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.

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.

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.

Europe still sees a quarter of the world's cancer cases each year, making cancer the second leading cause of death and illness in the region after cardiovascular diseases. Unless we take decisive action, lives lost to cancer in the EU are set to increase by more than 24% by 2035, making it the leading cause of death in the EU. Cross-border collaboration can address this challenge by combining data from various modalities and sources, extracting meaningful insights to deepen our understanding of cancer. However, ethical, legal, and national regulations, along with data access processes, including differing interpretations of the EU GDPR create significant hurdles. Technical interoperability issues across European cancer RIs, and patients' and citizens' rights to control who uses their personal information and for what purposes further complicate data sharing. The project will provide European researchers, SMEs, and innovators with a decentralized collaborative network, “UNCAN-CONNECT,” for cancer research. It consists of both technical components, a governance, compliance, and operational framework based on the UNCAN blueprint, with the goal of operationalizing it. The objective is to facilitate access to cancer data, promote open science, and revolutionize cancer research and treatment by co-creating an open-source federation of federations platform. It will be developed using specific use cases focused on six major cancer types: Paediatric, Lymphoid malignancies, Pancreatic cancer, Ovarian, Lung, and Prostate cancers and active collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders,including researchers, SMEs, industrial end users, and citizens. It will build on existing European RIs such as BBMRI as well as initiatives like EOSC4CANCER, CanSERV, EUCAIM, to enable seamless storage, access, sharing, and processing of data across Member States and associated countries. This approach will foster interoperability and collaboration, accelerating progress in cancer research. This action is part of the Cancer Mission clusters of projects 'Understanding' established in 2022.

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.

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 project aims to create and test Industrial Internet of Things (IoT and IIoT) solutions with a focus on energy-efficient industrial data acquisition and the application of machine learning to IoT devices in the field. In addition, the project addresses the problem of secure and reliable IoT data transmission through the development of 5G and beyond private mobile network technologies. The project also explores resources to make IIoT devices developed under the project more environmentally friendly in the future by improving the recyclability of their components.

The project aims to enhance private sector and community involvement in transitioning to a carbon-neutral energy system in Ida-Viru through small-scale energy solutions. Objectives are achieved by (a) economically feasible implementation with AI and digital tools, (b) simplified deployment of renewable energy technologies and (c) targeted collaboration with local businesses. Project outcomes include (a) modern laboratory conditions at Virumaa College; (b) three defended doctoral theses; (c) disseminated research through 5 high-level research publications and 1 patent application; (d) strengthened regional business cooperation through R&D contracts amounting to €100k; (e) customised service offerings that cover needs of regional companies. Project outcomes impact the region with increased research competence, quality, and visibility in small and community energy while enhancing research accessibility for the region's stakeholders.

The main goal of this project is to provide a scientific basis for the transition from the current centralised and organised high-temperature DHC networks to an integrated and highly efficient system with much lower system temperatures at different levels (energy cascades). The idea behind this project is that several decentralised low-temperature (4th and 5th generation) district heating and cooling networks, spread all over the city, are connected to the general DHC network as a backbone, as well as to the overarching electric power system, including local PV generation. The key element of this concept is a multi-level heat cascade, where each non-fuel renewable or waste heat source is used according to its temperature level, and the return flow of each network can be used to supply the corresponding lower temperature level, considering the required temperature level of individual buildings and urban structures.

The project focuses are the development and implementation of sustainable, i.e. energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and secure Artificial intelligent Internet of Things (AIoT) software and hardware technologies based on machine learning at the edge, hybrid microelectronics combining analog and digital technologies. Piloting applicability of the R&D results in the case of future electronic and other sustainable materials aimed at reuse and for the monitoring of such materials.

The general goal is the development of electronic devices for clinical measurement of soft tissues. Specific result is a device for continuous monitoring of the condition of the heart muscle during heart surgery. Heart disease is the most common cause of death (WHO 2019, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death). Surgery plays an important role in the treatment of advanced heart diseases, with a risk of damage to the muscle (of a stopped heart!) during surgery. Current heart protection methods are poorly controlled, as based on schemes developed by trial and error. The unique solution being created will ensure the real-time usage of protective solutions based on objective heart muscle indicators. The technology being created, also allows measuring of various other muscle, fat and connective tissues, and could also distinguish benign and malignant tissues. The solutions created use inventive electrical impedance spectroscopy technologies of TalTech.

According to OECD, Estonia is one of the EU countries where obesity and diabetes are most prevalent. According to WHO, every fifth child in Estonia is overweight. Therefore, our task is to help people reduce their consumption of sugar, salt, and fat, which are associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The Estonian food industry is already committed to food reformulation, transforming former sinners in to saints. For example, muffin, which has been a delightful dessert in the past, has now become a food with reduced sugar, extra fiber and with a Nutriscore value B. However, its health impact is noticeable only when the taste is equally enjoyable and consumers accept it. This reformulation project explores sweet-tasting and healthy peptides and oligosaccharides to replace added sugars, the synergy of flavor compounds and salt, and the effect of fats on flavour. We aim to have a positive impact on public health without compromising quality, safety and taste.