The Estonian R&D and higher education system have undergone profound changes over the last 20 years. The institutional reforms in 1990s, continuous evaluation of R&D activities at various levels, focus on high-quality research, and recent investments into the development of R&D infrastructure have increased the competitiveness of Estonian research and researchers internationally. The presentation will tackle the issues of types, scope and frequency of research evaluations in Estonia, use of “metrics” in research assessment as well as the impact of evaluation outcomes upon the research funding system.