European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) has been organized since 1989 with the aim of promoting science and research among Europe's youth and bringing together the talented young people across Europe. The young scientists also have the chance to meet others with similar abilities and interests and to be guided by some of the most prominent scientists in Europe. This way EUCYS seeks to strengthen the efforts made in each participating country to attract young people to careers in science and technology. EUCYS has been organized in countries across Europe with the aim of promoting science and research in different countries and bringing research and young talents into spotlight in these countries. Estonia will organize EUCYS for the first time in 2017, but has previous experience in organizing Estonian National contest since 2002 and a Young Scientists Festival with format similar to EUCYS since 2015. The host organizer of EUCYS 2017 will be Estonian Research Council (ETAg) in close cooperation with Estonian Ministry for Education and Research, Estonian Academy of Sciences and Tallinn City Council. EUCYS brings together excellent young researchers from 40-69 countries. During 4 days the participating projects will be interviewed by jury members and decisions about European Union prizes, special prizes and host organization prizes will be made. Some opportunities will be offered to EUCYS participants to get acquainted with Estonian research and Estonian teachers and young researchers will be offered opportunities to meet EUCYS participants.

The international high-level conference will be organised during the Estonian Presidency of the European Union Council in Tallinn in October 2017. The conference aims to demonstrate the impact and value of excellent research to the society and thereby strengthen political commitment to ambitious public investments in research in Europe. It encourages to take a perspective that goes beyond short-term gain, and to develop a long-term vision for European research and innovation policy. Research and innovation are pillars of the Europe 2020 Strategy to put Europe back on the path to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. At the same time, we can observe strong pressure on the research budgets across Europe. The conference has three specific objectives: • Contribute to better communication of the impact and value of bottom-up and interdisciplinary excellent research in increasing EU competitiveness and creating a better future for the society. We want to demonstrate to policy-makers, stakeholders and wider public that excellent bottom-up research is the catalyst of societal development that provides practical solutions for society. • Broaden the understanding on research impact that goes beyond short-term economic stimulus, including impact to policy-making, society, culture and systemic impact. In light of the discussion of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), discuss how the current macroeconomic models could better take into account the longer-term impact and benefits of investments in R&I. • Contribute to the debate on the future of European research policy in the lead-up to the next Framework Programme. The outcome of the EU Presidency conference will be presented in the final declaration Tallinn Call to Action. Tallinn Call to Action is emphasising the importance of excellent research for the future of Europe; it is about changing research and changing Europe.

<< Objectives >>In this project the partners strive to build a collaboration model that art schools can benefit from when planning their international programs. In the model students from different countries will prepare and perform a dance choreography together.We also want to refreshed the idea of arts education. It can be a powerful tool in educating young people not only in the chosen discipline, but also in growing to have their own voice in society.<< Implementation >>The project can be implemented as a whole or partly. We will produce a model which can be implemented as such, but also build pathways for partial implementation when the whole model proves too expencive/laborious to implement for an organization.<< Results >>We hope to see positive results on individual level in the skills and abilities of the students and teachers involved in the project. It is our assumption that the working method selected in this project will produce readiness and resilience in the students’ and teachers’ mental working skills as well as improvement in their dance-related skills. It is our believe that dance can be an excellent tool for boosting self-esteem and social skills needed in multifaceted society.

We propose a teaming partnership between Estonia and Edinburgh University (UK) in the area of IT to advance the global connected digital economy. Edinburgh is the leading IT research School in the UK with an excellent record for innovation and economic impact. Estonian funding agency ETAg is coordinating the partnership involving also the two highest ranked universities in the Baltic States. Estonian IT research has grown to be interdisciplinary and competitive, succeeding in IT as well as health-IT programmes. This has been achieved through the cultivation of excellence amongst the staff and consistent government policy to utilise structural funds to develop IT research and Innovation in Estonia. Impact of the new CoE will be built on national and global scale by further developing the achievements of Estonia on IT. Estonia has developed IT solutions for e-society utilising electronic identity and signatures, and simple modular communication architecture for service provisioning that have enabled many pioneering solutions from automated tax returns and national e-health platforms to internet voting. Estonia has developed an excellent start-up culture, as reflected by the development of high growth companies in the past decade, including Skype, GrabCAD, Cybernetica etc. Last but not least, Estonia is now a host to two prominent units, the NATO Cyber Defence Centre (CCDCoE, 2008) and the EU Agency for Large-Scale IT systems (EULISA, 2012). All this shows that the environment in Estonia is capable of supporting digital companies to reach “escape velocity” from the local economy and create global impact, as well as in an excellent position to absorb the additional research and training capacity. The envisioned CoE has two primary aims: to synergise and build critical mass in key multidisciplinary IT research areas in Estonia to realise an internationally competitive IT research sector; and to link to the economy to develop a dynamic cluster around IT excellence.