Survey was presented in the name of the University of Tartu without the university’s approval

Estonian people have received an invitation from the foundation Pere Sihtkapital to participate in a survey, for which the foundation has used an agreement concluded illegally with the University of Tartu to request people’s data from the population register.

According to the University of Tartu, this spring Pere Sihtkapital approached Raul Eamets, who is a member of the supervisory board of the foundation and the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, with a proposal to make a cooperation agreement with the university which would enable the foundation to request data from the population register for research purposes. The university gave the dean a legal assessment that the university cannot sign such an agreement as the university is not a partner in this research. On 11 August, however, it was revealed that the dean had nevertheless signed the contract, violating procedural restrictions set out in the Anti-corruption Act and the university’s internal procedures, and in breach of the principles of research ethics.

“We regret to admit that the dean has exceeded his authority in signing the agreement although the university as an institution has stated that such agreement must not be concluded,” said Professor Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu. “This is serious misconduct, and the university unequivocally condemns such conduct. We want the people who received the survey invitation to be aware that the survey is not in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, the University of Tartu has no role in conducting the survey, and the University of Tartu Research Ethics Committee has not authorised the survey.”

The rector added that since the university has just become aware of the situation, all facts must be clarified first to decide the university’s next steps.