Science

We tend to think of Estonian science, not only in terms of the research carried out here in Estonia, but also when Estonians do research abroad. On the 2-kroon note we see the head of Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876), the founder of embryology and an expert in evolution science, who was born in northern Estonia, spent the majority of his productive years in Königsberg and Saint Petersburg, but returned to spend his declining years in Estonia.

Another scientist we claim as our own is Ernst Öpik (1893-1985) who fled to the West following the second Soviet invasion in 1944 and thereafter worked in Northern Ireland and the USA. We can also mention the psychologist, with memory as his special field, Endel Tulving (born 1927), who worked at the University of Toronto and elsewhere.

While some scientists have left our shores, others have come here and made Estonia their home. One of the most famous scientists in the humanities of the 20th century is the semioticist Yuri Lotman (1922-1993) who fled Leningrad during a Soviet campaign of anti-Semitism and founded the School of Cultural Semiotics at the University of Tartu.

The lion's share of scientific research was and still is conducted at the University of Tartu. Its heyday was in the 19th century when scientists of international standing worked there, such as the neuro-surgeon Ludvig Puusepa (1875-1942) and the economist and urban geographer Edgar Kant (1902-1978). During Soviet times, research was concentrated at the research institutes belonging to the Academy of Sciences whilst university staff were required to do more teaching than research. Nowadays, research is carried out primarily at the universities, the Academy of Sciences and at various institutions run by the state, while a number of research centres are supervised by ministries.

During the last dozen or so years, there have been widespread changes in Estonian science. The enforced isolation of half a century has ended. The country has freed itself from an exclusively Marxist approach in the humanities and social sciences. Research institutes have been integrated with the universities. The emphasis of financing has shifted to more project-based research. Results of scientific research are now published in international publications.

Since most Estonian research is supported by the state there are two challenges arising which are interlinked: how to sell the results of research to the private sector and how to attract private capital to the financing of scientific activities.

In a small country not every sector can bear fruit on a large scale but most fields of science are none the less represented in Estonia. Key areas are the technology used to build a user-friendly information society, bio- and genetic technology and its applications plus innovative industrial technology.

Fostering projects in areas such as Estonian culture, the environment, the social sphere and security remains important. In these areas high quality and good results are expected; ones which will attract the attention of the world at large.