Contributors

Eneli Kindsiko (PhD) is Associate Professor of Qualitative Research at the School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, and an expert at the Foresight Centre. Her teaching and research focus on foresight and scenario planning, social science research, and the analysis of the academic labour market and education.

Eneli’s contribution to society lies above all in her consistent efforts to draw attention to systemic bottlenecks in education and research and to link them to broader societal impacts. In recent years, she has argued forcefully in the Estonian media for the need to address deepening inequality in general education, extracurricular education and education network planning. In her research at the University of Tartu, she has used international scientific publications to examine the specific features of academic career models and career paths in small, bilingual countries such as Estonia, linking local challenges to broader international debates on the future of higher education and research careers.

Maaja Vadi (PhD) is Professor of Management at the University of Tartu. Her research areas include organisational behaviour, organisational culture, national culture and organisational innovation. She has participated in numerous research projects in Estonia and internationally. She has published more than ten books and a large number of international academic publications; she contributes actively to the Estonian media by explaining how research topics and findings can help us better understand the economic activity and social life around us.

Mihkel Solvak (PhD) is Associate Professor of Technology Research at the University of Tartu and Vice Dean for Research and Development at the university’s Faculty of Social Sciences. His research areas and interests include public digital services and their patterns of use, data-based decision-making solutions, internet voting, and political behaviour. He is a member of the Estonian Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and has a strong interest in interdisciplinary research.

Kaire Põder (PhD) is an education economist and, for the past ten years, has also been Professor of Economics at the Estonian Business School and head of its applied economics research group. She is the author of dozens of articles on the economics of education and has taught at nearly all universities in Estonia. Internationally, she serves on the European Commission’s expert group on quality investment in education and training and is a lead participant in several Horizon Europe projects.

Tiit Tammaru (PhD) is Professor of Urban and Population Geography at the University of Tartu and head of the Estonian Population and Housing Data Infrastructure IMO. His research focuses mainly on cities and migration. Together with colleagues, he has developed the theory of the vicious circle of spatial inequality, which explains how inequality is transmitted from one life domain, such as the home, to another, such as school, and how such transmission can be prevented. His current research examines the impact of the digital transition on patterns of social, ethnic and spatial inequality.

Kaido Kikkas (PhD) is Associate Professor of Information Society and Cyberculture at the IT College of Tallinn University of Technology. His main research interests cover a broad range of topics on the “softer” side of information technology, including security, privacy, development and business models, network culture, and accessibility. He is also interested in how learning is changing in the context of technological and social development in the 21st century.

Birgy Lorenz (PhD) is Senior Researcher at the School of Information Technologies of Tallinn University of Technology and head of the IT Didactic Centre. Her work focuses on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence in education and the development of informatics education. Her research includes the creation of digital safety models, the development of cyber competence, and the design of learning pathways that help prevent technological risks in schools and society more broadly. She is one of Estonia’s key experts in digital education and cybersecurity and leads several national and international development projects.

Bianka Plüschke-Altof (PhD) is Senior Researcher in Environmental Sociology at Tallinn University and Research Fellow at the University of Tartu. Her research focuses on issues related to sustainable development and transition, including socio-spatial and environmental justice, environmental communication and engagement processes, and their impact on sustainable behaviour and social change.

Monika Suškevičs (PhD) is Associate Professor at the Chair of Environmental Protection and Landscape Management at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. Her research examines participatory democracy in environmental governance, and she is also interested in methodological issues in qualitative research and systematic literature reviews. She leads the recently launched five-year research project “CS4Change” (2025–2029), which analyses links between citizen science and environmental management in Estonia and internationally. One part of the project aims to promote public participation in research and examine how participation affects individuals, communities and institutions.

Rajar Miller is a judge at Pärnu County Court. Before his appointment in 2019, he worked as an attorney-at-law. In the field of offences, he specialises, among other things, in cases involving minors.

Mario Truu (PhD in progress) is a judge at Tartu Circuit Court, head of the Department of Penal Law at the School of Law of the University of Tartu, Junior Lecturer in Criminal Law and a member of the board of the Estonian Academic Law Society. His main research interests concern the principles of criminal law and European Union criminal law.