Against this backdrop, the ECePS core team travelled to the European Commission in Brussels on 14 May to present the project’s innovation journey, its accomplishments, and its plans for sustaining the work beyond the project’s formal end. The day before the final review meeting- May 13th - the team was hosted by MEP Sven Mikser at the European Parliament, to discuss the most acute topics on EU policies and EP practical arrangements of digital governance and cybersecurity.   

Overall, the visit became more than a reporting exercise—it was an endorsement. The European Research Executive Agency recognized the project’s achievements and encouraged the team to continue the academic and societal work that began in 2019. For ECePS, the day served as both validation and motivation: a reminder that the project’s legacy is not something to archive but something to build on.

The Brussels visit also offered a moment to reflect on the path taken so far. Innovation rarely follows a straight line, and ECePS’ trajectory often meandered—sometimes by design, sometimes due to circumstances no one could have predicted. Yet the results are substantial.

Over the course of the project, the team publised 16 articles in reputable, high‑impact academic journals, with two more partially attributed to ECePS and ten additional manuscripts currently under review. A redesigned Master’s curriculum in Politics and Governance in the Digital Age was not only developed but fully implemented. Outreach activities included interviews, podcasts, three MOOCs, a digital green hackathon, media articles, site visits, three Summer Schools, and multiple conferences organized under the ECePS umbrella.

The project also delivered concrete technological outputs. White papers, proof‑of‑concept digital services, and three fully operational services demonstrated the team’s ability to translate research into real‑world tools. These achievements reflect a project that did not merely produce academic knowledge but actively shaped the broader ecosystem of digital governance.

ECePS is proud of what it accomplished, and the European Research Executive Agency’s assessment confirms that pride is well‑founded. The Agency concluded that the project’s outputs represent a relevant achievement, and that the team met most objectives and milestones with only minor deviations—an impressive result given the pressures that shaped the project’s timeline.

As the project formally concludes, the work set in motion continues to unfold. PhD candidates who conducted their research under the ECePS umbrella are now defending their dissertations. Articles seeded during the project are moving through the publication pipeline. Training and outreach activities remain active, and the networks built over the past five years continue to generate new collaborations.

So, while the project has officially ended, the intellectual, institutional, and societal momentum created by ECePS is still building.

The collective and individual efforts of the ECePS team have unmistakably strengthened the University of Tartu’s position in the global e‑governance landscape. This strengthened foundation is not an endpoint—it is a launchpad. The work ahead involves pushing the boundaries of e‑governance knowledge even further, nurturing the talent, skills and insights developed during the project, and ensuring that the societal impact seeded during ECePS continues to grow.

ECePS may have reached its formal conclusion, but its story is far from over.