News

On Thursday 13 February, the ECePS ERA Chair team hosted a final conference in the Delta building of the University of Tartu. Nearly seventy academics, industry representatives, policy makers and students gathered to learn more about the research conducted by the ECePS Junior Research Fellows in e-governance and to discuss ongoing open data research and business challenges in two engaging panel discussions with representatives from academia, government and business, hosted by ERA Chair team members Prof Dr Vincent Homburg and Dr Mihkel Solvak.

On January 16, the ERA chair Prof Homburg contributed to the kick-off of the Dutch Policy Programme on Generic Digital Infrastructures in the Hague, for which hundreds of specialists and policy advisors gathered to discuss the building blocks and governance structures for information sharing in the Netherlands. Both the latest academic literature and the Estonian experience were used to give the insights.

On 21 November, ERA Chair and Professor of E-Governance Vincent Homburg attended the 26th Dutch ECP Conference, a platform where politicians, civil servants, academics and business representatives meet to discuss the future of digital societies. Prof Homburg contributed to a series of expert advice on digitalisation, including a chapter 'Immersion, key to success?', which was published in a book Unfiltered expert advice for the digital government. 

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.  

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.

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 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”.

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.

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.