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History of the Research and Development Council As the predecessor of the Research and Development Council, the Estonian Science Council was founded in 1990 after the Government of the Republic of Estonia reorganised it as an advisory body to the Government to represent different stakeholders and help make decisions regarding research and development activities and higher education. From 1991 to 1993, the President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences was also the Chairman of the Science Council. The members of the Science Council (the Minister of Education and Research, the rectors and Vice Rectors of universities, a number of researchers and representatives of the Estonian Science Foundation and the Innovation Foundation and Informatics Foundation) were appointed by the Prime Minister for a three-year period. In December 1993, after its term of office had expired, the Estonian Science Council was reorganised into a body that became the predecessor of the Estonian Research and Development Council by its composition. The Prime Minister is the Chairman of the Research and Development Council. The tasks and working principles of the Council and the bases for its formation were specified in the Research Organisation Act adopted by the Riigikogu on 15 December 1994, and the statutes of the Research and Development Council (approved by Government of the Republic Regulation No. 63 of 10 February 1995). The new Organisation of Research and Development Act (passed on 26 March 1997) made no significant changes to the working principles of the Research and Development Council and the bases for its formation. On 19 May 2000, a decision was made to reorganise the work of the Research and Development Council, due to a need to make the Research and Development Council’s work more effective and bring it into compliance with present-day requirements. The reorganisation scheme allowed the Research and Development Council to be changed from its mostly academic orientation to a functional orientation so that planned activities could be directed towards satisfying the national demand for domestic research and entrepreneurship on the one hand and increasing their international competitiveness on the other. The principal members of the Research and Development Council meet 2–3 times a year to discuss the most important strategic views and documents. The daily work of the Research and Development Council is done in standing committees (the Research and Innovation Policy Councils), which are responsible for preparing the items on the agenda of the Research and Development Council’s full panel meeting (the research and development strategy, the research and development action plan; preparation of regular reports). The work of the commissions is organised by the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, respectively. The bases of the formation of the Research and Development Council were changed with the corrections to the Organisation of Research and Development Act passed on 10 April 2001. The Prime Minister is still the Chairman of the Research and Development Council, and the tasks and bases of formation of the Council are specified in the last version of the Organisation of Research and Development Act (RT I 1997, 30, 471; 2001, 43, 237). The Research and Development Council consists of twelve members and its membership is approved by the Government of the Republic for up to three years. The membership of the Research and Development Council consists of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Education and Research and the Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications by virtue of office as well as one member of the Government of the Republic appointed by the Prime Minister and eight members appointed by the Government of the Republic. The work of the Research and Development Council is organised by the Strategy Unit of the Government Office. The serving membership of the Research and Development Council was approved on 20 December 2007. |
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