Tallinn University researchers got 3% of the Twinnings awarded across Europe

DIGHT-Net, led by Professor of Cultural History Marek Tamm, aims to increase the visibility and attractiveness of Tallinn University in the field of digital cultural heritage studies. The project is closely associated with the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository at Tallinn University. According to Marek Tamm, a collaborative research hub of Digital Cultural Heritage studies (DIGHT-Hub) will be co-established at the TLU’s School of Humanities and the project shall develop a prototype for a Twinned Digital Archive of Juri Lotman and Umberto Eco.

SHAREE - STE(A)M for Home economics And Research ExchangE aims to develop the newly established Science Kitchen into a European-scale research and innovation based hub. SHAREE is led by Associate Professor of Home Economics Jaana Taar, who is also leading the Science Kitchen. “Science Kitchen is a new environment that unites in itself a classroom, a kitchen and a lab,” introduces Taar, “it bridges various disciplines through collaboration and initiates dialogues between stakeholders for the benefit of wider society.” 

CEE Security Hub, led by Associate Professor of International Relations Birgit Poopuu, aims to establish Tallinn University as a leading institutional and knowledge hub on security in the Central Eastern European region. “Russia’s war against Ukraine has demonstrated incontrovertibly that regional expertise in security – and the politics of it – is essential to tackle the present as well as future security related issues,” explains Poopuu. She also stresses that security needs to be approached with a deeply holistic, intersectional and relational lens to truly provide perspectives and connections between different security contexts and matters that can lead to more peaceful, just, and sustainable futures. 

The aim of Twinning proposals is to support research and development capacity within partnering universities. The experience, knowledge and authority in archival and heritage, digital culture and memory studies of DIGHT-Net partners (University of Bologna, University of Amsterdam and University of Turku) will provide pathways for Tallinn University to raise the bar for excellence, increase attractiveness and retention of research talents. SHAREE project enables to advance the quality and volume of Home Economics research in Estonia and the EU in cooperation with the international project partners and increase the impact of it locally, nationally and internationally, with a specific focus on the policy relevance of the research ideas. The CEE security hub in partnership with Tampere University and the University of Copenhagen will bring together diverse knowledge on security from academia, policymaking and civil society. Through different forums – research seminars, workshops, conferences to various knowledge exchange schemes – it will advance expertise on security.

All three projects are part of a Twinning call that is focusing on widening countries, mainly on the previous post-soviet countries, but not only. According to the research & development projects adviser Xavier Dubois from all the proposals submitted about 100 were granted the funding and 3 of those were projects led by Tallinn University researchers. “Thus our researchers got 3% of the Twinnings awarded across Europe and this is a very good result. In order to have 3 successful projects, we submitted 13 proposals into this round.”

The head of the project support division Stéphane Lobbedey stressed that most of the submitted project proposals, even those not funded this time, reached above threshold. “The time the researcher's group has for preparing the proposal is crucial for its success,” brings Lobbedey out an important element. 

All three successful proposals were supported by the Project Support Team of Knowledge Transfer and Project Support Office. Project Support is open to all researchers upon request. The request form can be found HERE.