ETIS (Estonian Research Information System) is Estonia’s national platform for research data, researcher profiles, and research-grant administration. It is not related to the EU Emissions Trading System’s registry infrastructure, sometimes also abbreviated ETIS in unrelated contexts, or to any other unrelated system that shares the acronym — this page covers only Estonia’s research-sector system, run by the current research information system (CRIS) family of national research infrastructures.
What ETIS Is
ETIS concentrates information on Estonia’s research and development (R&D) institutions, individual researchers, research projects, and research outputs in a single national system. It was established by Estonia’s Ministry of Education and Research and is operated by the Estonian Research Council (ETAg / Eesti Teadusagentuur), the country’s national research-funding agency. In practical terms, ETIS functions as Estonia’s national CRIS (Current Research Information System): a single system of record that research offices, funders, and individual researchers all use for overlapping but distinct purposes, comparable in role — though not in specific data model or vendor — to national or institutional CRIS platforms such as Pure or VIVO used elsewhere.
Disambiguation: which ETIS is this?
The acronym ETIS is not unique to Estonian research administration. It is also used, in entirely unrelated contexts, for the European Union’s Emissions Trading Information System and for various other national or sector-specific systems that happen to share the initials. If you arrived here looking for emissions-trading registry infrastructure, environmental compliance systems, or any non-research use of "ETIS," this page will not be relevant — it covers exclusively Estonia’s research information and grant-application system, operated by the Estonian Research Council.
Core Functions
ETIS serves several distinct functions within Estonia’s research ecosystem:
- Researcher profiles and CVs. Researchers maintain structured CVs in ETIS, including affiliations, qualifications, and a record of research output — functioning similarly to how an ORCID record aggregates a researcher’s identity and outputs internationally, but scoped to Estonia’s national system and its funding processes.
- Grant application and review. ETIS is the information channel Estonian funding organisations use for submitting, reviewing, and processing research-grant applications. Applicants submit through ETIS; evaluators and funding bodies use it to record decisions and communicate feedback.
- Project and outcome reporting. Grant recipients submit and validate project reports through ETIS, closing the loop between an awarded grant and its accountability requirements.
- R&D institution registry. ETIS maintains a registry of Estonian research and development institutions, which funding bodies use when evaluating institutional eligibility and capacity.
- Research output and publication records. Researchers and institutions record publications and other research outputs in ETIS; some Estonian institutions also use it as their internal research-management system rather than maintaining a separate institutional repository.
Governance and Operation
ETIS was established under Estonia’s Ministry of Education and Research and is currently operated by the Estonian Research Council (ETAg), a state agency headquartered in Tartu with additional offices in Tallinn and Brussels. ETAg is itself Estonia’s principal national research-funding body, distributing personal research funding instruments such as the PSG (Starting Grant) and PRG (Team Grant), and acting as Estonia’s national contact point for Horizon Europe and its EURAXESS bridgehead organisation. ETIS is the operational infrastructure ETAg and other Estonian funders use to run those funding processes, from call to final report.
Who Uses ETIS
Three groups interact with ETIS, each for different purposes:
- Researchers use ETIS to maintain a CV and research profile, submit grant applications, record publications and other outputs, and follow field-related funding news.
- R&D institutions use ETIS to register, publicise their research results, and — for some institutions — manage research administration internally.
- Funding organisations use ETIS to evaluate applicant institutions and proposals, provide feedback, sign funding agreements, and review the reports grant recipients submit.
ETIS and International Researchers
Researchers from outside Estonia who apply for Estonian funding, join an Estonian R&D institution, or participate in an Estonia-based Horizon Europe consortium will typically need an ETIS profile to submit an application or be listed as project personnel, in addition to whatever international identifiers — such as an ORCID iD — they already hold. ETIS and ORCID are not interchangeable: ORCID is a global, portable researcher identifier maintained independently of any national system, while an ETIS profile is specific to participation in the Estonian research and funding ecosystem. Researchers planning to apply through ETAg or another Estonian funder should confirm current ETIS registration requirements directly on etis.ee or etag.ee rather than assume prior international research-system registrations transfer automatically.
ETIS in Context: National CRIS Systems in Europe
ETIS belongs to a broader category of national and institutional research-information systems found across Europe, generally referred to under the umbrella term CRIS (Current Research Information System) or the closely related discipline of RIM (Research Information Management). The European organisation euroCRIS coordinates standards and practice-sharing across this landscape, including the CERIF data-model standard used by many (though not all) CRIS implementations to support interoperability between systems. Estonia’s ETIS is best understood as a national-government-operated CRIS with a funding-administration function built directly into it — a design choice that differs from countries where grant administration and research-output tracking sit in separate systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ETIS the same as the EU Emissions Trading System registry?
No. This page covers Estonia’s national research information and grant-application system, operated by the Estonian Research Council. The acronym ETIS is also used for unrelated systems in other domains, including emissions-trading infrastructure; those are entirely separate systems with no connection to Estonian research administration.
Who operates ETIS?
ETIS was established by Estonia’s Ministry of Education and Research and is operated by the Estonian Research Council (ETAg), Estonia’s national research-funding agency.
Do I need an ETIS profile to apply for Estonian research funding?
Applicants generally submit and manage Estonian research-grant applications directly through ETIS, since it is the information channel Estonian funding organisations use for submissions, review, and reporting. Requirements can vary by funding call, so confirm the specifics on etis.ee or etag.ee before applying.
Does an ORCID iD replace the need for an ETIS profile?
No. ORCID is a global, portable researcher identifier independent of any national system. An ETIS profile is specific to participating in Estonia’s research and funding ecosystem and serves a different, narrower purpose than an ORCID record.
Is ETIS only used for grant applications?
No. Beyond grant applications and project reporting, ETIS also functions as a researcher-CV and publication-record system and as a registry of Estonian R&D institutions.
This page focuses specifically on Estonia’s research information system. For Estonia’s national research-funding agency and its funding instruments, see the CASRAI guide to the Estonian Research Council (ETAg).
