Current research, developmental and creative projects

EstWell - Estonian Center of Excellence of Well-Being Sciences

01.01.2024 – 31.12.2030

TLU principal investigator: Katrin Tiidenberg

At EstWell, leading researchers of the human mind, human body, social context, and spatial context join forces to produce an interdisciplinary understanding of the complex systems underlying well-being: the subjective and objective quality of an individual's life across different domains. We will address 4 research areas. RA1 CORRELATES: Which bio-psychological and socio-spatial factors predict stable WB components? RA2 MECHANISMS: How are dynamic WB components instantiated within individuals? RA3 SELF-CARE: How do individuals understand and manage their WB in self-care ecosystems? RA4 INTERVENTIONS: How to improve WB using targeted and tailored interventions? EstWell will fund interdisciplinary researcher positions; a registry-linked longitudinal study LongEstWell; a doctoral school; marquee events; and grants for mobility and collaboration. EstWell will raise the productivity and profile of participating groups, institutions, and Estonian well-being sciences.

Project funded by Ministry of Education and Research from the Center of Excellence programme

Project home-page: https://sisu.ut.ee/estwell/

Project home-page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/09bb9e61-9ca7-4cb6-908a-da1dbab38455

FilmMemory - Joint Master's Program in European Film Heritage, History and Cultures

01.11.2023 - 31.12.2029

Principal investigator: Vejune Zemaityte

FilmMemory is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Program (EMJM) on audiovisual heritage and its preservation, restoration, reuse and use in the context of current and emerging screen cultures. The program focuses in part on working with film stock archives, but also emphasizes other contemporary challenges, including the role of digital media, tools and related skills, addressing the scope and opportunities for distribution of film heritage material.

As a joint Master's program taught in four countries across Europe, FilmMemory offers an in-depth study of the social, political and industrial diversity of European film cultures. This includes the analysis of historical and contemporary modes of production, distribution, and performance, and the contextualization of film material within discourses of reception, criticism, and scholarship. Students will explore how films and documents about film cultures are archived, preserved, restored, rebooted, reused and reconstructed.

In this program, "film" is understood in its broadest, extended sense as an audiovisual creation that is usually viewed on individual screens, whether in cinemas, televisions or on computers and mobile devices. It also includes recordings of moving images, including but not limited to feature films, animations, documentaries, non-fiction, programs and series.

FilmMemory plays an important role in providing professionals to audiovisual archives, cinemas, festivals, film funds, magazines, museums, digital imaging labs, distribution companies, production companies, publishing/press agencies and government agencies where this type of expertise and related skill sets are in increasing demand.

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/b09a6d72-7c20-43d9-961a-0b9…

The project is financed by the European Commission from the Erasmus program.

WIRE - Extending innovation and research excellence at FilmEU

01.01.2024 - 31.12.2028

Principal investigator: Teet Teinemaa

WIRE is promoted by all eight higher education institutions that are members of the FilmEU Alliance. FilmEU represents Europe's geographical, cultural and linguistic differences and the diversity and richness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and Research Area (ERA). WIRE integrates five of the eight academic partners, each from enlargement countries, most from less research-intensive institutions, and is led by an institution from the enlargement country.

All WIRE's activities are concentrated in expanding countries, and it is these countries and less research-intensive higher education institutions that benefit from the project. The main objective of WIRE is to catalyze a leap change in the research and value creation activities and innovation carried out by the FilmEU Alliance by increasing its capacity and implementing several reforms in the higher education institutions of the expanding countries participating in the alliance.

WIRE will enhance the research and innovation capacity of the FilmEU Alliance in research and innovation, with a particular focus on management and administrative competences in the expanding countries, thereby increasing the overall competitiveness of the Alliance. WIRE achieves this through deeper and more geographically inclusive collaboration between all Alliance members. WIRE contributes significantly to the expected results of the competition by bringing together a consortium of higher education institutions, mostly (5 out of eight) from the enlargement countries.

Through cooperation among themselves and with other actors of local ecosystems, they promote institutional and state-level reforms and innovations, facilitate an integrated culture of artistic research-led excellence and value creation, and focus on the cultural and creative economy with a view to increased competitiveness and accelerated institutional reforms in their R&D dimension.

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/d4327db7-e510-4715-bb0b-d02…

The project is financed by the European Commission from the Horizon Europe program.

Cinematic minds: A neurophenomenological approach to actively guiding filmmakers' expectations

01.01.2024 – 31.12.2028

Principal investigator: Pia Tikka

Spectator experiences of audiovisual narratives have been widely studied in audience studies, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. However, less is known about how filmmakers themselves experience narratives. To understand the creative process of professional filmmakers, we apply a multi-perspective approach that addresses three mutually time-locked representations of their experiences: (1) subjective first-person reports, (2) neurophysiological observations, and (3) content annotations. Since much of the creative process is hidden in the thoughts involved, it is difficult to capture them in retrospect. However, by innovatively combining microphenomenological interviews conducted during filmmaking with well-established methods of cognitive science and film studies, we gain new insights into the creation of cinematic art.

The project is financed by the foundation Estonian Science Agency

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/b72d3e1c-add2-4365-baf1-577bcaccf7fd  

Meaning-Making in Social Media: Health and Vernacular Thinking

01.01.2025 - 31.12.2027

TLU principal investigator: Katrin Tiidenberg

In light of recent public debates on health topics, many related online groups have emerged as phenomena of contemporary participatory culture. These groups offer alternative information and narratives to that provided by medical professionals and the mainstream media. Using ethnographic and narrative research methods, our project aims to map this kind of vernacular meaning-making as a key part of digital interaction. The project will overview how the particularities of these communal interactional spaces influence meaning-making: what kind of strategies are used, which ways of dissemination are most intelligible for the participants, and which cause suspicion or (narrative) resistance. The results are published via academic and popular scientific venues whilst affording input for those engaged in the fields of medicine and health, suggesting necessities, bottlenecks, and possibilities in mediating health topics to different interest groups.

Project funded by Ministry of Education and Research from the National Program: Estonian Language and Culture in the Digital Age (EKKD-TA)

Project home-page in ETIS:  https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/45878858-652a-4889-8a22-49fae4988190 

FilmEU Plus - Alliance of European Universities for Film, Media and the Arts

01.11.2023 - 31.10.2027

TLU principal investigator: Teet Teinemaa

FilmEU+ is the next stage of the European Alliance of Film and Media Arts Universities towards deepening, expanding and intensifying the existing cooperation. The current project promotes the ongoing collaboration and changes involving all higher education institutions participating in the alliance to consolidate a full-fledged "European University of Film and Media Arts".

FilmEU+ builds on the Union's previous efforts and results and continues to test various innovative and structural models to implement and achieve systemic, structural and sustainable cooperation between participating HEIs. FilmEU + is an association of eight leading universities from different Member States and all parts of Europe. FilmEU+ fully represents Europe's geographical, cultural and linguistic differences, as well as the diversity and richness of the European Higher Education Area.

Started in a pilot phase with four partners, the consortium is now expanding to an alliance of eight partners to promote the partnership of eight like-minded institutions. We start with a clear disciplinary focus – namely film and media arts – and now move towards the inclusion of various fields in the cultural and creative industries. With FilmEU+, we want to bring together our diverse but complementary programs in the cultural and creative industries of film and other different but related fields to further advance Europe's position as a leading global provider of education, research and innovation in these fields.

With FilmEU+, we want to fully achieve all the features of the new cooperation framework set out in the European Universities Strategy. This means making our European University a reality through European degrees, shared structures and resources and research initiatives supported by a legal statute that combines our strengths and empowers our institutions and the next generation of talent in the cultural and creative fields. With FilmEU+, we promote sustainability, cohesion, entrepreneurship, employment and, most importantly, innovation and creativity as key components in shaping Europe's future.

Project home-page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/ddb3689d-f570-4a2c-b4d7-ef423a138ac4

Cultural Data Analytics Open Lab 2024-2027

01.09.2024 - 31.08.2027

TLU principal investigator: Maximilian Günther Schich

The Cultural Data Analytics Open Lab at Tallinn University is an interdisciplinary infrastructure and activity, established since June 2020 as an integral part and core deliverable of the CUDAN ERA- Chair project. As initial funding by the European Commission ended at the end of August 2024, the intended community function and joint infrastructure of the Open Lab, which bridges BFM, TÜHI, and DTI, is endangered.

Project funded by TLÜ Research Fund

Project home-page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/93df213b-ab52-43cb-b6d9-e152fbbf5b7c 

COALESCE - Coordinated opportunities for engagement and high-level governance of European science communication

1.04.2023 - 31.03.2027

TLU principal investigator: Arko Olesk

COALESCE consolidates, further develops and brings to general use the knowledge and relationships created in the field of scientific communication in order to establish a European competence center for scientific communication. To achieve measurable and sustainable long-term impact of the Center, the project's goals focus on co-creation, based on collaborative relationships with various stakeholders, including networks of researchers and journalists, and university alliances.

COALESCE relates to international, national and regional centers and is based on an interdisciplinary approach. The center demonstrates how to use science communication in crises without losing time, fighting misinformation and creating trust in science. To support all this, a database of essential resources, tools, manuals and training opportunities will be created for those involved in research and innovation throughout the European Research Area.

Project home-page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/723208c7-377e-4ebe-aaeb-f63fea6e9d6e

Project home-page in CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095230

The project is financed by the EU from the Horizon Europe program.

Using generative artificial intelligence in teaching creative practices: Pedagogical, scientific, and technical solutions for Tallinn University

01.01.2025 - 31.12.2026

Principal Investigator Indrek Ibrus

The focus of the project is on how to teach, research, develop, and apply the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in various creative work and artistic research practices at Tallinn University. The project emphasizes the use of generative AI across different modalities (creative writing, audiovisual creation, cross-media, curation, music, choreography, and more). The goal is to cohesively develop teaching, research, and development activities. Initially, the project coordinates related activities across three collaborating institutes, with plans to expand coordination efforts university-wide in its later phases.

The aim is to reduce fragmentation in current activities and to consolidate and integrate existing initiatives in the three institutes by sharing experiences and resources, coordinating activities, and setting common goals. In terms of teaching development, the goal is to design a variety of learning formats, ranging from broad lecture courses (general subjects) to specialized and focused masterclasses. Additionally, we aim to create new types of training for professionals and enthusiasts outside the university. In the field of research, the aim is to coordinate activities and networks to initiate joint international project proposals.

For development work, the focus will be on improving the technical infrastructure needed for teaching and research across the university—such as servers and HPC hardware and their management—and on developing the university's strategic relationships with relevant service providers. Finally, the project seeks to foster strategic relationships with relevant partners in the private and public sectors, as well as with selected partner universities.

Project is funded from Research Fund of the Tallinn University

Project home-page in ETIS:  https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/8941117e-2480-4cbe-ab43-a7c4eb88e654 

A media-driven knowledge graph describing Estonia's economic development and its governance solutions

01.01.2025 - 31.12.2026

Principal Investigator Indrek Ibrus

This research project focuses on creating a knowledge graph to describe the development of the Estonian economy and technology through media content, while also addressing the governance and management challenges of such decentralized knowledge graphs. The project builds on the concept of the Semantic Web, where data structures link entities such as individuals, institutions, and topics, allowing for the exploration of their relationships and dynamics over time. A previous pilot study on cultural topics highlighted the need to extend knowledge graphs across various media sources and topics, with this project focusing on economic and technology journalism.

The primary objective is to develop a linked dataset combining content from the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) and the Estonian National Library's Digar database. This dataset will map Estonian entrepreneurs, other economic actors, institutions, places and topics, while linking them to economic data from Statistics Estonia and Eurostat. This will allow for the analysis of economic trends and the prediction of patterns in the spread of ideas and innovations. Additionally, the new knowledge graph will support the training of generative AI models specific to Estonia, improving machine learning models' sensitivity to cultural and economic contexts.

The project also addresses the challenges of managing and governing knowledge graphs, such as ensuring data quality, security, and interoperability across various institutions. It seeks technical and legal solutions for adding data and defining usage rights, especially when the dataset is used in commercial applications.

This project will provide broader benefits for the development of Estonia's data economy by publishing the datasets as open data, enabling the creation of new research and IT services, and offering significant public value.

Project is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Project home-page in ETIS:  https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/decc6f32-f8e5-4c6f-b81f-20149393ba7c  

Identifying, linking and analysing cultural, environmental and economic issues in Estonian Public Broadcasting content

01.01.2025 - 31.12.2026

Principal Investigator Indrek Ibrus

The project focuses on developing a new linked metadata layer based on ERR content and a method for analyzing the evolution of media representations and their interrelationships. It will create a knowledge graph from ERR's television, radio, and web content, connecting cultural, economic, and environmental themes. In the first phase, metadata from different ERR media formats will be analyzed, and thematic text corpora will be created.

The second phase involves developing new data ontologies using international and local frameworks. The third phase applies machine learning models, including EstBERT, to construct the knowledge graph. The final phase uses the graph to analyze evolving discourses. The graph will be also used as an element in the permanent exhibition of Estonian National Museum. The project introduces a novel approach for studying the development of Estonian culture, economy, and environmental representations in ERR content, with potential broader applications.

The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of the Estonian Cultural Research and Development Programme 2023-2026.

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/4f7847d3-9895-457e-9e6d-75f333e11342 

ArtR - Artrepreneneurs on the Edge: Artistic Autonomy, Marketing and Organization of Creative Practice in the Baltic Sea Region

01.01.2024 - 31.12.2026

Principal Investigator: Ulrike Rohn 

ArtR conducts integrated research that aims to improve our understanding of the effects of implementing an entrepreneurial model in the arts sector on artists in two Nordic and two Baltic countries: Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania - countries that have historically developed a strong public support framework for the arts and share a commitment to creative economy policies, but differ in cultural, economic and political conditions.

The study focuses on the following research questions: 1) What are the main challenges and obstacles to the economic and social sustainability of artists' work and creative activities? 2) To what extent can individual strategies and forms of collective organization help artists overcome these challenges? 3) How do cultural political programs that promote entrepreneurship affect the work of artists and how do they relate to local ideas of artistic freedom?

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/6890a318-6505-4417-9323-7d4…

The project is financed by the Foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies (Sweden)

Public value chains for culture open data solutions

01.01.2022 - 31.12.2026

Principal Investigator: Indrek Ibrus

The project explores the complex ways in which different solutions to cultural open data produce 'public value'. Conceptually, the project builds on Moore and Mazzucato's previous work on public value, combines them with our previous work on innovation systems in the creative industries, and explores how new open data technologies, the semantic web and blockchains, can lead to the emergence of new innovation systems, how they in turn offer new tools for understanding the operation of the public sphere, as well as for interpreting the value creation that takes place within the industry's own systems.

The project is both empirical and applied at the same time - the goal is to design and test new open cultural data management systems together with ERR, develop related public services and policy measures. The project is very international (covering case studies from around the world) and interdisciplinary (bringing together network and data science with media economics, innovation studies, anthropology, computer science, etc.).

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/1bc55019-56e6-4dad-8c54-ea38f427e133 

The project is financed by the foundation Estonian Science Agency

Establish a proper qualitative approach for exploring the psychological impact of female figure representations in healthcare information on the parties

01.10.2024 – 30.09.2026

Post-doc Makiko Oya, superviser Katrin Tiidenberg

This study focuses on the public health issue that Medical Illustrations (MIs) of "white male-centred Human Figure Representations" (This project named these "The Default-Representation: DER") used in medical education and healthcare lead to inequalities in the quality of healthcare provision for women and to explore their impact that whether the DER-MIs would affect the construction of the hidden gender inequality in society. MIs, especially adapted DER (DER-MIs), are not only used in the medical field, but patients and the general public utilise and reproduce these representations via the internet and other media in society. Then, the people who are less represented, women, would have to go through negative feelings of invisibility, exclusion, and oppression through being exposed to the DER-MIs. Then, this study will compare the psychological effects and impressions between DER-MIs and oppose their representation: Diverse Representations (DIRs-MIs: focus on women's representations).

Project funded by the Estonian Research Council ETAG

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/7d1b2ef3-c1e0-4b64-9ab3-35ca286147ed

Joint master's program in cinematography 'KinoEyes'

15.09.2020 - 15.09.2026

Principal Investigator: Mart Raun

Kino Eyes is an original educational program that promotes new teaching and learning opportunities for both students and teachers in the fields of feature filmmaking and creative education. This two-year master's program is highly intensive for applicants for a master's degree in feature filmmaking.

Project home page: https://www.kinoeyes.eu/  

CresCine - Increasing the international competitiveness of the film industry in small European markets

1.03.2023 - 28.02.2026

Principal Investigator: Ulrike Rohn

Project coordinator: Elena Stern

CRESCINE's mission is to increase the competitiveness of the film industry in small European countries and improve the international circulation of films and AV content from small markets.

CRESCINE also aims to increase the competitiveness and cultural diversity of the European film industry. This will be achieved through understanding, engaging, empowering and ultimately transforming Europe's small markets, based on research and development projects in these seven markets. In their "smallness", these markets highlight the challenges and factors that need to be taken into account in order to increase the competitiveness of the EU film industry as a whole.

CRESCINE systematically addresses the entire ecosystem of film production, distribution and consumption. The aim is to innovate at all levels of the value chain, from policy to ways of data management and analytics, to business models of production and distribution.

CRESCINE develops innovative tools, methods and strategic approaches, all based on the concept of smallness and the positive benefits it brings to the overall competitiveness of the European film industry.

CRESCINE handles all expected results of the project competition through the European short film markets, which represent the majority of the European Union film market.

CRESCINE creates an innovative analytics and evidence collection model across the value chain, designed with state-of-the-art data analytics models.

The results lead to the development of innovative solutions and the testing of new tools, policies, business models or financing schemes and green strategies. These activities support the overall impact of the project and its ability to generate new tools, recommendations, guidelines and use results that will contribute to the transformation of the film industry in small European markets and beyond.

Homepage: https://www.crescine.eu/  

Project page CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094988

Project page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/0b73cadd-9670-4ab9-8137-0c483bb3a0bb  

The project is financed by the EU from the Horizon Europe program

MeDeMap - Media mapping for future democracies

1.03.2023 - 28.02.2026

Principal Investigator: Alessandro Nani

In order to outline the development paths of strengthening democracy in the future, improving the responsibility, transparency and efficiency of media production and expanding an active and inclusive civil society, the project aims to explain to what extent and under what conditions certain media channels, and for which audience, perform democratic functions, thereby also clarifying what is at stake for democratic media and democracy itself.

Applying an innovative multi-method model consisting of data science methods, large-scale quantitative analyses, in-depth qualitative approaches and participatory action research, the project covers (1) perspectives on the concepts of both representative and participatory democracy as they exist in European societies, (2) all types of news media, regardless of distribution channel, mandate, ownership and funding source, (3) a legal and (self-)regulatory framework under which media houses and the press operate and people consume media, (4) the media's potential to promote and support political participation (supply side) and (5) media use patterns, communication needs and democratic attitudes of audiences (demand side) in all EU Member States.

Based on the research results, a multi-layered interactive map of European political information environments will be created, the layers of which reflect the legal and regulatory framework and the democratically important characteristics of media demand and supply. In addition, the resulting "real" map must be contrasted with the map of how European citizens envision future media landscapes. By comparing these maps, it is possible to draw conclusions about the correspondences and discrepancies between them, highlight examples of good practices, and propose guidelines for supporting developments that promote democracy and combating phenomena that may threaten democracy. These guidelines are addressed to policy makers, regulators, self-regulatory bodies, media houses, journalists, non-governmental organizations and citizens.

Homepage: https://www.medemap.eu/ 

Project info in CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094984

Project info in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/ebf54ecc-696c-43b3-8e79-7f06ea217663 

The project is financed by the EU from the Horizon Europe program

TRAVIS - Trust and visibility in everyday digital activities 

01.11.2022 - 31.10.2025

Principal Investigator: Katrin Tiidenberg

Project coordinator: Patience Gombe

The second decade of the 21st century is characterized by a deep crisis of trust and legitimacy. Trust has fallen in all social institutions, rampant information disorganization and the ever-widening spread of images falsified by artificial intelligence are sowing confusion and uncertainty.

What can be trusted at all? However, trust is the basis of functioning social relations and systems - one might even say that of human sociality. At the same time, visual content (e.g. images and videos shared online, as well as graphs and data visualization) plays an increasingly central role in how people communicate and make sense of the world, rather than in how and why certain content and messages are considered convincing or reliable.

As part of the research project "Trust and Visuality: Everyday digital practices (TRAVIS)", we analyze what visual digital trust represents in four different cultural contexts - Estonia, Finland, Austria and Great Britain. We investigate how credibility is created in everyday digital practices and trust is experienced by focusing on health topics in (social) media (e.g. sharing screenshots of a pedometer, covid19 graphs, a selfie of an intensive care nurse with mask marks, pandemic memes, fake graphs created to sow panic on alternative news sites, etc.).

In addition to the innovative conceptualization of digital and visual reliability and culturally sensitive opening, the TRAVIS project also contributes to discussions on social media governance, information management and digital competences, and to the creation of a reliable discussion space.

Homepage: https://www.tlu.ee/en/bfm/research/trust-and-visuality-everyday-digital-practices-travis#funding 

Project info in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/e3ceb34b-b40d-4263-a984-bb2bd478c644    

Project info in CHANSE: https://chanse.org/travis/ 

The project is jointly financed by the foundation Estonian Science Agency and the CHANSE ERA-NET Co-fund program, which is financed by the EU Horizon 2020 program.

Limits of darkness

18.11.2024 – 30.09.2025

Principal Investigator Elen Lotman 

How to show darkness in cinema? It is physically impossible to exhibit complete pure black, because film is always shown through light - whether it is a projector projecting light onto a white screen or a screen with light-emitting elements - the basis for showing film is always light, and black light does not physically exist.

What to do if the operator needs to show total pitch blackness? In connection with a feature film in development, which takes place largely in a room without light sources, a creative need has arisen to experiment with creative research methods on how it is possible to show maximum darkness in the film. This project aims to test systematically how it is possible to show maximum darkness in the film, also taking into account that subtitles will affect the accommodation of the human eye.

The conditions of the experiment are a classic film test - different versions of light, camera sensitivity, exposure are tested with different post-processing and workflow configurations, and the result is observed taking into account the characteristics of both the projection and the television or computer screen.

As a result of the creative research project, test material is created, which can be used both by future filmmakers for further experimentation with the material themselves, and as educational material that demonstrates different possibilities of showing darkness in a situation where there is not what is known in the film as "motivated light" (a light source perceived in the diegetic space, which justifies the use in the frame the nature of the existing light).

Project page on ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/4de10194-28ed-4f7a-a0b8-00273b0aea60 

The project is financed by the Ministry of Culture

BECID - Baltic Information Disturbance Center

01.12.2022 - 31.05.2025

Principal Investigator: Andres Kõnno

The primary goal of the Baltic Information Disorders Sekkekeskus (BISK) project is to support the EU's efforts to combat disinformation in the three Baltic countries. This is a particularly important region because it is on the edge of the European Union and has a large Russian-speaking community (around 17%). It is also a region with a diverse cross-section of post-Soviet countries, an important factor to consider when responding to fake news and disinformation.

BECID meets all program priorities and objectives and contributes significantly to the goals of Digital Europe. We are creating an EDMO center in the key area, which brings together 9 beneficiaries and 1 related partner from the three Baltic countries, including 4 research organizations, 4 IFCN certified fact checkers, a non-profit organization with 13 founding members, cooperation with media literacy activities and the Latvian TV channel.

We also have 14 foreign experts who support us on the topics of migration and social cohesion; environmental policy and climate change, European security policy, regional foreign policy of Russia, public health, etc.

Based on numerous past activities of BECID partners, we conduct constant fact-checking (15 times a month), create breaking news podcasts and videos, and analytical reports on disinformation trends in the Baltics, and conduct 5 media literacy campaigns. Special attention is paid to vulnerable groups, such as Russian-speaking people, the elderly and young people.

Homepage: https://uhiskond.ut.ee/et/sisu/balti-infohairete-sekkekeskus  

Project info in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/15d1e630-e591-425a-a8ad-1154f1628c03   

The project is jointly financed by the EU Digital Europe Program (DIGITAL) and the Ministry of Education and Science

Transferring knowledge on climate change from Norway to Estonia via state-of-the-art exhibition and an accompanying educational programme

26.09.2024 – 30.04.2025

Principal Investigator: Arko Olesk 

Awareness about climate change and of the negative impacts of human activity on climate is significantly lower in Estonia compared to Norway, with only 31% of Estonians versus 45% of Norwegians recognizing it as a very serious issue. To address this gap, we aim to leverage the donor’s expertise in raising public awareness and initiating behaviour change.

The Climate House in Norway (UIO) will serve as the donor entity, while the Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden (UT) will implement the project along with ecology, communication, education and psychology experts from Tallinn University. The project will focus on creating an exhibition designed to dispel common misconceptions about climate change and highlight the actions recommended by the scientific community to mitigate it and adapt to it.

The design of the exhibition and the education programs will use insights from science communication and educational psychology to support increased awareness and long-term behaviour change. The main target groups of the project are school kids, families and people with little prior knowledge of climate change. The donor, with their experience of running the Climate House at their museum, will provide guidance to ensure that the exhibition and the accompanying educational program have maximum impact.

The project budget covers personnel, exhibition materials, and travel expenses. The exhibition will debut at the University of Tartu before travelling to other locations across Estonia (for example, the Tallinn Botanic Garden, the Tallinn Zoo and Pernova Nature House). It will be complemented by an extensive educational program aimed at school children and families. Both the exhibition and the educational programme will be actively promoted in each city to ensure broad public engagement.

The project is financed from the Fund for Bilateral Relations of the European Economic Area and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 

Page in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/a20364e5-bafb-48ad-8191-b57ab5c112a9

Expanding the feature film character development process through iterative improvisational workshops and alternating pre-production and post-production

01.09.2023 - 31.12.2024

Principal Investigator: Michael Keerdo Dawson

The research aims to explore an alternative process of filmmaking by breaking down the paradigm of pre-production, production and post-production, and then mixing and extending it through discovery-based improvisational methods for inventing and portraying characters. This alternative process is divided into two stages: during the first six months, scenes are devised with the actors in improvisational workshops (every two weeks), and scriptwriting sessions take place in between (7-8 workshops in total).

During the next six months, the production/post-production process will also be divided and alternated, so that once a month there will be a week of rehearsals and filming, and the rest of the time, the material will be edited and the results will be taken into account in the following shooting days (4 series: 2 rehearsal days + 3 production days). This kind of filmmaking process prioritizes character development and performance and allows all the main creators and actors to make changes and reflect on the characters and the script in between. Thus, there is an opportunity to create deeper, contradictory and multifaceted characters.

The project team carries out this alternative process in cooperation with acting students of the Viljandi Academy of Culture and discusses its impact and results, using creative research as a methodology and non-representational theory as a method of data collection and analysis. Many new opportunities and difficulties will undoubtedly arise as a result of changes in traditional production steps.

Finally, we hope to discuss the presented alternative process and present it in at least one academic article or book chapter, which provides tools for future filmmakers to apply alternative strategies to the creation of characters through fictional workshops and interval production and post-production cycles, as well as any narrative or production phenomena that emerge through these changes. These research findings look at the benefits and pitfalls that filmmakers and actors may encounter when attempting to move away from the traditional filmmaking process in favor of character over plot.

Projext info in ETIS: https://www.etis.ee/Portal/Projects/Display/38956f12-82ae-4eb4-a03f-aabc7792b5fc 

The project is financed by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of the 2022 competition for supporting creative research in cultural and creative fields

You can find information about completed research, development and creative research projects HERE.