which meet certain standards and are made available at the earliest opportunity.

 

Unfortunately, these guidelines were not implemented, and the same happened to the following following initiative, Open Science framework for Estonia (2019) by presented by Estonian Ministry of Education and research. 

Since 2020 University of Tartu is a member of a European University alliance ENLIGHT, which is an alliance of ten comprehensive, research-intensive universities: University of the Basque Country, University of Bern, University of Bordeaux, Comenius University Bratislava, University of Galway, Ghent University, University of Groningen, University of Göttingen, University of Tartu and Uppsala University.

The rectors of the ENLIGHT network universities signed a document on 23 November 2023 in Uppsala: Open Science Principles for the ENLIGHT European University Alliance.

1. Promotion of Open Science
2. FAIR and Open Data
3. Open Access
4. Open Education
5. Responsible Research Assessment.

 

The largest research funding instruments are the core financing and grants, allocated from the State budget through the budget of the Ministry of Education and Research, under the administration and responsibility of the Estonian Research Council.

 

On a regular basis, the following research grants can be applied for:

• Postdoctoral grants, starting grants, and team grants are aimed at supporting high-quality basic or applied research projects carried out at the Estonian R&D institutions.
• Proof-of-concept grants are aimed at supporting the implementation of experimental development projects at the Estonian R&D institutions.

 

Starting from 2017 it was required that grant applications indicated how the applicant would manage the data obtained during the project. Submitting of data management plans will be required in the future. 

Horizon 2020 was an EU Research and Innovation Programme for supporting research and development and international cooperation. The budget of the programme for 2014-2020 was about €77 billion and it supported excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. In the framework of this programme, the EU  initiated pilot projects where data management and making it open were mandatory and receive separate funding. 

In the end of 2020 the EU institutions reached a political agreement on next  research and innovation framework programme running from 2021-2027, Horizon Europe. The programme was launced on February the 2nd 2021 and it will have a budget of around €95.5 billion.

The OpenAIRE programme, launched in 2009, applied the open access policy of Horizon 2020. It was the main infrastructure supporting the research data pilot programme.

Starting from 2017, all the research results (articles and underlying data) of projects funded by European Commission, are open by default.

University of Tartu Library is the OpenAIRE NOAD in Estonia.

The Estonian Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

Following the exhaustive discussions with researchers of all UT faculties, the UT Centre of Ethics has drawn up the document The Estonian Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. On 1 November 2017, 21 Estonian research institutions, the Estonian Research Council and the Ministry of Education and Research adopted the principles of this initiative.

This document includes a chapter Conduct of Research, discussing the principles of analysis of research data in accordance with the principles of Open Science.