Updated on: 2020-03-30
| Response | |
|---|---|
| Q1A. What arrangements, if any, do you have in place to ensure scientific advice informs national policy and decision making in relation to Covid-19? | On 20 March 2020 the Government Committee tasked with resolving the issues related to events caused by the spread of the COVID-19-causing coronavirus and issues of public health and the economy assembled a scientific advisory board (the Science Council) and confirmed its members. The task of the advisory board is to provide expert information to the Government Committee on the emergency situation. The work of the advisory board is organised by the Government Office and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Entrepreneurial analytics are prepared and statistical advice is shared in co-operation with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Financial Affairs, Government Office, Estonian Tax Board, KredEx, Enterprise Estonia, and Statistics Estonia. |
| Q1B. In what ways, if any, are you coordinating on Covid-19 STI responses at international level? | The head of the Government Committee on the emergency situation, the Prime Minister, meets regularly with his counterparts across Europe. Also, other Ministers have regular contact with their counterparts to discuss best practices and possible solutions. |
| Q2.Do you have dedicated arrangements in place for communicating science advice and for refuting misleading information to the public on Covid-19? | The whole government amplifies the messages of the Science Council formed to address the crisis, and bases all decisions on research-based recommendations. There are parallel information campaigns online and in other forms of media to target different groups in society. Scientists are actively commenting and giving interviews for national media. There are civic society initiatives in social media promoting responsible use of information. |
| Q3. What new STI policy measures, if any, is your country taking to respond specifically to the Covid-19 crisis? | The Estonian Research Council (ETAg) is coordinating collection of information about the need for new research topics and the capabilities of research performing organizations to do the needed research. The quickest way to react is to channel researchers' immediate responses within the framework of existing measures. The planned interventions are divided into short-term fast-line research that provide an up-to-date understanding of the spread of the virus, as well as to help identify the immediate socio-economic effects. This type of research is expected to bring results within a few months. Longer-term research grants are currently being developed – these are more forward looking and will require a longer-term effort. Short-term needs are addressed in the framework of the RITA program (see https://www.etag.ee/en/funding/programme...) through which ETAg has launched an additional call for projects addressing COVID-19. At least two projects (worth approximately 50 000 euros each) will be co-financed (ministries will contribute with 40% of co-financing). Topics will be selected and approved by the scientific advisers of different ministries. The call is open to all R&D institutions. The dedication of more additional funding from structural funds is currently under negotiations with the Ministry of Education and Research. Some of the research groups are working with their international counterparts within existing cooperation networks. |
| Q4A. At national level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | An analytics working group, consisting of analysts from the Ministries of Financial Affairs and Economic Affairs, as well as Bank of Estonia, is modelling the outbreak for the Government, and creating economic scenarios and relevant response measures. The Estonian Research Council has a co-operation platform including the top research managers of research performing organizations. The first meeting for sharing information and discussing possible needed actions and solutions is scheduled for early April. The stakeholders are encouraged to submit Covid-19 related applications to the ongoing open call of the funding program ’Nutikas’. The ERDF-funded program supports companies in commissioning necessary applied research or product development projects from universities or research institutions. The aim is to engage private sector to collaborate with research institutions. The additional budget is yet to be fixed. About the program, see: https://www.etag.ee/en/funding/programme.... |
| Q4B. At international level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | Estonia is participating in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) - such international infrastructures have responded to the pandemic by developing technical solutions to share and coordinate data (genomic, clinical, epidemiological data). Estonian researchers are closely involved in these activities through linked projects. |
| Q5. What novel approaches, if any, is your country using to address the coronavirus crisis (e.g. use of machine learning, open science initiatives boosting access and sharing of data and research results, development and use of prediction models, etc.)? | The Government of Estonia decided to close all educational institutions, except kindergartens, and has applied only digital learning solutions since 16 March. Further information can be found here (incl. FAQ): https://www.hm.ee/en/spread-covid-19-rec.... Moreover, Estonian education technology companies have offered their solutions free of charge for the international community to tackle the crisis (see: https://www.hm.ee/en/news/estonia-offers...). Estonia put together an online hackathon HackTheCrisis (by Acclererate Estonia) to offer solutions on how to use technology for the crisis response and to deal with the post-crisis era. The action was supported by the Ministry of Economics and Communication. Now HackTheCrisis events run by local communities all over the world are popping up to help solve issues for their communities. Other initiatives include: • Salto Growth Camp EMERGE initiative for start-ups; • Share Force One platform for bringing together jobs and jobless in the situation of rapid entrepreneurial changes; • Estonian Statistics Board in cooperation with Positium, a private company preparing mobile positioning solutions, are working out a visual showing information about people’s mobility during the epidemic. The solution is designed to show both everyday short range mobility, to visualize for instance the mobility of quarantined persons, and long range mobility, to visualize, for instance, where participants have moved from an event where it is known that infected people have been. • Non-personalized information about the infected by counties, age and sex is being provided on the Estonian Open Data Platform. |
| Q6A. What impact on the STI system do you anticipate in the short-, medium- and long-term, and what measures are you implementing to address those? | Less mobility and travelling bring with them more remote studying, working and video conferencing via specialised devices and software; more commercial and government services are moving online, and more digitalisation and automated production is occurring in industry. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is continuously observing, encouraging, coordinating and implementing these developments in the Estonian government and enterprises. |
| Q6B. Is support of the STI system part of planned stimulus packages aimed at supporting the economy? | Government support in the form of financial instruments (guarantees and warranties) for enterprises has been declared and is being implemented, as well as support for the workforce (e.g. through withholding taxes and providing direct wage support) – it is expected to support start-up businesses, which are both weakly capitalised and have wages as a relatively high share of costs. Stimulus packages will be specifically designed to support not only existing enterprises and economic structures, but also to bring along small behavioural changes in entrepreneurial activity towards investments in knowledge-based capital, and future re-structuration and growth. |
| Q7. Is there anything else regarding the STI policy response to Covid-19 in your country you would like to mention? | [Left blank] |