1 Purpose of the regulation

1.1 The legal act sets out the purpose, activities, main responsibilities, management, composition of the research groups of the Estonian Maritime Academy (hereinafter referred to as “EMERA”), management of its property in cooperation with the Infrastructure Centre and funding of its activities.

2 Scope of the regulation

2.1 The legal act applies to the organisation of EMERA’s research and development activities (hereinafter referred to as “R&D activities”) and the persons or units that participate in solving matters regarding the management and development of research in EMERA.

3 Basis of the regulation

3.1 Structure of the Estonian Maritime Academy;

3.2 Statutes of the Estonian Maritime Academy;

3.3 Strategic Research and Development Areas of Tallinn University of Technology;

3.4 Statutes of Tallinn University of Technology;

3.5 Estonian Code of Conduct for Research Integrity;

3.6 Regulation of the Government of the Republic Standard of Higher Education;

3.7 Organisation of Research and Development Act

4 Definitions and abbreviations

4.1 “university” means Tallinn University of Technology;
4.2 “research group” means a part of EMERA that conducts R&D activities and cooperates with the research groups of other departments of the university;
4.3 “doctoral student” means a student enrolled in a doctoral study programme, incl. industrial doctoral students.

5 General provisions

5.1 A research group is a unit included in EMERA structure.
5.2 The name of the research group in English is Research Group.
5.3 EMERA’s research groups are established, reorganised, approved and its activities are terminated by the Director of EMERA.
5.4 The compositions of interdepartmental (incl. EMERA) research groups and changes to the compositions shall be approved by the heads of all the participating departments in the system managed by the university’s Research Administration Office.
5.5 Research groups may form consortia, which must have a clearly identifiable head, members, academic output and funding.

6 Purpose, activities and main responsibilities

6.1 The purpose of EMERA’s R&D activities is to carry out high-level research in the maritime field, to raise the next academic generation and to ensure novelty, development and sustainability of research in the field.
6.2 The aim of the research groups is to ensure the achievement of EMERA’s strategic goals in compliance with the requirements of international and national legislation.
6.3 The research groups contribute to the following university’s strategic R&D area: Smart maritime sector and sustainable marine environment.

6.4 A research group is a body led by the head of the research group and characterised by the following:
6.4.1 the group has a general overview of the developments and needs in the maritime sector, information is collected and analysed with the aim of contributing to the development of the economic sector and the education sector, innovation and cooperation;
6.4.2 R&D project proposals (including contracts with private and public sector) are prepared on the initiative and under the guidance of the head of the research group;
6.4.3 R&D activities are carried out in accordance with the funding agreements;
6.4.4 scientific articles are published;
6.4.5 students and doctoral students are supervised in order to ensure the next academic generation.

6.5 The main responsibilities of the research groups are the following:
6.5.1 initiation and implementation of research, development and innovation projects and contracts;
6.5.2 cooperation with public sector institutions, companies, professional associations and society;
6.5.3 publishing and disseminating research results, applying for and managing patents;
6.5.4 planning and proposing of doctoral thesis topics, and supervision of doctoral students;
6.5.5 participation in teaching (incl. in continuing education courses) and the development of studies;
6.5.6 participation in the development of research and education infrastructure, seeking funding opportunities and using the infrastructure to conduct research;
6.5.7 involving academic and non-academic staff and students in research.

7 Management and composition

7.1 A research group is composed of researchers partially or fully funded by projects and contracts, post-doctoral researchers and doctoral students, as well as senior lecturers and lecturers. As a rule, a doctoral student is a member of the same research group as the supervisor of the doctoral student.
7.2 The membership of non-academic staff in a research group shall be confirmed, where necessary, by their immediate superior.
7.3 A research group is led by the head of the research group who is, as a rule, a tenured/tenure-track professor or any other professor or member of the academic staff (leading and senior researcher, research professor or any other member of leading research staff), who has independent research topics/funding sources.
7.4 The head of a research group is responsible for planning and organising the work of the group, supporting its members, developing and training their research skills, and ensuring the next generation of researchers in the field.

8 Organisation and evaluation of the work of research groups

8.1 A research group shall draw up an action plan and set performance targets that ensure sustainability and follow EMERA’s strategy and action plan. An action plan shall be drawn up for a period of up to five years.
8.2 At the beginning of each calendar year, the heads of the research groups shall analyse implementation of the research group’s action plan and submit a review to the Research and Development Director, together with proposals for changes in the action plan, if necessary.
8.3 A research group shall submit an annual activity report to the Research and Development Director using the university’s report template. The activity report is an input to the university annual R&D report.
8.4 To ensure the correctness of the data, all members of a research group shall have an updated CV in the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS ) and a profile in the ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID ) environment.
8.5 The work of a research group shall be governed by the Estonian Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.
8.6 The work procedure of a research group shall be governed by the rules of the funders of research contracts.

9 Performance indicators

9.1 The university and EMERA collect performance indicators from databases.
9.2 In order to assess performance, the following indicators of R&D activity are used: publication, income from R&D contracts, effectiveness of doctoral studies, intellectual property.
9.2.1 The Scopus database is used to analyse publication data. The publications of all the members involved in the work of the research group in the corresponding year and related to the university are taken into account.
9.2.2 The data on the financing of R&D activities are based on the university’s accounting data. The accrued revenue of projects/contracts that are part of EMERA’s budget is taken into account.
9.2.3 The effectiveness of doctoral studies is assessed on the basis of data of the study information system. The indicator is based on the number of doctoral theses supervised as the principal supervisor.
9.2.4 Data on patent applications and patents are obtained from the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS).

10 Property and financing

10.1 The laboratories, their appliances, equipment, premises and other property made available to the research group are the university’s property, which shall be used and managed in cooperation with the Infrastructure Centre.
10.2 The research group’s property shall be managed and used in compliance with the Statutes of the Estonian Maritime Academy, the university’s Work Procedure Rules and other documents governing work.
10.3 The research groups have budgets, which is part of EMERA’s budget.
10.4 The head of a research group is the authorising person responsible for the budget resources of the research group.
10.5 The head of a research group is responsible for ensuring that the use of the contractual funding meets the requirements of the funder.

11 Executors and liability

11.1 The following persons are responsible for the execution of the process:
11.1.1 Management of the legal act – Research and Development Director;
11.1.2 Implementation of the legal act, organisation of its execution and monitoring – Quality Manager.