Senior staff
James W. Douglas is Adjunct Professor at the Nurkse Department.
Wolfgang Drechsler is a Professor of Governance at the Nurkse Department, Honorary Professor of University College London in the UCL Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, and Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Administrative Sciences at Universitas Indonesia.
Field of research
Wolfgang’s areas of interest comprise Non-Western PA, Governance, and Economics, especially Buddhist, Islamic, and Confucian; Technology, Innovation & PA; and Public Management Reform generally. He also has an active interest in Political Philosophy and in Economic Theory. His regional foci are Southeast Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.
He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and journal issues and 200 scholarly articles, as well as editor-in-chief of Halduskultuur: The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture, and member of the editorial boards of AJPA, BhJM, EJLE, IJPA, IRPP, JTCA, NISPAJPAP, RWER, Trames, and others. His last book, How to make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation needs Bureaucracy (with Rainer Kattel and Erkki Karo, Yale University Press 2022), won the Academy of Management’s 2023 Terry Award for “the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years”, and it has been or is being translated into Finnish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Indonesian.
Education and career
BA Bridgewater College, MA University of Virginia, PhD University of Marburg, Graduate German University of Public Administration Speyer, Habilitation University of Tartu, SocScD (honorary doctorate) Corvinus University of Budapest. Wolfgang previously taught at the Universities of Marburg, Giessen, Frankfurt/Main, and Tartu (Chair of Public Administration), and he was an Associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, 2017-2024. He was André Molitor Chair (professeur invité) at the Université catholique de Louvain; Visiting Professor at the Universities of Lund and of Erfurt, at the Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing, at the University of Malaya, at Zhejiang and at Gadjah Mada Universities, at NIDA Bangkok, and at the Lee Kuan Yew School, National University of Singapore; ANZSOG Visiting Scholar; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Value at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s College of Public Policy; and most recently, Visiting Professor at Universitas Airlangga, 2023. Wolfgang served as Vice Dean for International Relations of the TalTech Faculty of Social Sciences, and on the Advisory Board of the Davis Center, both for six years; he declined to become founding Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at Nazarbayev University. He chaired the Board of the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA), 2020-2023.
In civil service, Wolfgang has been Advisor to the President of Estonia; Executive Secretary with the German Wissenschaftsrat during German Reunification; and, as an APSA Congressional Fellow, Senior Legislative Analyst in the US Congress. He was vice chair of PRAXIS, Estonia’s pre-eminent policy think-tank; member of the Innovation Policy Council of the Estonian Ministry of Economics; and member of the Lisbon Agenda Group.
Wolfgang received the Estonian National Science Award; the Alena Brunovskà Award and the Merit Award from NISPAcee; the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Bridgewater College; the Maarjamaa Rist, Estonia’s Order of Merit; the German Federal Merit Cross; TalTech’s Top Scientist award as best PhD advisor for three years in a row; and the Senator Boorsma Award from SECoPA.
Videos
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler talking about Agile Stability at ISCTE Lisbon
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler über Max Weber und die Macht des Schreibtischs
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler talking about Local e-Governance today
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler talking about the German historical school of economics
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler: Islamic Public Administration as Paradigm
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler about his background and research interests
Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler speaking at Razak School of Government, Malaysia
Gross National Happiness Conference Panel One: How do you govern for Happiness?
Erkki Karo is a Professor of Science and Technology Policy and the Head of the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
In his research and policy advisory functions Erkki focuses on the governance of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies and systems with a particular application of STI in tackling complex societal challenges (e.g. SDGs), green/sustainability transition, and developing human centric (smart) cities.
His recent book co-authored with Rainer Kattel and Wolfgang Drechsler How to an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation Needs Bureaucracy (Yale University Press 2022) received the 2023 George R. Terry book award from the Academy of Management.
Teaching
Erkki teaches courses on science, technology and innovation policies and systems at all academic levels with a particular focus on entrepreneurship and innovation in the service of tackling complex societal challenges, as well as practice-based courses on creating innovation capacities in the public sector organizations.
Education and career
He has earned a BA in Public Administration from the University of Tartu and a PhD in Technology Governance from Tallinn University of Technology. During his PhD studies, he also acted as a visiting researcher at KU Leuven (Belgium), the University College London (UK), and the University of Iceland.
Next to his appointments at TalTech, from 2015 to 2016, he worked as JSPS post-doctoral fellow at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (Japan). From 2018 to 2022, he served as the President of the Estonian Economics Association and as a member of the Government Innovation Policy Council. He is a member of the TalTech Senate, the supervisory board of Science Park Tehnopol, and FabCity Foundation. He is also the co-chair of the Permanent Study Group on Public Administration, Technology and Innovation at the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA). Erkki has consulted many public sector organisations including the European Commission (DG Regio), the Estonian Government (several ministries), and the City of Tallinn.
Videos
„Tech Universities: Sustainability Change Agents?" - interview of Prof. Erkki Karo by Mikk Vainik
„Governance in Smart Cities" by Prof. Erkki Karo from Tallinn University of Technology
Rainer Kattel is the Deputy Director and a Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL and an Adjunct Professor of Innovation Policy and Technology Governance at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Rainer has published extensively on innovation policy, its governance and specific management issues. His research interests also include public sector innovation, and digital transformation in the public sector.
His recent books include The Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development (edited with Erik Reinert and Jayati Gosh; Elgar, 2016), Financial Regulations in the European Union (edited with Jan Kregel and Mario Tonveronachi; Routledge, 2016) and Innovation Bureaucracy: How agile stability creates the Entrepreneurial State (with Erkki Karo and Wolfgang Drechsler; Yale University Press, forthcoming in 2022).
Education and career
Rainer received his education from University of Tartu and University of Marburg studying philosophy, political philosophy, classics and public administration.
He led our Department for ten years, building it into one of the leading innovation and governance schools in the region. Rainer has also served on various public policy commissions, including Estonian Research Council and European Science Foundation. He has worked as an expert for the OECD, UNDP, and the European Commission. Currently, he leads the Estonian Government’s Gender Equality Council, and was a member of E-Estonia Council advising the Prime Minister of Estonia.
In 2013, he received Estonia's National Science Award for his work on innovation policy and in 2014 Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration by NISPAcee.
Videos
Prof. Rainer Kattel explains the distinctive ethos of the State - Rethinking the State
Vasilis Kostakis is Professor of Technology Governance and Sustainability at TalTech’s Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Field of research
Along with an interdisciplinary team of scholars, activists, and social entrepreneurs, Vasilis focuses on how to create an economy based on locally sustainable communities that are globally interconnected. He has written essays for publishing in several outlets, such as the Harvard Business Review and Aeon, and his work has appeared in 16 languages.
Education and career
He has studied political economy, technology governance and organization science at TalTech (PhD, MA), the University of Amsterdam (MSc) and the University of Macedonia (BSc). Vasilis is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the founder of the P2P Lab. Vasilis directs TheOtherSchool.art, a project dedicated to popularizing science, further demonstrating his commitment to bridging academic research with broader societal engagement.
Jan A. Kregel is a Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Development at the Nurkse Department, an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS (SAIS), and a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Field of research
Being counted as one of the leading post-Keynesian economists today, Jan´s main area of interest is finance: financial systems, financial crises, Post-Keynesian economics, classical development economics.
He has published extensively, contributing over 200 articles to edited volumes and scholarly journals. His major works include a series of books on economic theory, amongst them, Rate of Profit, Distribution and Growth: Two Views, (1971); The Theory of Economic Growth, (1972) and Theory of Capital, (1976).
Teaching
At TalTech he teaches Economics and Finance of Innovation and Development together with Prof. Erik S. Reinert, Associate Professor of Technology Governance and Development Strategies as part of the Technology Governance and Digital Transformation MA programme.
Education and career
Jan received his education at the University of Cambridge and Rutgers University where he also defended his PhD.
Until 2007, Jan served as Chief of the Policy Analysis and Development Branch of the Financing for Development Office of UN DESA, the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Until 2004, he was High-Level Expert in International Finance and Macroeconomics in the New York Liaison Office of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), being in essence its chief economist.
For many years, he held the Chair for Political Economy at the University of Bologna. He was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins SAIS, whose Bologna Center he co-directed in the late 1980s. He is also one of the founding members of The Other Canon Foundation, a center and network for heterodox economics research.
Jan is a life fellow of the Royal Economic Society (UK) and an elected member of the Società Italiana degli Economisti and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, also known as the Lincean Academy. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Veblen–Commons Award by the Association for Evolutionary Economics for his many contributions to the economics field.
Veiko Lember is a Professor of Innovation Studies at the Nurkse Department and a Visiting Professor at KU Leuven Institute of Public Governance.
Field of research
His research interests are at the intersection of public administration, technology, and innovation, while his publications have focused on topics such as public procurement of innovation, public-private partnerships, public sector innovation, and governance of digital and sustainability transitions. . His most recent book is Engaging Citizens in Policy Making: e-Participation Practices in Europe (Edward Elgar, 2022) and his recent research projects include PADST, ENER, and BoostEuroTeQ.
Teaching
At TalTech, Veiko currently coordinates courses on public sector innovation and governance in the digital era. He is also a local coordinator of the pan-European joint Master’s Programme of Public Sector Innovation and E-Governance with KU Leuven, TalTech, and the University of Münster.
Education and career
Veiko holds a BA and a MA from the University of Tartu and a PhD from Tallinn University of Technology, all of them in the field of public administration.
He has worked as a research fellow at the University of Tartu and KU Leuven, and as a visiting researcher at the University of Antwerp and the Université Gustave Eiffel, Paris (LISIS). From 2014 to 2016 he was the head of the Nurkse Department.
Veiko has been a consultant to OECD, UNDESA/UNDP, Estonian Government Office, Enterprise Estonia, Network of Estonian Non-profit Organizations, Estonian Law Centre, and several Estonian ministries. He is a Member of the Evaluation Committee at the Estonian Research Council and a Member of the Council of the Estonian Design Centre. 2017-2023 he served as a Member of the Steering Committee of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA), where he is also a co-chair of the permanent study group on Public Administration, Technology & Innovation.
Veiko has been awarded several national and international fellowships, including the H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in 2017. He has won several best paper awards such as the Most Outstanding Research Paper award at the IV International Public Procurement Conference in Seoul, South Korea in 2011, and the Best Research Article award of TalTech School of Business and Governance in 2020, 2021, and 2023.
From 1999 to 2009 he was a member and the captain of the Estonian National Volleyball team.
Anu Masso is an Associate Professor of Big Data in Social Sciences at the Nurkse Department, where she leads the Data Lab research group.
Field of research
Her research focuses on (critical) big data studies, social transformations and spatial mobilities. She is also known for her extensive work on social science methods and methodologies. Anu has published articles in leading international peer-reviewed journals like Social Networks; New Media and Society; Information, Communication & Society; Information Systems Frontiers; Population, Space and Place; and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Her most recent work contributes to further developing the research framework of data migration – the social transformations related to data technologies moving across state borders.
Teaching
Anu’s teaching activities include (critical) data studies, data analytics, and data ethics. Courses taught during recent years include, among others, include Recent Issues in Big Data and Governance and Integrated Research Seminar. One of her initiated, authored and co-edited textbooks Making Sense of the Datafied World - a Methodological Guide was awarded the best data story by Statistics Estonia in 2021 and best Estonian-language textbook by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research in 2021.
Education and career
Anu earned a BA in sociology at the University of Tartu, a MA in sociology at Tallinn University and a PhD in media and communication at the University of Tartu. She did her post-doctoral research at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
Anu has been a visiting researcher at Leibniz-Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut in Hamburg (2020), Tilburg University (2019), ETH Zürich (2015-2018), University of Vienna (2004-2005), University of Copenhagen (2001), and Uppsala University (2000). She is a board member of the Estonian Sociological Association and Thematic Group 10 Digital Sociology at the International Sociological Association.
Anu has gained numerous awards for her research, lecturer and supervisor activities. Her most recent awards include the 2022 Global Digital Governance Fellowship at Stanford University, a prize for funding a professorship and a new research team on big data in social sciences at TalTech (2018), and Marie Curie individual fellowship (2015).
Videos
DataLab videos
Amirouche Moktefi is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Nurkse Department and a Visiting Lecturer at Estonian Business School.
Field of research
Amirouche’s research interests are in the philosophy of science (epistemological strategies in diagrammatic reasoning), logic (the social shaping of modern logic), and the philosophy of technology (public understanding of science and technology). He has extensively published on these subjects and has co-edited several volumes, including Visual Reasoning with Diagrams (Springer, 2013) and The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Teaching
Amirouche currently teaches courses in philosophy, critical thinking and academic writing at Tallinn University of Technology and delivers guest lectures on logic at the Estonian Business School.
Education and career
Amirouche holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Strasbourg. He is an associated member of the Archives Henri-Poincaré (Nancy/Strasbourg) where he previously worked as a research fellow. Amirouche has also been a visiting researcher at the French House Oxford, Princeton University, University of Lorraine and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
He is also a Chair of the Steering Committee of the Diagrams conference series, the executive editor of Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum and serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal for the History of Mathematics and the journal Technology and Language.
Carlota Perez is an Adjunct Professor of Technology and Socio-Economic Development at the Nurkse Department. She is also an Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at University College London (UCL) and at SPRU, University of Sussex.
Field of research
Author of the influential Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages (Edgar Elgar 2002), she studies the socio-economic impact of technological change and its historical context and is perhaps best known for her work on technological revolutions and the development of the concept of the ‘techno-economic paradigm shift’.
Teaching
At TalTech she has been teaching a post-graduate course on Techno-Economic Paradigms and Technological Transitions as part of the Technology Governance and Digital Transformation MA programme since 2007. Her books and papers are used as study material in post-graduate courses in universities around the world, and she is frequently invited as special lecturer at numerous university courses, seminars and student conferences
Education and career
Carlota received her License in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (with Economics and Technology at the core) from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris VII, and her MA from San Francisco State University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Utrecht University.
Her long career spans civil service, research and consultancy. In the 1970s she held government posts in her home country of Venezuela, including as the founding Director of Technology in the Ministry of Industry (1980-1983). She has since advised several Latin American governments and multilateral organisations such as UNCTAD, UNIDO, CEPAL, the OECD, the Andean Pact and the World Bank, in addition to consulting for numerous global corporations, including IBM, Cisco, Telefonica, Mondragon and Ericsson.
More recently, she was Chair of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Expert Group for Green Growth and Jobs. Her current research project, ‘Beyond the Technological Revolution’, analyses the historical role of the state in shaping the context for innovation. Since the publication of her theory in her book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, she is regularly invited as keynote speaker at international business conferences and public policy events. The international journal Foreign Affairs, in its 100th Anniversary edition in 2022, chose hers as one of three “books of the Century” in Economic history and in the same year the World Agility Forum chose her for the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Videos
Professor Carlota Perez about her background and research interests
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen is a Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
He has published 80 Web of Science indexed journal articles and 246 peer-reviewed articles, books and editions in total in science & technology, history of philosophy, linguistics, cognitive and computing sciences, and related fields.
In his publications widely cited in the literature, Ahti-Veikko has developed new methods for creative reasoning and logics of abduction applied in AI, innovation studies, cognitive and computing sciences, economics, social sciences, education and clinical reasoning. His recent publications include a series of five books, Logic of the Future (De Gruyter, 2019-2022), which has been hailed as “the most consequential edition of Peirce's writings to appear since the publication of the Harvard edition of Peirce’s Collected Papers in 1930s and it may become the most seminal resource for developments in logic for many years to come” (Prof. N. Houser, IUPUI, “Afterword”, 2022).
Teaching
Ahti-Veikko teaches critical, creative and design thinking; science and technology studies; pragmatism, and scientific methodology at the Nurkse Department.
Biography
Ahti-Veikko received his education at the University of Turku (MSc, 1997) and University of Helsinki (PhD, 2002) in knowledge representation and AI, philosophical and epistemic logic, and history of philosophy of science.
Formerly Full Professor of Semiotics at the University of Helsinki, he has held visiting professorial positions in Korea and China.
A recipient of multiple awards, fellowships and large research grants from the US, Finland, Estonia, China and elsewhere, Ahti-Veikko is President of the Charles S. Peirce Society (2018-2020), Editor-in-Chief of Peirceana (De Gruyter), and member of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 2020 he was the fourth most cited scientist in the field of philosophy in all Nordic and Baltic countries (Elsevier Scopus).
Tiina Randma-Liiv is a Professor of Public Policy at TalTech, where she currently serves as the Vice Dean for Research of the School of Business and Governance.
Field of research
Tiina´s research interests include comparative public management, the impact of fiscal crisis on public administration, public sector organization, civil service reforms, e-participation, policy transfer and small states. She has (co-)authored two monographs and over 80 international peer-reviewed publications, her recent larger research projects have focused on cross-European comparisons on the impact of fiscal crisis on public administration and the organization and management of e-participation initiatives.
Teaching
During her career, Tiina has taught about 20 different courses which in recent years have included the following: Organization and Management, Human Resource Management in Public Sector, Public Service, Organization Theory, Management of Public Organizations and Small States. She has also supervised numerous Master's and PhD theses. In 2006 she received the Alena Brunovská Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration from the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee).
Education and career
Tiina earned a BA in Economics at the University of Tartu, a MA in Public Administration at New York University and a PhD in Public Administration from Loughborough University.
Tiina has previously served as a Professor and a Chair of Public Management at the University of Tartu. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Gdansk, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and Florida International University. She has served on the Steering Committees of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA), and of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee).
Tiina is a co-founder and a board member of the biggest Estonian think tank – Praxis Centre for Policy Studies. She is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, a member of the Committee of the Estonian National Science Prize, and a member of the Committee of Research Infrastructure at the Estonian Research Council. Tiina also serves as a member of 13 editorial boards of recognized international academic journals, and she has co-edited eight special issues in reputable academic journals.
Over the years, Tiina has been recognized with numerous awards including the Estonian Research Council nomination to AcademiaNet – an international portal of excellent female academics, academianet.org in 2021, the Science Prize of the Republic of Estonia in 2016, and the Best article prize by the International Review of Administrative Sciences in 2015. Since 2018 she has also served as a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
Ringa Raudla is a Professor of Fiscal Governance at the Nurkse Department. She also acts as the Programme Director of the Public Administration PhD programme at the Department.
Field of research
Ringa´s main research interests include budgeting, fiscal governance and fiscal policy, social insurance, public management reforms, crisis management, institutional economics and constitutional political economy. She has published numerous articles in the globally leading journals in of the fields of public administration, public management, governance, and public policy, and her recent articles have focused on the developments of fiscal governance in several European countries (including the effects of the global financial crisis and changes in the EU fiscal governance framework), the effects of the global pandemic on public budgeting, and performance budgeting reforms.
Teaching
At Ragnar Nurkse Department she teaches courses on public finance, strategic and financial management in the public sector, law & economics, research methods in social sciences, and PhD seminars. In 2008 she received the Alena Brunovská award for teaching excellence from the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee), 2006. She was also elected the best lecturer of TalTech SBG in 2021 and received the 2021 Teaching Award from TalTech.
Education and career
Ringa holds a BA and a MA in Public Administration from the University of Tartu and a PhD in Economics from the University of Erfurt.
She has previously worked as a lecturer at the University of Tartu and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Erfurt. She has worked as an advisory expert to the Ministry of Finance, the National Audit Office, Praxis and the World Bank on strategic management, performance management and performance budgeting, fiscal rules, budget transparency and a citizen’s guide to budget.
Ringa is a consulting editor at the European Journal of Law & Economics. She is also a member of the editorial boards of the following journals: Governance, Public Administration; Perspectives on Public Management and Governance; Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management; Economic Review; Korean Journal of Policy Studies; and International Journal of Public Sector Management. Ringa is also a founding member of the Young Academy of Sciences of Estonia.
Ringa’s research papers have been awarded several times by the JCPA/ICPA-Forum. In 2008 she also received the Estonian National Science Award in Social Sciences. In 2021, she was nominated to AcademiaNet – Expert Database of Outstanding Women Academics and received an Outstanding Reviewer Award by the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management.
Videos
Bringing the state back in? Fiscal policy responses to the pandemic
Erik S. Reinert is an Adjunct Professor of Technology Governance and Development Strategies at the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Being one of the best-known heterodox economists of our times, Erik´s research interests and publications focus on the theory of uneven development and the history of economic thought and policy. His book How Rich Countries Got Rich ... and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor won the Myrdal Prize in economics and the Norwegian Selvaag Prize, both in 2008, and has been translated into up to 30 languages, including Estonian.
Teaching
At TalTech he teaches Economics and Finance of Innovation and Development with Prof. Jan A. Kregel, Associate Professor of Finance and Development as part of the Technology Governance and Digital Transformation MA programme.
Education and career
He holds a BA from Hochschule St. Gallen, Switzerland, an MBA from Harvard University, and a PhD in economics from Cornell University.
Erik has been a visiting lecturer in numerous universities around the world. He is also a former entrepreneur and since 2000 served as the Executive Chairman of The Other Canon Foundation, a small center and network for heterodox economics research. As a consultant, Reinert's emphasis is on industrial and economic policy, the preconditions and management of innovations, and the relations between financial and production capital.
Videos
The solution of everything: Erik Reinert at TEDxArendal
Innovation Boot Camp - Workshop "Capitalism and Innovation: The Long View" by Erik Reinert
Külli Sarapuu is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and Organization at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Külli’s research focuses on public sector organization, civil service systems, public sector coordination and collaboration. She has published more than 30 international articles and taken a special interest in the transformation of administrative structure in Central and Eastern Europe and in the governance of small states.
Külli’s recent research projects have covered the opportunities and limitations of government task forces (personal grant by the Estonian Research Council) and the governance of the 2015 refugee crisis in the smaller states of the EU (EU Jean Monnet Network). She is currently engaged in a project that studies experimental approaches and institutional innovations in the domains of fiscal and financial policy.
Teaching
Külli teaches courses on public sector coordination, public management reforms, and the Estonian public administration. From 2008 to 2016, Külli acted as the Programme Director for the Executive Master of Public Management programme at the Nurkse Department. In 2019, she was awarded the title of the Lecturer of the Year by the Rector’s Office, and, in 2020, the title of the Teacher of the Year by the students.
Education and career
Külli holds a BA in sociology and public administration and a MA in public administration and social policy from the University of Tartu and a PhD in public administration from Tallinn University of Technology.
Before joining TalTech, she served as the Deputy Head of the Department of Public Service at the Estonian Government Office and as a Senior Expert on personnel appraisal and development at the Estonian Ministry of Education. She has been engaged in various public sector development and training projects, both in Estonia and abroad, and has taught at the universities of Iceland and Ljubljana. She is also a co-chair of the European Group for Public Administration permanent study group “Governance of Public Sector Organizations” and serves as a member of the NISPAcee Steering Committee.
In February 2022, the TalTech Senate approved Külli as one of the first eight associate professors of the study path.
Researchers and Lecturers
Aleksandrs Cepilovs is a research fellow at the Nurkse Department. He is also a research officer at the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Areas of Freedom, Justice and Security (eu-LISA).
Field of research
His research interests include innovation policy, policy transfer and policy learning, public sector innovation and e-Governance. Recently, Aleksandrs has been involved in a research project focusing on experimental approaches and institutional innovations in the domains of fiscal and financial policy, led by Prof. Ringa Raudla.
Education and career
Aleksandrs earned a BSc in civil engineering at Riga Technical University, an MSc in Business Economics at Aalborg University, and an MA and a PhD in Technology Governance at Tallinn University of Technology.
Prior to his current engagement, and in addition to his academic activities, Aleksandrs worked as a civil servant in Latvia, and as a project manager of TOOP, a Horizon 2020-funded large-scale pilot project.
He has been awarded twice for the Best Comparative Paper Presented at a NISPAcee Annual Conference: in 2014 jointly with Dr. Riin Savi, and in 2018 jointly with Prof. Ringa Raudla and Dr. Egert Juuse.
Christos Giotitsas is a post-doctoral researcher for the COSMOLOCALISM project and a core member of the P2P Lab.
Field of research
His work combines theories about technology and social movements to explore alternative trajectories of technological development. He primarily examines commons-oriented organisations producing open source technology.
Education and career
Chris has earned a BA in International and European Studies at the University of Macedonia, Greece, a MA in Technology Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, and a PhD at the School of Management, University of Leicester, UK, investigating free and open-source technologies and agricultural communities.
In addition to working at the university, he is also a member of the editorial collective for the journal ephemera.
Egert Juuse is a research fellow and the director of two master’s programmes: Technology Governance and Sustainability (MA) and E-Governance and Public Sector Innovation (MSc) at the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Field of research
His research interests include various aspects related to economic development with a particular focus on global value chains; financial policies (incl. Europeanization); financialization and financial crises; innovation and industrial policies.
Teaching
In the past ten years Egert has taught courses on macroeconomic theory and policies, globalization and governance as well as case studies in business, government, international economy and technologies and industries. He also teaches science-based analysis and leads the graduate seminar. In 2021 he earned the title of the best programme director and in 2022 the best lecturer of TalTech SBG.
Education and career
Egert holds a BA, a MA and a PhD from Tallinn University of Technology in Public Administration and Technology Governance.
He is a member of several committees and councils at TalTech, e.g. the Sports Council of TalTech. He has been a local coordinator of an FP7 project FESSUD and TalTech coordinator of the project on enhancing innovation capacities. From 2017 to 2018 he served as an Advisor to the Minister Mrs. Urve Palo at the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. For years he has been a referee at the Estonian Athletics Association, and from 2010 to 2016 a Member of a Panel of Area Technical Officials at the European Athletics Association. Currently, he is a member of the Estonian Authors’ Society and the Estonian Performers’ Association.
In 2018 he received an award for the Best Comparative Paper Presented at a NISPAcee Annual Conference together with Prof. Ringa Raudla and Dr. Aleksandrs Cepilovs.
Tayfun Kasapoglu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
He is mainly interested in critical data studies with a focus on socio-technical imaginaries of people who are likely to be subjects of data technologies. His current research focuses on perspectives of people on predictive policing, especially in border crossings that he studies as part of the "Critical Understanding of Predictive Policing" (CUPP) project. Tayfun is also interested in cases where data and knowledge are approached differently such as biohacking. He mainly uses qualitative methods and integrates projective techniques into his research.
Education and career
Tayfun earned a BA in Translation and Interpreting Studies at Hacettepe University, Turkey and minored in Sociology during his BA studies. He holds a MA in Applied Sociology from Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Tartu, Estonia. He defended his PhD thesis titled “Algorithmic Imaginaries of Syrian Refugees: Exploring Hierarchical Data Relations from the Perspective of Refugees” in August 2021.
Margit Kirs is a research fellow at the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Margit´s research interests are related to innovation, technological development and governance with a particular emphasis on peripheral contexts of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies. She has participated in a wide range of different research projects, aimed at investigating contemporary trends and challenges in the field of innovation and innovation policy. Her latest research focuses on analysing transformative change and governance structures facilitating the transition towards green economy and just transition.
Teaching
Margit teaches courses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and new technologies. She has also been responsible for leading the master's program "Public Administration and Innovation" for more than ten years.
Education and career
Margit holds a BA in Public Administration, and a MA and a PhD in Public Administration with a specialization in Technology Governance, all earned at Tallinn University of Technology.
In addition to research projects, she has provided policy advice (e.g. policy analyses/evaluations, explorative case studies, local expertise to different national organizations such as the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Rural Affairs, Estonian Research Council, Tallinn City Government and international (governmental) organizations such as the European Commission, Institute of Prospective Technological Studies, Baltic Science Network) over the years.
Indrek Meos is a lecturer at the Nurkse Department.
Teaching
Indrek teaches BA courses on philosophy and logic at the Nurkse Department. He has also written several textbooks, the most recent of which are “Loogika. Argumentatsioon. Mõtlemiskultuur.” (Koolibri, 2003) and “Filosoofia sõnaraamat. Olulisi mõisteid, koolkondi, filosoofe, seisukohti.” (Koolibri, 2002). Recently, Indrek has focused on translating and editing, the most recent example of which is Ward Farnsworth's "Olla stoiline" translated from English into Estonian in 2021.
Biography
Indrek holds a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University and a master's degree from the University of Tartu.
Previously, Indrek has worked in several Estonian higher education institutions, teaching philosophy and aesthetics courses at the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu, among others.
In 2004 and 2010, the Estonian e-University awarded his e-courses which earned a title of an e-course of the year. Since the autumn semester of 2021, he has been using the e-learning environment he has created himself.
Jaanus Müür is a research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Jaanus' research interests are focused on innovation policy, regional policy, and local governments, including the interrelations between these areas. His doctoral dissertation explored the emergence of place-based innovation within the context of place-blind innovation policy.
Teaching
Jaanus teaches policy analysis techniques to undergraduate students.
Education and career
Before starting his PhD studies, Jaanus was involved in the student movement and served as the chairperson of the Federation of Estonian Student Unions, the national umbrella organization for local student organizations. He also previously worked at the Tallinn Enterprise Department.
Alexandros (Alex) Pazaitis is a research fellow at the Nurkse Department and a core member of the P2P Lab research collective.
Field of research
His research focuses on the political economy of technology and the theory of value. His research interests include technology governance, innovation policy, digital commons, open cooperativism and distributed ledger technologies. Since 2024 he is a visiting researcher at the Post-Growth Innovation Lab, University of Vigo, leading a research project on climate resilient political economy, and a visiting lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
His publications focus on the intersection of value and organisation from the commons’ perspective and the implications for technology, innovation, and governance.
Teaching
For several years Alex co-taught the "Technology, Society & the Future" - a course for Technology Governance and Digital Transformation MA programme students. Currently, he is coordinating the "Contemporary Societal Challenges" course as part of the Public Administration BA programme.
Education and career
Alex holds a BA in International and European Economic Relations from University of Macedonia, a MA and PhD in Technology Governance from Tallinn University of Technology.
Alex has extensive experience in research and innovation projects, as well as project management, and has worked as a consultant and advisor for private and public organizations in Greece and abroad.
Leno Saarniit is a lecturer and programme director of bachelor’s studies at the Nurkse Department where she is currently completing her PhD thesis.
Field of research
Her research interests are public ethics, integrity management, and anti-corruption policies. She has conducted surveys on National Integrity System Assessment, whistleblower policies and integrity management practices in Estonian governmental institutions. Most recently, as a part of her PhD thesis, she has taken a special interest in the integrity and anti-corruption policies in the context of post-communist states and small states.
Teaching
Leno’s core courses have included Public Policy, and Public Ethics and Corruption on the undergraduate level and Introduction to Public Policy and Administration and Policy Analysis and Evaluation on the graduate level. In 2017 she was also acknowledged as the Lecturer of the Year at TalTech. In addition, she has conducted public service integrity training sessions for civil servants since 2003, as well as on topics like policy development and analysis, and cooperated with several governmental and non-governmental institutions in Estonia and abroad.
Education and career
Leno holds a BA and a MA in Public Administration from the University of Tartu. She has previously worked at the Legal Chancellor’s Office and at Tartu City Government and as a lecturer and programme director at the University of Tartu. She has been actively involved in Estonian integrity and anti-corruption policies since 2003, consulted on anti-corruption strategy in 2003-2007, conducted integrity surveys in cooperation with NGO Korruptsioonivaba Eesti, and conducted and consulted on integrity surveys with the Ministry of Finance. As a member of the Public Service Ethics Council at the Ministry of Finance since 2013, she has been involved in consulting on the adoption of the Code of Ethics for Public Officials, and several good practice guidelines for public service.
Piret Tõnurist is a research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Her main research topics include public sector innovation, co-production, digitalisation, machine-to-machine coordination, innovation policy management (incl. state owned companies), behavioural public administration and energy technologies. She is a co-chair of the European Group for Public Administration permanent study group “Behavioural Public Administration.” She has also a specific interest in the development of Post-Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The researcher has also a strong background in research methodologies in social sciences.
Education and career
Piret has a BA, a MA and a PhD from Tallinn University of Technology and a MSc from KU Leuven.
She is an economist and policy analyst at the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation in OECD. She has previously worked as a consultant in the Parliament of Estonia, Riigikogu and as a performance auditor for the National Audit Office in the field of entrepreneurial and innovation policy
Shobhit Shakya is a research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Peeter Vihma is a post-doctoral researcher at the Nurkse Department.
Field of Research
In his research Peeter studies the ways in which governance of sustainability, resilience and digitalization intersect. He is particularly interested in societal transformations and the organizational forms that support this. His doctoral research was on the role of temporary organizations in environmental governance.
Teaching
Peeter teaches courses on technology and sustainability, network governance and collaboration.
Education and career
Peeter got his BA and MA in sociology in Tallinn University. He then worked as a lecturer of sociology in the same university. He did his PhD in University of Helsinki in 2017-2022 as a recipient of Kristjan Jaak scholarship. In 2018-2019 he was the Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Cornell University. In 2024/2025 he is a Visiting Professor at Institute of International Relations and Political Science, University of Vilnius. Peeter has consulted numerous public organizations and collaborative processes, most notably the creation of the Estonian Forestry Development Plan and the implementation of the Estonian Bicycle Strategy. Peeter has also produced and directed documentary films and written a travel book, for which he has won the “Best Travel Book of Estonia” award in 2009.
Programme Directors
Egert Juuse is a research fellow and the director of two master’s programmes: Technology Governance and Sustainability (MA) and E-Governance and Public Sector Innovation (MSc) at the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Field of research
His research interests include various aspects related to economic development with a particular focus on global value chains; financial policies (incl. Europeanization); financialization and financial crises; innovation and industrial policies.
Teaching
In the past ten years Egert has taught courses on macroeconomic theory and policies, globalization and governance as well as case studies in business, government, international economy and technologies and industries. He also teaches science-based analysis and leads the graduate seminar. In 2021 he earned the title of the best programme director and in 2022 the best lecturer of TalTech SBG.
Education and career
Egert holds a BA, a MA and a PhD from Tallinn University of Technology in Public Administration and Technology Governance.
He is a member of several committees and councils at TalTech, e.g. the Sports Council of TalTech. He has been a local coordinator of an FP7 project FESSUD and TalTech coordinator of the project on enhancing innovation capacities. From 2017 to 2018 he served as an Advisor to the Minister Mrs. Urve Palo at the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. For years he has been a referee at the Estonian Athletics Association, and from 2010 to 2016 a Member of a Panel of Area Technical Officials at the European Athletics Association. Currently, he is a member of the Estonian Authors’ Society and the Estonian Performers’ Association.
In 2018 he received an award for the Best Comparative Paper Presented at a NISPAcee Annual Conference together with Prof. Ringa Raudla and Dr. Aleksandrs Cepilovs.
Leno Saarniit is a lecturer and programme director of bachelor’s studies at the Nurkse Department where she is currently completing her PhD thesis.
Field of research
Her research interests are public ethics, integrity management, and anti-corruption policies. She has conducted surveys on National Integrity System Assessment, whistleblower policies and integrity management practices in Estonian governmental institutions. Most recently, as a part of her PhD thesis, she has taken a special interest in the integrity and anti-corruption policies in the context of post-communist states and small states.
Teaching
Leno’s core courses have included Public Policy, and Public Ethics and Corruption on the undergraduate level and Introduction to Public Policy and Administration and Policy Analysis and Evaluation on the graduate level. In 2017 she was also acknowledged as the Lecturer of the Year at TalTech. In addition, she has conducted public service integrity training sessions for civil servants since 2003, as well as on topics like policy development and analysis, and cooperated with several governmental and non-governmental institutions in Estonia and abroad.
Education and career
Leno holds a BA and a MA in Public Administration from the University of Tartu. She has previously worked at the Legal Chancellor’s Office and at Tartu City Government and as a lecturer and programme director at the University of Tartu. She has been actively involved in Estonian integrity and anti-corruption policies since 2003, consulted on anti-corruption strategy in 2003-2007, conducted integrity surveys in cooperation with NGO Korruptsioonivaba Eesti, and conducted and consulted on integrity surveys with the Ministry of Finance. As a member of the Public Service Ethics Council at the Ministry of Finance since 2013, she has been involved in consulting on the adoption of the Code of Ethics for Public Officials, and several good practice guidelines for public service.
Külli Taro is the head of knowledge transfer and the programme director of microdegree programmes at the Nurkse Department.
Teaching
She is currently lecturing on the basics of Estonian public administration and performance management in the public sector as part of other courses. In addition, she advises students on methodological issues at the master’s seminar of Public Administration and Innovation MA programme, and is a member of the Master's Thesis Defence Committee.
Education and career
Külli earned her degrees in Public Administration at the University of Tartu (BA, MA) and at Tallinn University of Technology (PhD). She has also studied at the University of Helsinki and the University of Konstanz.
During her long career in the civil service, she has worked for the Chancellery of the Riigikogu, the National Audit Office of Estonia, the Estonian Cooperation Assembly, a foundation established by the President of the Republic of Estonia and The Chancellor of Justice. She has lectured at the University of Tartu and the Tallinn University of Technology.
In addition, Külli participates in TV and radio programmes as a public administration expert, writes in the press and is involved in numerous public sector training projects. She has also been a member of several expert panels and international working groups. Külli is currently a member of the Council of the Estonian Cooperation Assembly, the Open Government Development Committee, and the Local Government Training Coordination Steering Group.
Doctoral Students
Gerli Aavik-Märtmaa is an industrial PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Gerli currently works in the Ministry of Social Affairs as an adviser to the Social Welfare Department, where she is responsible for improving integration between healthcare and welfare sectors, in order to achieve more person-centred policies and services. Therefore, in her PhD research, Gerli is studying new ways of public service delivery. Her main research interests include e-governance; social innovation, including use of peer-to-peer economy in the welfare sector; open governance; co-creation; person-centred service design and data governance, including use of big data. As part of her work in the ministry, she has been part of several research projects dealing with data use in integrated care planning, delivery and evaluation.
Teaching
Gerli has been a visiting lecturer in public administration-related classes, introducing her work with person-centred service design and has acted as a teaching assistant for e-governance classes. She has also supervised two MA theses.
Education and career
Gerli did her BA in the University of Tartu, studying theology as her major and international relations as her minor, and studied one semester in Bilkent University, Turkey in a Global and International Affairs programme. She holds a MA in Public Administration (cum laude) from Tallinn University of Technology.
Gerli is also a graduate of a 21-month leadership program, organized by the Top Civil Service Excellence Center of The Government Office. As part of this programme, she started her work in the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2015 but also had an opportunity to rotate to other public organisations in Estonia, work with a variety of top managers, have professional coaching and mentoring to develop her leadership skills and have a short rotation to Brussels to better understand the work in different EU level organisations. Prior to working in the Ministry of Social Affairs, she worked in the financing and insurance sector and was active in different voluntary sector organizations.
In addition to Estonia, she has also done research in the USA, New-Zealand and Australia as well as has participated and presented her research in highly valued conferences in Europe and abroad.
Pauline Baudens is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Pauline's research aims to answer how does digitalisation transform the daily mobility behaviour of people in the Global South? She closely studies the use cases of specific groups, mostly women but not exclusively, in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Pune (India). During her fieldwork, she conducts empirical qualitative studies and observes the use of mobile apps, particularly those related to travel, such as Uber, Google Maps, safety apps, food delivery apps, and others. Overall, her research is articulated around three central concepts: digital transformation, mobility behaviour (including travel behaviour), transport justice.
Education and Career
Pauline holds two BAs in Geography and Urban Planning, and Administration, Law, and Economy at the Universities Toulouse I- Le Capitol and Toulouse II- Jean Jaurès, France. She holds a MA in Geography and Development of the Global South at the University Paris IV-Sorbonne, France. Following her studies, she worked over three years as a project manager in H2020 project for Smart Mobilities and one year as an EU lobbyist at TomTom in Berlin, Germany. After two years of multiple entrepreneurship experiences, she started her PhD. In parallel with her thesis work, she sometimes consults for the NGOs Trufi which maps informal transport routes in the Global South. In 2024, she co-wrote two reports of ITF-OECD about Fare’s fair policies and the relation between health, urban and transport planning.
Ülly Enn is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department and a member of the interdisciplinary research collective P2P Lab. She is also a visiting lecturer of the University at Tartu Narva College.
Field of research
Ülly is a team member of EU Horizon 2020 project SMOOTH focusing on reversing social inequalities of children and young people through educational commons. Her main research interests include educational commons, social innovation, human-centered service design, youth and education issues and policies.
Education and career
Ülly has graduated from Tallinn University: BA in Social Work and Psychology and MA (cum laude) in Social Work.
She has 20+ years of experience in the fields of education and youth, in public sector innovation and EU policies, having worked at Education and Youth Board, Ministry of Education and Research, Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU, European Commission’s SALTO-YOUTH Resource Centre etc.
She has contributed to numerous strategic initiatives on national and European levels, incl. to the work of the Advisory Group of the European Training Strategy of the European Commission (since 2022); as a Member of the Advisory Board for Tools for Learning Strategy 2021-2027 of EU Erasmus+ programme (2021); Steering group of the development process of the Youth Sector Development Plan 2021-2035 of Estonia (2020); kick-off of the Public Sector Innovation Lab at the Government Office of Estonia (2018); Chairing the Youth Working Party at the Council of the EU and representing Council in youth affairs during the Presidency of Estonia of the Council of the EU (2017). She has worked as a consultant and trainer with the Council of the European Union Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office of Finland, ministries, local governments, umbrella and advocate organisations in Estonia and in other European countries. She has also been volunteering in the youth sector in Japan, Malaysia, Middle East and Russia.
Ülly has been honoured with the National Award for “Long term contribution to the Youth Sector“ by the Minister of Education and Research in Estonia (2016) and with the Certificate of Merit by Russian Federation and Bulgarian Youth Forum for support to international relations in the youth field between Russian Federation and Republic of Bulgaria (2004).
Talks
Ülly Enn and Märt Aro About Learning and Teaching. Smartly.
Girls & Women in Entrepreneurship: interviews with Mari-Liis Lind & Merili Ginter
New challenges and opportunities for innovative youth services
Palwasha Etebari is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Palwasha is pursuing her PhD in Public Administration and specializing in Technology Governance. Her main research focus is on the human-centered design approach in smart cities to improve social well-being, services and citizen satisfaction. Her other research interests include alternative approaches for implementing innovation policies in the public sector that focus on grand societal challenges in its context and empower citizen participation. She is also interested in applying solution-oriented research approaches and adopting design methods via design thinking processes to co-create human-centered solutions and services in smart cities. Naturally, she is also affiliated with the FinEst Twins project.
Education and career
Palwasha holds a BA in Computer Science from Kabul University, Afghanistan and a MA in Human-Computer Interaction (cum laude) from the School of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University, Estonia.
Palwasha has worked as the acting head of the e-Government Resource Center (EGRC) in the Ministry of Communications and IT, Kabul Afghanistan. She has worked in public and private sectors for over a decade, and has experience in research project management, IT project management and coordination and also providing e-governance consultancy services to the Ministry of Communications and IT and other key ministries in Afghanistan.
Mahardika (Dika) Fadmastuti is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Her research interests cover smarter governance instruments for smarter public services studied under the FinEst Twins project at TalTech. Her studies focus on how digital technologies are used as smart city governance instruments that lead to broader aspects of public services, urban development, growth of digital technology, and the emergence of major events (e.g. disasters, climate change, pandemic, economic crises), which have triggered the organizational shift in managing cities.
Education and career
Dika has graduated from the University of Indonesia with a BSc in Geography and a MSc in Environmental Science.
Before her PhD studies, Dika was the Indonesian delegate for United Nations Public Service Forum in Azerbaijan (2019) and received an award for the Best Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation – Ensuring Integrated Approaches in the Public Sector Institutions category. She has contributed to the “Verschwindende Vermächtnisse: Die Welt als Wald [Disappearing Legacies: The World as Forest]” exhibition at the Zoological Museum Hamburg, Centrum für Naturkunde, University of Hamburg (2018). She has been a mentor for the iData studio by UNDP in Asia and the Pacific 2017.
She has experience in disaster response and humanitarian coordination work since 2012. She worked as a Geographic Information System Specialist (2012-2015) at the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction under Geoscience Australia. She continued to work as Geospatial Researcher, developing disaster monitoring tools with the SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia (2015-2016) and Urban Risk Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (2016-2018). She has led the research and development of an award-winning platform (PetaBencana.id – Indonesia’s Disaster Map) and was also the board member of Peta Bencana Foundation, Indonesia.
Nastassia Harbuzova is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Her research interests concentrate on macroeconomic policymaking from both ideational and organizational perspectives. In particular, she is interested in how policy learning and policy change occur in fiscal and monetary domains under different institutional frameworks and changing narrative contexts.
Her Ph.D. thesis is focused on experimental policies and pilot policy governance. Currently, she is involved in the research on evidence-based policymaking studying how and to what extent Job Guarantee experimental interventions deployed in several EU states generate policy learning and policy change in each case.
Education and career
Nastassia has a BSc in Economics and a MSc in Mathematical Methods in Economics both from the Belarusian State University (BSU), as well as a MA (cum laude) in Innovation Management from the Russian State Academy of Intellectual Property (RSAIP). She is also a graduate of the BEROC Postgraduate School in Economics.
Nastassia has previously worked as a lecturer at the Belarusian State University where she taught Macroeconomics and prepared her task book "Macroeconomics" for undergraduates, published by BSU, which has officially been used at the BSU Faculty of Economics since 2021. She has also acted as a co-leader of the student club CLIO encouraging student curiosity and research in both orthodox and heterodox economics and the history of economics thoughts. Her co-supervised team took 2nd place at the VI International Scientific Student Olympiad in the History of Economic Thought in 2021.
Nastassia was recognized with the 3rd Presidential Prize at the XXV Republican Contest of Student and Ph.D. Research Works in 2019, Belarus for her Bachelor's paper. She is also a winner of the Belarusian National Contest of Youth Research Works in the field of Intellectual Property (IP) in 2018 for her course work on “IP-Institution in the Republic of Belarus against the backdrop of New Economy Formation” for which she also received a MA-grant at RSAIP by CRSEA in 2018-2021.
Nastassia is also an amateur violinist and has played at the amateur quartet for many years.
Mergime Ibrahimi is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Mergime´s research interests include data diversity, smart mobility, automated vehicles, and artificial intelligence. Her PhD thesis focuses on Datafication of Mobility: (Mis)Conceptions of diversity in a smart mobility context. She is doing her research as part of the FinEst Twins project where she is conducting an experiment using eye-tracking technology to study how people perceive and imagine the data being used in smart city projects.
Teaching
Mergime is a teaching assistant for the MA course of Recent Issues in Big Data and Governance at TalTech.
Education and career
Mergime holds a BSc (cum laude) in Public Policy and Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a MSc in Public Sector Innovation and eGovernance from the Erasmus Mundus joint program organized by KU Leuven, the University of Münster, and Tallinn University of Technology.
She has also worked as a visiting scholar at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the State University of New York as well as a researcher intern at eGovlab at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University. Recently, she has worked as a project assistant at the Ragnar Nurkse Department to the project: "Establishment of a laboratory for cognitive research to assess the social, economic and legal impacts of artificial intelligence".
Kai jääger is a PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Ayberk Soner Kalayci is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Ayberk’s work centers on behavioral public administration, with a focus on understanding how public trust and volunteering motivation emerge and evolve. He applies these insights within the realm of crisis governance, examining how behavioral factors influence decision-making, collaboration, and resilience during challenging events and emergencies.
Education and Career
Ayberk holds a BA in Political Science from Boğaziçi University and an MA in Political Science and Public Administration from Pamukkale University.
Asimina (Mina) Kouvara is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department. She is also a P2P Lab affiliate.
Field of research
Her thesis explores sustainability in the context of commons-based peer-production and technology development, with a focus on vernacular, grassroots and non-western perspectives, as part of the COSMOLOCALISM project. Her research interests include technological sovereignty, degrowth, landscape governance, non-formal education and design justice.
Education and career
Asimina holds an integrated MA (5-year) in Architectural Engineering from the Technical University of Crete and a MSc in Environment & Development of Mountain Regions from the National Technical University of Athens.
Previously, she worked as an architect for the private and public sector in Greece and the UK, and is a founding and former core member of the NGO Boulouki that conducts research on traditional architecture.
Asimina has been awarded scholarships to train in traditional building and heritage management by the international NGO Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), and attended the European Young Heritage Professionals Forum organized by UNESCO in 2019 as a representative of Greece.
She is also a co-creator of the art initiative Quokka and a practitioner of Wudang internal martial arts.
Marc Kristerson is a PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
His PhD thesis focuses on public administration capabilities cultivation for both green and digital transformation. Marc's research interest is the transference, change and implementation of ideas in complex systems.
Education and career
Marc holds a BA in Public Administration and Political Sciences and MA in Technology Governance and Digital Transformation, both from the Tallinn University of Technology.
Karin Kruup is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Her interests are technology governance, digital commons, open cooperativism, circular economy, and resilient systems design.
Education and career
Karin has a BA in Economics and a MA in Technology Governance from the Tallinn University of Technology. Her previous work was mainly in the IT-sector, where she has worked for and with technology companies and startups. Previously she was the pilot coordinator of an EU funded research and innovation project called CENTRINNO. Its pilot in Tallinn turned Kopli 93, an old culture centre, into an experimentation lab, a local Fab City Hub for self-organisation and resilience. She is also an affiliate of the interdisciplinary research collective P2P Lab.
Joanna Laast is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Joanna’s research interests are related to how to steer society towards sustainability and her research focuses on studying the governance of sustainability transitions. In her PhD thesis she aims to identify drivers and barriers to sustainability transitions in different socio-technical systems.
Education and career
Joanna holds a BA in journalism and communication from the University of Tartu and an MA in Technology Governance and Sustainability (cum laude) from Tallinn University of Technology. She has previously worked in marketing, communication, and journalism. As a journalist, she mainly covered environmental, climate, and sustainable development news.
Riinu Lepa is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Anne-May Nagel is a PhD student and junior researcher at the Nurkse institute.
Field of research
Anne-May's research focuses on crisis management and the factors influencing crisis management as a process. However, her doctoral research focuses on post-crisis management and learning from crises. In her doctoral research, Anne-May will seek to answer the question of how to enhance institutional learning in post-crisis settings. She is also interested in topics related to civil defence and community engagement.
Education and career
Previously, Anne-May studied Occupational and Health Communication at Tallinn University, obtaining a Master's degree. Anne-May is co-founder of the NGO Crisis Research Centre and has also been involved in the revitalisation of the Kopli 93 community centre through the CENTRINNO Horizon 2020 project.
Olger Nõmm is a PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Steven Nõmmik is a PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
His PhD thesis focuses on the various forms of collaboration within the public sector to create and maintain innovation in collaborative processes and impacts being studied. His main research interests are related to public management, coordination, collaborative governance and innovation studies. He is currently involved in the research project “Machine learning and AI-powered public service delivery”.
Teaching
Steven is a member of the Master's thesis defence committee for the Public Administration and Innovation Master’s programme. Furthermore, he is a member of the Technology Governance and Digital Transformation Master’s programme council. He has taught undergraduate courses as well. He has been a TA for Classics of Social Sciences; European Union and Public Ethics and Corruption. As a lecturer, he has delivered a course about classics of social sciences.
Education and career
He holds a BA in Public Administration and Governance and a MA in Technology Governance and Digital Transformation both from the Tallinn University of Technology. He also has work experience as a research assistant for the EUPACK project and the H2020 project TROPICO.
He has been a recipient of the NISPAcee Best Graduate Student Paper Award at the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference for his paper “Cross-organisational collaboration management of digital innovation in the public sector - the case of the Estonian Employment Register “.
Kerli Onno is an industrial PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Her research focuses on the value of data capabilities in public sector organizations. As she works as the Head of the Analysis Unit at the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, she is deeply interested in the ways data capabilities support public sector organizations in adapting to the changing environments and in developing dynamic ways of operating to provide long-term public value. In addition, she is exploring various experimental approaches in public sector organizations and is involved in a research project Experimental approaches and institutional innovations in the domains of fiscal and financial policy.
Education and career
Kerli holds a MA in Communication Management (cum laude) from Tallinn University and a MA in Internal Security from the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences with a focus on media studies and strategic communication in national defence.
Mehmet Orpak is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Public Administration, and a master's degree in Political and Social Sciences, both from Kocaeli University, Türkiye.
Mehmet's research interests focus on Islamic philosophy and institutions. Accordingly, his PhD research is about Anatolian guilds and their significance for Ottoman governance.
Eva Peeters is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Mari Anne Rohtla is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Mariliis Trei-Mäe is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Mariliis’s main research interests are public policy-making, evidence-based policy-making, public participation and non-governmental organisations. Her PhD thesis focuses on public sector coordination and horizontal policy-making and looks into the advantages and limitations of engaging stakeholders in policy-making for making well-informed decisions. Mariliis has been actively involved in the research projects Coordination Instruments at the Center of Government: Opportunities and Limitations of Temporary Task Forces and Navigating the Storm: Small States in the EU.
Education and career
Mariliis holds a BA in History from the University of Tartu and an MA in Public Administration from Tallinn University of Technology. She has previously worked as a consultant in the private sector and been involved in projects evaluating the creative industries and the use of EU Structural Funds in Estonia.
Alícia Trepat Pont is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department. She is also an affiliate of the interdisciplinary research collective P2P Lab.
Field of research
Her PhD thesis, run under the project COSMOLOCALISM led by the P2P lab research group, focuses on self-organisation aspects of the communities that engage in building alternatives to the current socio-economic system. She takes special interest in the influence of emotions and their role in alternative ways of organising.
Education and career
Her background is in International Trade (BA, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Business Administration (BA, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Marketing (MSc from the EAE Business School) and Corporate Social Responsibility, (MSc from the Vienna University of Applied Sciences).
Alícia has been a designer and facilitator of participatory processes and shared-governance in more than 15 countries and with global teams around the world since 2016. She is an Ouishare connector and Greaterthan (Enspiral venture) associate.
Maive Rute is a PhD student at the Nurkse Department.
Nikiforos Tsiouris is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department. He is also a Fellow of the P2P Lab research collective.
Field of research
Nikiforos is pursuing a PhD on Governance of Smart Cities and is affiliated with the FinEst Twins Smart City project. His research interests include circular economy, smart city, commons and sustainability transitions. He has also been involved in REFLOW, an EU H2020 project seeking resilient solutions towards a circular economy, and the Tzoumakers, an open lab for communities to cooperatively design and manufacture tools for small-scale agricultural production.
Education and career
Nikiforos is a Civil Engineer and holds an Integrated MSc in Transportation and Project Management from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Mkk Vainik is a PhD student and a junior research fellow at the Nurkse Department.
Johanna Vallistu is an industrial PhD student and a junior researcher at the Nurkse Department.
Field of research
Johanna's research focuses on future social security and public services in an era of new forms of employment, mobility, and global industrial relations. Working as an expert for the Foresight Centre - a think tank at the Chancellery of the Riigikogu, she has gained a thorough insight into the key issues of her research topics. At the Centre, Johanna has led projects on the future of the labour market, pensions, and future health insurance. Johanna is particularly interested in the countries’ ability and readiness to provide social protection for the self-employed - how will platform workers and the self-employed receive health insurance and pensions in the future? Is the development of digital technologies creating new solutions for us? The Estonian entrepreneur account is a good example of a solution.
At TalTech, Johanna is part of the RITA Mobile Life project and fiscal governance research group.
Teaching
Johanna has conducted seminars on public finance at the Nurkse Department and delivered guest lectures on future monitoring, trend analysis, and the future of work.
Education and career
Johanna has studied Economics and Business Administration at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and holds a joint master's degree from Ragnar Nurkse Technology Governance and Sciences Po Lyon Policy Evaluation programmes.
Johanna has worked in the field of social science research for more than ten years and is an expert member at the European Institute of Social Security (EISS).
Support staff
Piret Kähr serves as a secretary-assistant at the Nurkse Department. She has been the heart of the department since 1998, supporting Nurkse's academic team in all technical and organizational matters.
Piret is also strongly supportive of students - she motivates and encourages them to cope with challenging situations that may arise during their studies. She assists students with their academic matters, admissions, and timetables.
Piret takes pride in her job and fully enjoys it. It is important for her that she can have an honest say in making changes and see the impact of it. Above all, she is proud of her great colleagues.
Irma Põder is an assistant to several H2020 and Erasmus+ projects carried out at Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Among other tasks, she focuses on administration, communication, and coordination with partners, research support and budget planning for projects. The largest among them is the TOOP coordinated by TalTech, in which almost 50 partners from 20 countries have participated. TOOP aims to facilitate the exchange of data between European public administration organisations through standardization, the development of innovative technologies, and cooperation. The SMOOTH and Compra projects focus on education and research on commons-based learning communities and analyse their role in reducing inequalities.
Irma holds a BA in Criminology and Psychology from the University of Southampton, England, and a MA in International Security.
Linda Sutt is a project assistant at the Nurkse Department.
Jevgenia Gerassimenko is a project assistant at the Nurkse Department.
Iulii Selianko is the project manager at the Nurkse Department.