Bringing home the trophy The Estonian Biocentre (EBC), part of a regional Centre of Excellence (CoE), invested EU funds to attract and train human capital. Unique programmes for the recruitment of scientists led to an impressive list of publications. Health © Thinkstock Established in 1986 as an independent public research institute, the EBC promotes research and technological development (RTD) related to gene and cell technologies. Since joining the EU in 2004, Estonia has been avidly updating and upgrading its research programmes. EU structural funding has made possible radical changes in the EBC research infrastructure. Success in the international arena requires having internationally recognised leaders at the helm supported by teams of well trained young scientists. With EU funding of the ECOGENE project, the EBC were able to invest in human capital with impressive results. Funding was used to attract new researchers from abroad as well as to tap underused or lost potential. In the latter case, ECOGENE issued three repatriation grants to carefully selected candidates working in the United States and other countries. Six grants were also issued to women returning from child leave to regain competence. The grants supported proposals that included attending conferences, study visits, purchasing books or any other relevant retraining activity. Project resources were also used for short two-way study visits in response to late-breaking research results and to collaborate on filing joint grant applications where appropriate. In addition, six post-doctoral fellows, six junior scientists and two senior researchers were recruited to the EBC and supported by ECOGENE funds. The EBC developed its human potential admirably by attracting Estonians and international researchers. No doubt exists regarding the heightened international visibility and status of the EBC as a result of the more than 60 publications in internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed scientific journals. Additionally, the EBC in partnership with the University of Tartu has been named a CoE in Genomics with EU funding for the seven-year period 2008–2015. ECOGENE funding enabled the development of human capital at the EBC to exploit important infrastructure upgrades. Project outcomes are certain to make important impact on the Estonian research community, the global genetics research community and the public at large from application of research results.
