National Research Awards

The tradition of national science prizes began in the early 1990s. It is older than our newly independent state. On 20 August 1990, Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar signed the regulation on founding the national research awards of the Republic of Estonia. Independence was regained a year later. The first awards were granted in 1991. From the very beginning, brilliant or extraordinary achievements have been in focus.

The Estonian state has delegated the pre-selection of laureates of national research awards to the Academy of Sciences. This means helping to draft the rules, announcing the competition, reviewing and registering applications, then analyzing them in depth and communicating the Academy’s recommendations on awarding or non-awarding of prizes to the government. The award committee is set up by the Government of the Republic.

Contact and additional information: Terje Tuisk, terje.tuisk@akadeemia.ee

National Research Awards are granted to Estonian researchers and research teams for outstanding results in research and development.

The proposals should be submitted electronically in the Academy of Sciences Competitions e-environment by 10 December 2025.

AWARD CATEGORIES

  1. Lifetime achievement award for long-term excellence in research and development (up to 1 awards, 65 000 euros).
  2. Annual awards to highlight the best research or research cycles completed and published within the last four years (2022–2025, up to 8 awards, á 20 000 euros) in the following fields:
    1) Natural Sciences
    2) Engineering and technology
    3) Medical and health sciences
    4) Agricultural and veterinary sciences
    5) Social Sciences
    6) Humanities and the arts
    See Frascati Manual fields of research
  3. Award for a Scientific Discovery impacting the paradigm and world view of the respective scientific field or pioneering a new field of science, or an invention or research and development based on a scientific discovery that has led to an innovative product with a significant socio-economic impact (up to 1 award, 50 000 euros).

Candidates for the award can be nominated by the:

  • Academic councils of the research and development institutions, universities and evaluated universities of applied sciences
  • Members of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
  • Council of Estonian Young Academy,
  • Estonian Employers’ Confederation, Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Estonian Service Industry Association.

When nominating the research teams the scientific contribution of all members of the team must be clearly determined in the proposal.

Researchers and research teams who have previously been granted the annual award can be re-nominated for the annual award not before than ten years after the award was given.

Parts of the research cycle that has received the annual award can not be re-used as part of research cycles to be nominated for the annual award in subsequent years.

Additional information: akadeemia.ee/en/national-research-awards/

MATERIALS AND DATA TO BE SUBMITTED

  1. Personal and contact data of the candidate/candidates, link to ETIS profile
  2. For the candidate or in the case of team for the team leader Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar number of Publications and citations, h-index (if possible without self-citations), number of granted patents and patent applications. For the team members data of Google Scholar. For candidates of Annual Awards all of the above for the period 2022–2025.
  3. In the case of team the proposal for the division of the prize amount between the members of the working group in the event of a prize being awarded
  4. Data of the person who nominates the candidate
  5. Files
    • Proposal (up to 3 pages)
    • Decision of the organization's governing body
    • CV-s of the candidates (up to 3 pages)
    • List of publications, and/or publications and other materials.

For more details we recommend you familiarize yourself with the application form well in advance before submitting the application. Most of the documents in the category Award for a Scientific Discovery have to be submitted in English.

Contact: Terje Tuisk, terje.tuisk@akadeemia.ee

Key Documents (in Estonian):
Regulation of the Estonian National Research Awards: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/123092025003