Funding Opportunities
The cornerstone of research funding is made up of baseline and targeted funding allocations from the national budget, which are distributed between the country's research institutions and units annually. Grants from the Estonian Science Council and from national research programmes, also financed from the national budget, represent important supplementary sources of research funding.
Funding is also available from numerous national and international project schemes and co-operation schemes involving both the public and the private sector. Research and development funding can be obtained for specific purposes from EU structural funds (building and renovation of infrastructure, centres of excellence, preliminary and applied research, various mobility programmes, environmental studies andICT development). Support for international research projects is also available under the Seventh Framework Programme.
The instruments of financing Estonian research and development activities:
- base financing;
- research grants;
- national science programmes;
- financing of centres of excellence and doctoral schools;
- covering the expenses of research and development infrastructure.
International research and development cooperation programmes and partnerships of the European Union:
- Joint Technology Initatives (JTI);
- Contractual public and private sector partnerships (cPPP);
- Joint programmes based on article 185;
- Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI);
- Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC);
- ERA-Net cooperation networks;
- European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST);
- Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME).
More information can be found on the webpage of Ministry of Education and Development
Grant Office
Grant Office is a support unit of the University of Tartu that helps researchers, teaching staff and students to find and apply for grants for both research and the development of teaching.
The office centrally coordinates the processing of the university’s research and development projects and offers support services that help to increase the capacity to involve external funding and the success of research and development activities. The office also contributes to forming the policies of Estonian and international research and development activities by actively participating in the reinforcement of research communication and the networks of universities.
Within the university, the assistance given by the Grant Office ranges from finding the sources of funding to the central administration of projects as well as counselling in different stages. As one of its services, the office helps to write project applications, and provides support in participating in international research and innovation partnerships.
For more information for UT employees, see the University of Tartu intranet.