News

A report from the Foresight Centre on the effectiveness of Estonian schools and the factors that shape it shows that the main influence on how effective schools are comes from the socio-economic background of the families of the children in the school and the size of the school.

Ukrainian refugees from the war have integrated in the labour market in Estonia more successfully than they have in those in other countries, but there remains room for improvement in matching the qualifications of those arriving from Ukraine with appropriate jobs concludes a report published today by the Foresight Centre on how Ukrainian refugees have affected employment and the economy.

Experts see digitised cell line development as one of six key deep technologies for Estonia, with a breakthrough expected within the next twenty years. Estonia’s possibilities in this field are mainly linked to pharmaceutical development and personalised medicine, shows the Foresight Centre in its recent brief report “Digitised Cell Line Development: State of Play and Prospects”.

Every year, 1,500 teachers leave Estonian schools either temporarily or permanently, and their resignation constitutes a much more pressing problem than the lack of new teachers coming in. The resignation of one full-time experienced teacher means at least EUR 10,000 in extra costs for the school, shows the fresh brief report of the Foresight Centre “Resignation of teachers”.

The Foresight Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research is beginning to carry out a study on the effectiveness of the school network and schools in Estonia so that we could better understand the challenges involved in the transition to inclusive education and make smart choices when planning the school network in Estonia.

The need for chips will skyrocket in the coming decade and experts are seeing opportunities opening up for Estonian businesses in chip design and verification and the testing of the security of chips, the brief report “Embedded Systems and Chip Technologies: The State of Play and Prospects” by the Foresight Centre reveals.

Hydrogen technology which is waiting for a global breakthrough offers numerous opportunities to Estonia. Estonia has a strong potential in hydrogen production as well as in hydrogen technology research and development and the application of the technology, the Foresight Centre points out in its brief report “The State of Play and Prospects for Hydrogen Technology”.

Estonia’s future economic success depends on the development of green technologies and yet the volume of green investments in Estonia is currently about half of what it should be, concludes the Foresight Centre in its recent report “Green Transition Trends and Scenarios in Estonia”.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of Estonian economy and ensure sustainable development, we need to increase our investments into developing green technologies. Estonia’s weak point is that the state support for research and development in local businesses is inadequate and erratic, shows the Foresight Centre report “Green Transition Trends and Scenarios in Estonia”.

Wood-based bio-products could come to replace oil-based ones, and Estonia has a strong economic potential in bio-refining, both in the stage of research and development as well as production, says the Foresight Centre brief report “Biorefining Wood: Today and in the Future”.