Rector’s Welcome

Prof. Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu

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The 25th anniversary of the Centre for Ethics University of Tartu provides an opportunity to reflect on the Centre’s work and significance both within the university and in Estonian society more broadly. Over a quarter of a century, the Centre has developed into an internationally recognised interdisciplinary hub, where philosophical analysis is combined with expertise from other fields of research and with questions emerging in society.

Many of today’s challenges go beyond a single academic discipline. Climate change, population ageing, health technologies, the use of big data, and artificial intelligence all involve scientific questions that are intertwined with technological, legal, social and ethical choices. Solutions must be sought through cross-disciplinary collaboration, taking into account diverse perspectives and a willingness to assume shared responsibility. The Centre’s 25 years of work demonstrate that ethical issues must be considered at the stage when new knowledge, treatments, or technologies are being developed, not after problems have arisen.

This embodies the idea of universitas: a university is not merely a collection of separate disciplines but a meeting place for diverse knowledge and perspectives. The Centre for Ethics exemplifies this by bringing together, as a consortium, philosophers, physicians, biologists, lawyers, scholars in the humanities and social sciences, computer scientists, and technology experts to address shared challenges. Experience has shown that such collaboration makes it possible to examine ethical questions from multiple angles and arrive at more thoroughly justified solutions.

As a medical scientist, I am particularly able to clearly see the growing importance of medical ethics. New opportunities for preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases also bring complex choices. How can we respect patients’ autonomy and human dignity, protect their privacy, and ensure equitable access to healthcare? While biobanks and personalised medicine, the extensive use of health data, e-health, and the application of artificial intelligence in medicine offer great promise, the implementation of these innovations requires agreement on how patient data are used, on what basis decisions are made, and who bears responsibility for them. In introducing new solutions and making complex treatment decisions, professional expertise and legal regulations alone are not enough. Ethical competence is needed: the ability to recognise conflicts of values, listen to different stakeholders, weigh competing considerations, and take responsibility for decisions made.

The question of ethical responsibility concerns research as a whole. Public trust in research depends not only on the quality of research findings but also on how research is conducted and communicated to society. Under the leadership of the Centre for Ethics, the Code of Ethics of Estonian Scientists and the Estonian Code of Conduct for Research Integrity have been developed, alongside ethics education and advisory services for researchers. This work is particularly important at a time when research is expected to provide rapid answers to highly complex questions, and when trust in knowledge and expertise can no longer be taken for granted.

The Centre for Ethics has participated in numerous international research projects. Collaboration with researchers across Europe and beyond has brought new knowledge and perspectives to Estonia and to Tartu, while also providing opportunities to share Estonia’s experience in biobanking, e-health, research ethics, values education and digital society. The Centre’s standing as a reliable international partner recently received significant recognition when Estonia was selected to host the 10th World Conference on Research Integrity in 2028.

No such development takes place in isolation. The support of the Volkswagen Foundation and the University of Konstanz was crucial in establishing and building the Centre for Ethics. Professor emeritus Jürgen Mittelstraß played a central role in establishing and sustaining this cooperation and has supported the Centre’s development from the very beginning through his advice and reputation. As chair of the international board of trustees, he has helped maintain the Centre’s close ties with the European academic community. Further development has been made possible by European Union research programmes, the Estonian state, the University of Tartu, and numerous other funders and partners. Their support has enabled the Centre to launch new research directions, establish international networks, and share ethics-related expertise beyond the university.

For years, the Centre for Ethics has cooperated with Estonian schools and kindergartens, supporting them in creating values-based organisational cultures, and developed discussion methods that help people understand their own value choices as well as those of others. This way, the Centre has fulfilled one of the university’s most important missions: helping to bring research-based thinking into society and conveying society’s concerns to research and teaching.

I would like to thank all current and former employees of the Centre for Ethics, its students, partners, supporters, members of the council, and members of the international board of trustees. I would like to express my particular gratitude to Professor emeritus Jürgen Mittelstraß for his long-standing support and for his leadership of the centre’s international board of trustees. My heartfelt thanks also go to the centre’s founder and head, Professor Margit Sutrop, whose leadership has transformed the Centre for Ethics into a highly respected centre of expertise over the past twenty-five years.
I wish the Centre for Ethics University of Tartu the courage to continue asking difficult questions and the openness to listen to differing viewpoints. May it continue to have the strength to help shape a society in which scientific and technological development is guided responsibly and with respect for human dignity.