Pilvi Ilves and Tiina Tamm were nominated for the portal of leading women researchers AcademiaNet

This year, the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) nominated 13 Estonian researchers to be added to the portal of leading women researchers AcademiaNet. Nominees from the University of Tartu are Tiina Tamm, the Head of the Chair of Molecular Biology and Professor of Molecular Biology, and Pilvi Ilves, the Head of the Department of Radiology and Associate Professor of Radiology. 

The portal aims to highlight successful women researchers and raise their international profile. The portal is also a good tool for finding experts, speakers, academic staff and project partners also among Estonian researchers.  

Since 2018, ETAG has submitted 214 nominees for the AcademiaNet portal. Besides Tiina Tamm and Pilvi Ilves, this year's Estonian nominees include Liina Kamm, Katrin Männik, Triin Roosalu, Inge Timoštšuk, Elle-Mari Talivee, Kristi Viiding, Mall Leinsalu, Jelena Kallas, Geda Paulsen, Liisi Piits and Merrit Shanskiy. 

"Nomination to AcademiaNet is a public recognition of our women researchers for their outstanding academic work to date," said Marten Juurik, Head of the Unit of Research Integrity at ETAG. According to Juurik, the portal's activities encourage top researchers to reach leading academic positions and decision-making bodies, and being listed on AcademiaNet will hopefully give an additional boost to the nominees' research careers. 

Nominees were selected based on the researchers' success in applying for national group grants and international funding, and in collaboration with positively evaluated research institutions, who could also submit their own nominations according to AcademiaNet criteria. 

Currently, the AcademiaNet portal features more than 4,300 researchers, mostly from Europe. The portal is coordinated by the Swiss National Science Foundation, whose partners and nominators are national academies of sciences and research funding organisations. 

Further information:
Merili Tamson 
Coordinator, Estonian Research Council 
Merili.Tamson@etag.ee