Estonian Research Council is a governmental foundation that was established on the basis of Estonian Science Foundation and combined with Research Cooperation Centre, a department from Archimedes Foundation acting as 7th Framework Programme National Contact Point.  Estonian Research Council was established to concentrate the funding of R&D and guarantee better functioning of financing systems. Estonian Research Council will be the main funding organization of R&D, consolidating different grants and types of funding and giving research more visibility in the society.

The main functions of the Estonian Research Council will be executed by the following departments:

Grants and programmes department will be responsible for the distribution of institutional and personal grants and handling of grant applications. Grants and programmes department will include several national programmes for research – Health R&D programme, Environmental Conservation and Environmental Technology R&D Programme and Estonian Research Infrastructures Roadmap activities.

Analysis department will assess grants’ effectiveness, availability of research information and monitor intellectual property creation and usage.

International research cooperation department will be acting as National Contact Point for Framework programme, offer counseling of 7. Framework Programme and Horizon 2020. Estonian Research Council will coordinate participation in the COST network and counseling of mobile researchers through the EURAXESS network. Estonian Research Council will be also responsible for cooperation with European Science Foundation, coordination of BONUS, ERA-NET, EUROCORES and other International bi- and multinational cooperation programmes.

Science Communication Department is running with wide variety of science communication activities in close cooperation with Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, Estonian National Broadcasting and Estonian Society of Science Journalists. The department is handling 9 state financed nationwide science communication programmes addressing everybody from young people to general public including contest for Estonian Science Communication Award, production of 2 science programmes in Estonian National Television, Media Campaign promoting career options in Science and Technology for young people etc.  For last 4 years the department has organized national conferences on Science and Media. Department is also coordinating Estonian Year of Science 2011/2012 what is an umbrella for  more than 200 science communication activities happening through the school year all over the country.

Estonian Research Council is the authorized processor of the Estonian Research Information system that is the information channel for submitting and processing grant applications and for submitting and confirming project reports. The Council also acts as the help-desk to the Estonian Research Information System.