Under a government decision, the Ministry of Culture's research and development funding, totaling approximately €900,000, will be transferred to the Ministry of Education and Research's budget starting in 2028.
The transfer means that, starting in 2028, the Ministry of Culture will no longer hold funding rounds for creative research, nor will it have research and development funding in its budget to support museum research projects.
The decision stems from a proposal by Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) to channel ministries' research and development funding through the Ministry of Education and Research's strategic research program.
The explanatory memorandum accompanying the regulation indicates that although the funding will formally pass through the Ministry of Education and Research's budget, the Ministry of Culture will retain its own "quota" and decision-making authority to support strategic objectives and research projects within its area of responsibility, including museums. Nevertheless, the transfer of research funding to the Ministry of Education and Research has sparked discontent, particularly among Estonian museums, which have been among the main beneficiaries of these funds.
"This is incredibly bad news and the wording is utterly hopeless. This research funding has been absolutely vital to the Art Museum of Estonia in recent years, supporting virtually all the more substantial parts of our exhibition and publication programs. Now we're supposed to maneuver our way back under the umbrella of universities and convince them that exhibitions and creative research also count as research," Kumu Director Kadi Polli wrote on social media.
Mariann Raisma, director of the University of Tartu Museum, is also unhappy with the plan but remains hopeful that an exception will be made for the Ministry of Culture's area of responsibility when research funding is allocated.
"I still very much hope that this decision is not final. We have a regular meeting of the Museum Council coming up at the end of the month where we will meet with the minister of culture and I sincerely hope that there is still some way to reverse this decision," Raisma told ERR.
According to Raisma, the regulation's entry into force would be very bad news for Estonian museums, which fear that this much-needed funding will effectively disappear for them in the future. One major concern is that the new funding scheme sets a relatively high minimum grant of €150,000 per year for projects lasting two to four years, while museums need grants roughly one-tenth that size.
"Another thing I would highlight about this funding, which was particularly good, is that the amounts awarded were not very large. We weren't distributing hundreds of thousands of euros; instead, the grants made it possible to carry out smaller projects. That suits museums particularly well. Of course, the total amount of funding wasn't very large either, but it has certainly been extremely important for museums," Raisma told ERR.
"We carried out several very important research projects that enabled museums and research institutions to work together on topics for which funding would otherwise not have been available," Raisma said.
Ministry adviser: We'll lose flexibility and some projects will be discontinued
Viivian Jõemets, research adviser at the Ministry of Culture, is also concerned about several aspects of the new funding allocation system. She likewise noted that the program requires projects that are too large for the cultural sector's current capacity.
"The annual budget of €150,000 per project required under the new rules — amounting to at least €300,000 over two years — is unreasonably large for a museum. Current projects at our museums with nationwide responsibilities and research obligations, as well as the National Library, range from €40,000 to €70,000, depending on whether it is a large or small museum," Jõemets said.
According to Jõemets, building research capacity on this scale takes time and cannot be accomplished in a single year. "In the cultural sector, it is simply not possible to immediately develop projects with budgets this large in several important research areas," she added.
"Another concern is that the Ministry of Culture's total sector-specific research funding amounts to approximately €800,000. If we distribute it among smaller groups, each museum can develop something — activities take place and progress is made. But if we allocate very large sums to just three projects across our entire area of responsibility, what happens to all the other important areas of research?" Jõemets asked.
"What will happen to the research areas we have developed so far, such as efforts to advance research at the Art Museum of Estonia and the study of musical heritage? Under the strategic research regulation, it is unclear how we can continue developing our fields in these circumstances," she added.
Jõemets noted that other questions also remain unanswered. For example, if no applications are submitted for a particular research area simply because there are no potential applicants, it is unclear what will happen to that funding within the Ministry of Education and Research's budget.
"But if those funds remained in the Ministry of Culture's budget, we could flexibly reallocate them to other important activities," she added.
Jõemets emphasized that the government's decision to channel sector-specific research funding through the strategic research program affects all ministries and that the Ministry of Culture was granted a one-year extension compared with the others.
"I hope that in the near future there will be an assessment of the successes and shortcomings of the reform of sector-specific research funding, weighing its advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps a new government will want to revisit this decision. For now, however, transferring sector-specific research funding from the Ministry of Culture's budget to that of the Ministry of Education and Research remains the current government's decision," Jõemets said.
Jõemets does not have to worry about losing her position.
"My position at the Ministry of Culture will not be eliminated as part of this reform. Even now, funding rounds for the Ministry of Culture's research programs are administered by the Estonian Research Council under regulations issued by the minister of culture and there will be no significant change in that regard. The only change concerns where and how flexibly we can allocate sector-specific research funding and we will have to operate under a regulation issued by the minister of education and research," she said.
"Not all of the Ministry of Culture's current research activities will be able to continue under this regulation," Jõemets concluded.
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