Bill to set R&D funding at 1% by 2022 passes first reading

Baltic News Service 12 October 2019

A bill submitted by the parliamentary group of Estonia’s Social Democratic Party (SDE) seeking to amend the Research and Development Organisation Act has passed its first reading in the Riigikogu, reports the Baltic News Service.

The objective of the bill is to put into law that 1% of gross domestic product be allocated in the state budget for research and development. “Teachers' salaries, higher education and research, I'd say, are investments in the future. And similarly to defence spending, with regard to which we have all agreed that it should be established by legislation, contributing to science, too, merits a special mention in the law by allocating to it 1% of the gross domestic product from 2022," member of SDE Katri Raik said.

The initiators of the bill said that if Estonia lags behind when it comes to R&D financing, its march towards a more knowledge-intensive economy will be hindered. The labour market for researchers is international and the limited financing of research and development will force Estonian researchers to migrate to states where there is more funding.
Full report on the EER site

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