Lennart Meri awards went to Timo Aava and Hegle Pärna

On 21 February, at the Independence Day ceremony in the University of Tartu assembly hall, the recipients of the Lennart Meri award for research and the Lennart Meri award for master’s thesis were announced. The 6,000-euro award for research went to Timo Aava for his doctoral thesis in history, and the 4,000-euro award to Hegle Pärna for her master’s thesis in law.

The Lennart Meri award for research is given to an author or a group of authors for a high-level research paper (incl. a doctoral thesis) dealing with the Estonian state, people, culture or society.

The Lennart Meri award for research 2024 went to Timo Aava. In 2023, Aava defended his doctoral degree in history at the University of Vienna, analysing debates over cultural autonomy and the functioning of this idea, with a focus on Estonia and other European states in the first half of the 20th century. The doctoral thesis helps to better understand why, in 1925, a hundred years ago, the Estonian Parliament adopted the cultural autonomy law, one of the most minority-friendly legislation in interwar Europe. The thesis gives valuable information about the history of national minorities, the Estonian intellectual history and its connections with the rest of Europe.

Timo Aava is happy to receive the award and feels grateful. “I am truly honoured to receive such recognition for my thesis. It is also a great encouragement for me to continue this work. I am thankful to everyone who has supported me with the research,” said Aava.

The Lennart Meri award for master’s thesis is given to an author who has received the grade A for their master’s thesis dealing with the Estonian state, people, culture or society.

The Lennart Meri award for master’s thesis 2024 went to Hegle Pärna. In her master’s thesis, defended at the University of Tartu last year, Pärna studied the development and use of generative artificial intelligence and the related copyright issues. The topic has been particularly relevant in recent years, as the development of generative artificial intelligence involves using large datasets that also contain copyrighted works. However, the clarity of the current legal framework in this area has been lacking.

It is an interdisciplinary master’s thesis in which the author had to apply legal knowledge to a novel social phenomenon. According to Helge Pärna, winning the award will broaden her future opportunities. “Receiving the Lennart Meri award is a great honour and will allow me to further my professional development abroad and gather new ideas for solving bottlenecks in the field of artificial intelligence in Estonia,” said Pärna.

The administrative board of the Lennart Meri research awards fund that chooses the award recipients and organises the activities of the fund comprises (as of 2024) attorney-at-law Jüri Raidla (chair), spouse of the President of the Republic and patron of the University of Tartu Foundation Sirje Karis, entrepreneur Tiit Pruuli, ambassador Jüri Luik, Head of the Domestic Policy Department of the Office of the President of the Republic Erki Holmberg, Professor in Animal Ecology Tuul Sepp and Rector of the University of Tartu Toomas Asser.

“All submitted research papers met the objective of the fund – to recognise and value research on the Estonian state, people, culture or society and contribute to the quality of research. Submissions came from a wide range of research fields, significantly increasing the value of the competition,” said Jüri Raidla, chair of the administrative board of the fund. According to Raidla, many applicants had probably had Lennart Meri’s activities in mind, which is why the competition attracted a large number of entries from the fields of history, culture, Estonian language and literature, state and law.

The Lennart Meri research awards fund was created in 2007 in memory of Lennart Meri, the first President of the Republic of Estonia after regaining independence and a former patron of the University of Tartu Foundation.