Projects

This Centre of Excellence (CoE) focuses on fostering innovation in resource efficiency, promoting circular economy practices, utilizing local resources, ensuring safe material circulation, and educating researchers to reduce environmental impacts. It centers around four key areas: Strategic Mineral Resources (SMR), Carbon-Based Resources (CBR), Circular Technologies Upscaling (CTU), and Circular Business Eco-System and Modeling (CBEM). The SMR group maps critical materials in waste streams, including renewables, for extraction and reuse while minimizing hazardous waste. The CBR group develops eco-friendly pathways for essential chemicals and plastics, also assessing their environmental impact. The CTU group pioneers waste reduction and recycling methods for aqueous, and solid waste, incl. water purification. The CBEM group analyzes sustainable business ecosystems and value chains. This CoE's interdisciplinary approach will benefit both Estonia and Europe by advancing circular economy.

Driving Climate Positive Futures (DREAM+PLAN), a truly interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral PhD program, uniting European and Australian research via 32 doctoral positions, many for double degree. DREAM+PLAN brings together a community of visionary changemakers, leaders, who dream big and develop tangible pathways for solving local and global climate-related challenges, all united by a mission to create a positive impact, towards a more sustainable, fair, inclusive and thriving planet for future generations. The overarching objectives of DREAM+PLAN research training program is to create and deliver, legacy-worthy, novel, cutting-edge, 3i-centric training through best-practice multi-faceted, group and individual training options for DC’s

The SMAR3TS project arises as a response to climate change and environmental degradation. It orchestrates an ambitious international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral staff exchange program for research and innovation, aimed at accelerating sociotechnical transitions for inclusive and sustainable growth. It actively tackles grand societal challenges that endanger global stability and prosperity, and adversely impact fundamental human needs such as food, mobility, energy, and housing. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, sea-level rise, loss of biodiversity, and disruptions to ecosystems all have far-reaching consequences that transcend borders and require collaboration to develop timely and innovative solutions. SMAR3TS builds a Powerhourse Consortium with amplified network effect by uniting cross-disciplinary expertise of researchers and practitioners from 19 beneficiary partners, and 10 Associate/Third Country Partners working on research excellence through secondments, conferences, workshops, summer schools, knowledge-sharing platforms and activities to transform research outputs into tangible outcomes. United in diversity, SMAR3TS network spearheads innovations across various sectors to support resilient, restorative, and regenerative futures. By leveraging Open innovation strategies, SMAR3TS facilitates knowledge exchange, capacity building, and the co-creation of actionable solutions. By enabling a Quadruple-Helix approach (i.e. university-industry-government-civil society collaboration) and offering advanced training opportunities on research translation, futures thinking, foresight and other necessary tools and techniques, it equips researchers with key skills to design pathways for societal impact. Overall, SMAR3TS pursues a proactive strategy to build a fair, inclusive and regenerating world by collectively advancing science, technology, and innovation, triggering behavioural, organization and policy changes.

The project increases the acceptance and understanding the development of AI based Virtual Assistants (VA) for public sector rehabilitation processes. It facilitates new initiatives to adopt VAs as part of it. The project is needed in all levels of decision making concerning labor-intensive rehabilitation processes, within rehabilitation stakeholders and patients and in health technology industry in Europe. Many parts of the rehabilitation process could benefit of VAs, but they are not fully utilized due their poor acceptance, difficult development and strict health care regulation. There isn’t guidelines and promos to help the rehabilitation stakeholders, users and professionals or technology industry to develop their services towards hybrid e-rehabilitation. This project produces carefully planned, developed and in real life situation piloted demo versions of VAs, guidelines and descriptions of their requirements and possibility to test them. Giving an examples of “how to do it” and possibility to see the piloted VAs, will support the target groups to overcome their doubts of using AI in rehabilitation process. It helps the industry to increase their readiness level to offer suitable solutions for regulated public health sector. The project outcome is developed and piloted for rehabilitation, but with the guidelines and e-books it is scalable for other health care sectors. By that, society will gain resilience offering people more and timely health care services.

Platform work is a growing form of employment in Estonia, impacting social security options, career paths, and traditional forms of employment. It is essential to understand the economic and social outlook of workers engaged in platform work and the future of this sector in Estonia, in relation to developments in the European Union. This interdisciplinary project, which brings together social scientists, legal scholars, and economists, offers insights into the field of platform work and its broader impacts on the Estonian economy through various quantitative and qualitative methods. The central outcome of the work is a scenario-based analysis of the potential future development of platform entrepreneurship in Estonia, including an examination of emerging risks and opportunities-, considering regulatory developments in Europe, macroeconomic trends, and technological advancements. It also considers the impact of different scenarios on society, including the potential increase in vulnerability. The report produced within the framework of the project, and the related activities carried out within the project are based on the need to understand platform work more broadly while also considering its potential impacts on the development of social security in Estonia.

Platform work is a growing form of employment in Estonia, impacting social security options, career paths, and traditional forms of employment. It is essential to understand the economic and social outlook of workers engaged in platform work and the future of this sector in Estonia, in relation to developments in the European Union. This interdisciplinary project, which brings together social scientists, legal scholars, and economists, offers insights into the field of platform work and its broader impacts on the Estonian economy through various quantitative and qualitative methods. The central outcome of the work is a scenario-based analysis of the potential future development of platform entrepreneurship in Estonia, including an examination of emerging risks and opportunities-, considering regulatory developments in Europe, macroeconomic trends, and technological advancements. It also considers the impact of different scenarios on society, including the potential increase in vulnerability. The report produced within the framework of the project, and the related activities carried out within the project are based on the need to understand platform work more broadly while also considering its potential impacts on the development of social security in Estonia.

Platform work is a growing form of employment in Estonia, impacting social security options, career paths, and traditional forms of employment. It is essential to understand the economic and social outlook of workers engaged in platform work and the future of this sector in Estonia, in relation to developments in the European Union. This interdisciplinary project, which brings together social scientists, legal scholars, and economists, offers insights into the field of platform work and its broader impacts on the Estonian economy through various quantitative and qualitative methods. The central outcome of the work is a scenario-based analysis of the potential future development of platform entrepreneurship in Estonia, including an examination of emerging risks and opportunities-, considering regulatory developments in Europe, macroeconomic trends, and technological advancements. It also considers the impact of different scenarios on society, including the potential increase in vulnerability. The report produced within the framework of the project, and the related activities carried out within the project are based on the need to understand platform work more broadly while also considering its potential impacts on the development of social security in Estonia.