Public activities

The Centre’s work with the public has become especially diversified. One of the Centre’s goals is to raise society’s consciousness with respect to questions of ethics, and to involve the general public in the discussion of values and norms.

By organising conferences and seminars the Centre for Ethics has helped provoke discussion on many questions of social importance. For example, we have inaugurated an annual conference series entitled “In search of common values”. In December of each year, the Centre for Ethics also holds a conference on value education, where we focus on the experience of value education in another country.

The main public activities are:

• At the initiative of the Centre for Ethics, and with the support of UNESCO, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and Tartu University, we have launched Ethics in Estonia portal on the internet, which also functions as an ethics database. Through the ethics website it is possible to gather information on the different subfields of ethics, including published articles, regulations, courses offered, case studies, ethics codices, ethics committees, and institutions involved in research and teaching about ethics.
• Nationwide initiative, “Value Development in Estonian Society, 2009–2013”, launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. The programme ended in 2024.
• The Centre for Ethics has also conducted ethical expert analyses of legislation in progress. The most extensive study of this kind was commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Estonia concerning the digital medical history project.
• In addition, the Centre for Ethics has ongoing cooperation with the Estonian Bioethics Council, the health information systems ethics committee at the Social Ministry, the Tartu University Human Subjects Research Committee, and the Tartu University Clinic Ethics Committee.
• The Centre provides various seminars and training about research ethics and integrity to universities and other organisations.
• Associates of the Centre for Ethics have spoken out in the print media, radio, and television. We have also held values conferences aimed at the general public, radio broadcasts, and published a range of books for a general readership.