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“The basis of both the institutional reform as well as the new development plan is to support the development and amount of research in the university,” says Katrin Niglas, the vice-rector for research. Due to the general nature of Estonian research, the researchers are in an unstable and competition filled state, she finds. This, however, is not the way Tallinn University would like it to be.

On the one hand, the university supports giving a larger proportion of research funding directly to the universities, while on the other hand we are trying to reach a solution, which would support the development of research in the current system as well.

Many important agreements have been made within the university, yet the senate has not confirmed the final norms. Niglas mentioned establishing research centres with their own leadership and budget within existing larger academic units as a priority. In this scenario, the researchers within a centre form a “small family”, which at the same time is incorporated into a “large family” developing the focus field.

“That small family is more motivated to apply for grants and overlooking that the number of researchers involved in projects would increase, also that the researchers at the centre would have a sustainable cooperation within projects,” she said.

Even though most of the money for research comes through successful grant applications, the new financing system gives the university the chance do decide over how and where to use the state funds. Many agreements concerning research support have therefore been made across the university during the process of creating the new inter-university financial planning model.

For example, a working group proposed that activity support will cover the general costs, while every unit gets to decide on covering the overhead costs. We are also currently discussing continuing the universal funding research as well as raising the pay of professors to keep them motivated to work on grants for the benefit of the university, etc.

The measures and facilities for developing our focus fields can be associated with the institutional reform, as well. “I mean hereby the agreement to fund the focus field centres of excellence from the university research fund, which in turn will be funded by an institutional grant. All in all we plan to invest around €625,000 per focus field,” Niglas explains.

The vice-rector for research also believes that the new development plan and the concept of the institutional reform was a big step toward receiving the €2,4 Million grant from the ERA Chair funds, which helps to create the centre of excellence for education innovation.

In every Weekly, one question about the new development plan or structure will be answered. Please send your questions to sulev.oll@tlu.ee