News

The third international summer school Civic Competence in Creative Cities - How digital Innovations Contribute to Durable Democracies - organised by the ECePS ERA Chair team, took place in person in Tartu from 28 July to 7 August (3 ECTS) and continued online on Moodle from 12 August to 23 August (2 ECTS). Together with the co-organiser KU Leuven and partners from the Catholic University of Lille, the University of Leiden, Masaryk University, the Art Academy of Latvia and the City of Tartu, 24 students from diverse backgrounds and from various European countries, the USA and China set out to learn and explore how digital innovations can contribute to lasting democracies. 

The Summer School „Civic Competence in Creative Cities: How Digital Innovations Contribute to Durable Democracies“ will focus on how to use digital innovations in public administrations to unlock and implement civic competence.  

From 10 to 12 May, Estonian green transition region Ida-Virumaa hosted the DIGI+GREEN hackathon, where teams competed to find solutions on how to make the currently collected data work better for the benefit of green transition.

Join us at the unique hackathon focusing on digital services supporting and leading a green transition. As part of this innovative event, participants will work on co-creating solutions using digital tools and data to help lead and support the biggest change of our generation – the green transition.

We are happy to announce that our team together with Nortal and Ministry of Communications and Economic Affairs has published a white paper on personal government. 
The journey toward personal government is already on its way in several societies. This white paper discusses the desired outcomes and impact of personal government, but also proposes known and explored key capabilities to create it.

ECePS ERA Chair and REPAIR joint session to reflect on Dutch National Elections 2023: Lessons to Learn on Thursday, December 7, 2023

ECePS will co-organise the Sino-Nordic Workshop 'Development, opportunities and challenges of digital transformation of welfare services in China and the Nordic Countries', together with Oslo Metropolitan University, University of Helsinki, and Nordic Center Fudan University, in Shanghai on December 14-15 2023.

We are organising the final event of mGov4EU Project, taking place in Brussels on December 4th 2023. The conference will be on “Cross-border mobile e-services for European benefit”

What can we learn from Estonia when it comes to e-voting?
You have now the opportunity to learn from the longest-running and arguably the most successful example in that regard.
The e-course will start on October 15, 2023.

In today's digital landscape, few nations have embraced online voting as effectively as Estonia. In his latest article Bogdan Romanov, our JRF, delves into the how, why, and when of Estonia's groundbreaking online electoral system. If you're keen to understand how technology is reshaping the pillars of democracy, read more here!

In the summer of 2023, we organsied the summer school on Agile Government in the Digital Era. The summer school took place on online 5 July to 2 August, in Tartu on 4–11 August, 2023.

Logan Carmichael, our junior research fellow has spread the word about the interesting work she is doing as part of her research on cyber security and digital governmental services. 

Vincent Homburg, Professor of E-Governance, talks about the intertwining of politics and technology in his inaugural lecture

We are happy to announce that as of the 1st of November 2022, Prof Dr Vincent Homburg will become the ERA Chair of “e-Governance and Digital Public Services”. During the past two years, Vincent Homburg was visiting professor with the ECePS ERA chair team at the Center for IT Impact Studies CITIS. In his new role, he will supervise junior research fellows with their PhD research and teaching in the international MA programme “Politics and Governance in the Digital Age”.

ECePS ERA Chair Summer School on Building Digital Governments

The Summer School will be hosted by University of Tartu, in collaboration with University of Konstanz, Harvard University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, KU Leuven, and City of Tartu.

Credits: 4 ECTS, possibility to extend to 6 ECTS

Time: August 1-14, 2022

Due to pandemic situation the conference has been postponed to May 20th 2022. 

The spread of disinformation is not a phenomenon of today’s time, but it has been exacerbated via its circulation through social media platforms, powered by AI and has become a critical challenge. It casts a shadow over the integrity of public debate and elections, undermining citizens’ trust in democratic institutions, while also negatively impacting on the accuracy and reliability of the information that feeds public opinion.

Disinformation by digital means can by its size and sophistication threaten the bases and essential elements of democracy, the institutions and processes of the state, and the cohesion and proper functioning of society. Digital disinformation is more illegitimate when originating abroad. No country or society is immune from such influence.

On 16 September at 16:15, Robert Krimmer, Professor of E-governance of the University of Tartu, delivered his inaugural lecture “Digital Transformation of the Public Sector: How to build our digital future” in the assembly hall of the University of Tartu.

The next admission round takes place on 1-15 May (candidates with previous degrees from outside Estonia) and on 1-15 June (applicants with previous degrees from Estonia), with studies set to commence in September 2021.

CITIS team won the competition for the best app in the national digital public services with their Decision Support Tool OTT for Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund!

Held on 6–9 October 2020, the Fifth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting (E-Vote-ID) brought together more than 180 e-voting specialists from academia, government and industry from 32 countries around the world in order to discuss various aspects of electronic voting.

World-leading e-governance expert Robert Krimmer elected as Professor of the University of Tartu.

The senate of the University of Tartu elected Robert Krimmer, one of the most influential e-governance experts in the world, as Professor of E-governance of the University of Tartu. Professor Krimmer will lead the established ERA Chair research group at the university to bring research in the field of e-governance and public e-services to international excellence and foster the development of e-governance in Estonia.

The Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu invites applications for a fully-funded PhD position on e-governance and digital public services in the academic year 2020/2021

On Tuesday, 19 November 2019, the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies hosted Mr Hector de Rivoire, Economic Advisor at the Embassy of France in Tallinn, who gave a guest lecture on "Artificial Intelligence: France’s Strategy and EU agenda".

Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu received the ERA Chair grant of 2.5 million euros from the European Union to develop a world-leading research team on e-governance, public e-services and to advance e-governance innovation in Estonia.