Estonian University of Life Sciences Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Polli Horticultural Research Centre is a practical basis for provision of horticultural education in fruit science for the students: introducing the diversity of cultivars and fruit crops, experiments in fruit gardens, and supervision of post-graduate students, and applicants for doctor's degree.

Polli has a suitable site with characteristic soil and climate in South Estonia which belongs to one of the best region for fruit growing in the republic. The main directions of the research are the following:

• Breeding of apple, pear, plum, sweet cherry, currant, gooseberry, and raspberry new cultivars.
• Scientific research on fruit and berry cultivation technologies, plant protection, and organic gardening.
• Introducing new cultivars for fruit and berry production in Estonia; testing them for evaluation of their perspective for cultivating.
• Investigation of new fruit and berry crops.
• Breeding of apple vegetative rootstocks.
• Preservation, study, and use of the gene pool of fruit and berry varieties bred in Estonia.
• Evaluation of the yield and quality of fruit and berry crops, including the determination of content of bioactive compounds.