The history of Estonian participation in COST
Founded in 1971, COST is Europe’s oldest intergovernmental cooperation in the field of science and technology. Estonia became the 29th member to join COST, alongside Malta and Romania, with membership being officially approved at the COST Ministerial Conference on 27 May 1997, hosted in Prague, Czech Republic.
As a widening country, Estonia has shown strong support for COST and the COST framework, notably during its Presidency of the Council of the European Union but also in more recent discussions and forums. The education system of Estonia is also notable for its high quality standards; in the 2018 OECD PISA International Study on Student Assessment, Estonia ranked first among European countries in reading, mathematics, and science.
Over the last 25 years researchers and innovators from Estonia have benefited from the many networking opportunities offered by COST Actions. Since 1997 Estonian participation in COST has grown year on year and to date 593 COST Actions have benefited from Estonian participation.
“It is wonderful to celebrate such a milestone in COST’s history and impressive to see that Estonian researchers have made over 100,000 connections with others in the R&I community thanks to their participation in COST Actions. Here’s to the next 25 years of Estonian participation!”
Prof Alain Beretz, President of the COST Association
Estonia facts and figures
Discover below a variety of facts and figures on the history of Estonian involvement and the status of Estonia in COST today.
During Horizon 2020, the involvement of Estonian researchers in COST Actions increased substantially: in 2014, Estonia was involved in 46% of COST Actions whereas by 2021, this number grew to 77% of Actions.
Of particular note, from 2016 to 2021 there were 17 confirmed successful spin-off projects with an Estonian principal investigator, with a total value of 17,658,363 Euros. One particular example is the Estonian-led Horizon 2020 project ‘Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography in Distributed Ledgers‘ which is a spin-off of COST Action ‘Cryptography for Secure Digital Interaction‘ (2014-2018).
Since 2014:
2803 Estonian participations in networking activities
120 Training Schools and Short-term Scientific Missions (STSMs) hosted in Estonia
87 meetings organised in Estonia
2,378,393 Euros provided to Estonian researchers and organisers
104,112 connections made by Estonian researchers
Estonia in COST today:
433 Management Committee and Working Group members from Estonia…
of which 119 are young researchers.
186 Actions with Estonian participation.
19 Estonian researchers in leadership positions….
of which 11 are women.
“The Estonian research community greatly respects and values COST. We have conducted several studies on the importance of COST for Estonia. Based on the answers it turned out that the most valued outcomes of COST were cooperation in the field of research (83%), improving the capacity of international cooperation (80%), and finding new partners (78%).”
Ülle Must, former COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) member and COST National Coordinator (CNC) for Estonia (2001-2018).
What does the research community have to say?
The longer I am a CNC the more I admire how well devised the COST tools are to realise the ideal of research without borders. The long history of COST proves that its tools are fulfilling the purpose that they were devised for. They have been invaluable for a small and somewhat remote country like Estonia
I am delighted that Estonian researchers have embraced COST’s opportunities. The role and meaning of COST for Estonia is demonstrated by the ever growing numbers of Estonian participants in COST Actions, the many publications that have resulted, the number of networking activities with Estonian participation.
COST is not just about research and bridging borders within the field of research. It is also about bringing together research and society, research and arts, research and business – to realise the ideal of research without borders in the broadest sense. COST Actions are also about creative encounters between academic and non-academic worlds. I always recommend to seize the opportunities that COST participation offers: to any researcher, and particularly to the younger ones. In a perfect world, each and every young researcher would have their ‘COST opportunity’.
Karin Kello, COST National Coordinator (CNC) for Estonia
Celebrating 25 years of Estonia
To celebrate, the Estonian Research Council, together with COST and the Estonian Academy of Sciences organised a dedicated event in Tallinn on 16 May 2022 to mark the 25th anniversary of Estonia’s participation in COST. Participants discussed what has been the importance of COST for Estonia, and how it has changed over time. The conference also looked back at Estonia’s participation and discussed future directions. How do COST networks contribute to collaboration between researchers and society? Could and should active participation in COST be supported better?
More information
Dedicated website on 25 years of Estonia in COST as prepared by the Estonian Research Council
More information on Estonia as a COST Member