Topics of the University of Tartu 2023 wall calendar
Research done at the University of Tartu helps to meet sustainable development goals and solve societal challenges. The illustrations in the 2023 wall calendar reflect a selection of scientific topics through which the university and its researchers contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Below, you can read more about the research projects included in the calendar.
The calendar aims to help raise awareness of the university's impact on solving global challenges and focus attention on the key issue of the recent and coming decades – sustainable development.
The author of the illustrations is Piret Räni, an artist and nature conservationist who has illustrated children's books and various information materials. She is passionate about environmental education and awareness and seeks to promote this through her creative work. In her illustrations for the calendar, the artist has combined classical ink drawing and visual simplification techniques.
The calendar has been printed on Nautilus® Classic recycled paper, bearing the EU Ecolabel.
December – “Novel high-performance polymers from lignocellulosic feedstock”
The research by Lauri Vares, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Technology, “Novel high-performance polymers from lignocellulosic feedstock”, helps reduce industry dependence on fossil resources. Bioplastics can be produced from wood sugars derived from wood residues. On the one hand, this would help reduce the packaging industry’s dependence on oil. On the other hand, it would help produce higher added-value products from wood waste, which is currently used mainly for heating, and to capture for a longer time the CO2 that is otherwise emitted with flue gases into the atmosphere. The development of such production technology is essential for stimulating a waste-reducing circular economy.
In the course of the project, the environmental impact of the novel technology will be analysed and compared with the environmental impact of the existing fossil-based plastics.
The research group of Margit Keller and Laur Kanger is working on the project “Reshaping Estonian energy, mobility and telecommunications systems on the verge of the Second Deep Transition”. It aims to find ways to shape the development of the Estonian energy, transport and communications systems onto a sustainable and just path without repeating the past mistakes of industrial societies.
The way the Estonian energy and transport systems operate can be traced back to the experiences of Western industrial states in the interwar period. Currently, both systems produce large negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, the unequal distribution of these impacts in Estonia intensifies social inequality. In the Deep Transitions framework, the evolution of industrial societies is analysed through the interactions of socio-technical systems. The project brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines – from social scientists to historians, linguists, innovation researchers and political scientists.
The project “E-governance and digital public services”, led by Mihkel Solvak, Associate Professor of Technology Research at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, explores the potential of e-governance and the more efficient use of existing data, so that Estonia could be the first in the world to move to third-generation e-services that continuously take into account the experience of service users and predict their behaviour.
Jonne Kotta, Director of Research of the Estonian Marine Institute, leads the project “Oceanic distribution of microplastics and the impact of such pressures on biota”. A tenth of all plastic waste ends up in the oceans. Most of it breaks down into microplastics, which are difficult to detect with modern methods and technology. As there is currently no precise knowledge of the distribution of microplastics, the project aims to investigate the distribution of microplastics, including particles of less than 10 μm and various microfibres in water, sediments and biota from the coast to the deep ocean.
The research project of Leho Tedersoo, Professor in Mycorrhizal Studies of the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, “Sustainable use of soil resources in the changing climate”, aims to study the impact of land use and climate change on the soil microbiome and carbon content and the emission of greenhouse gases from the soil. The project provides a good overview of greenhouse gas emissions and proposes environmentally sustainable solutions for the land-use change that is inevitable as a result of urbanisation and forestation of the tundra.
The work of Mari-Liis Madisson, Research Fellow in Semiotics of the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, “Researching Europe, digitalisation, and conspiracy theories”, helps to clarify the aims of conspiracy theories that divide society, explain how they spread and the impact they have on people. Understanding all of this will make it possible to better assess and prevent the dangers posed by the proliferation of conspiracy theories, to raise people's awareness and thus perhaps make them less vulnerable.
Mari-Liis Madisson's work contributes to the bridging of societal gaps and the early prevention of potential new gaps. It supports the development of a more cohesive society, both in Estonia and around the world, by increasing trust in public institutions and reducing society's vulnerability to crises.
The research project of Ülo Valk, Professor of Estonian and Comparative Folklore of the Institute of Cultural Research, “Inclusive sites and routes: shared stories and meaning-making”, focuses on places and routes with religious or mythical meaning, their increasing significance in modern society and the related processes.
The international working group focuses on initiatives specific to rural Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway, which revive forgotten but important places and create new destinations with an appeal that transcends social, ethnic and cultural boundaries. The project aims to understand why some of these places become truly inclusive while others cause antagonism and social tension.
Viljandi Culture Academy develops creative entrepreneurship in an international incubation programme. By combining cultural heritage, research and business, the programme participants are looking for innovative applications of heritage to support its vitality. The programme’s areas of activity range from climate change and sustainable energy to healthy lifestyles and food.
In the research project of Hannes Kollist, Professor of Molecular Plant Biology, and Ebe Merilo, Associate Professor of Plant Biology of the Institute of Technology, “NOBALwheat – breeding toolbox for sustainable food system of the Nordic-Baltic region”, research groups measure the gas-exchange characteristics in wheat to identify their potential for breeding climate-resilient wheat varieties.
The aim of the project is to breed climate-resilient wheat varieties to ensure food security and agricultural stability in the Nordic and Baltic countries. By means of phenotyping and genotyping technologies, the researchers aim to find high-yielding varieties that could withstand climate change, and that can be grown resource-efficiently.
The UT Move Lab looks for evidence-based approaches to help make the school day more physically active. Their initiative "Schools in Motion" supports schools to make every day an active one for pupils and teachers alike. Estonian children and young people still spend too much time in front of screens: only 21% of children spend less than two hours a day looking at a screen in their free time. Nor have they started to play outdoors more or become more active on their way to school. The University of Tartu Move Lab is working to make physical activity an integral part of the school day in more and more Estonian schools.
The research by Uku Vainik, Associate Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychology, “Exploiting genomic lottery to understand causality between personality traits, cognition, and health”, aims to collect the behavioural traits of 220,000 participants of the Estonian Biobank. These causal associations are largely unknown, as randomised trials are expensive and often ethically impossible. In this project, the researcher proposes using a genomic causal inference method – Mendelian randomisation. This method uses the genetic lottery – the natural randomisation of genetic markers that either enhance or reduce certain behavioural traits in people.
The research by Taavi Tillmann, Associate Professor of Public Health at the Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health, “Integrating big health and social data to understand and reduce health inequalities”, aims to reduce health inequalities by creating a new, fully representative health database for future studies. To this end, Tillmann links the health records of 660,000 residents (aged 40–74) with the health information system and four national databases on education, ethnicity, unemployment, occupation, municipality, marital status and social benefits.
The research by Lauri Vares, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Technology, “Novel high-performance polymers from lignocellulosic feedstock”, helps reduce industry dependence on fossil resources. Bioplastics can be produced from wood sugars derived from wood residues. On the one hand, this would help reduce the packaging industry’s dependence on oil. On the other hand, it would help produce higher added-value products from wood waste, which is currently used mainly for heating, and to capture for a longer time the CO2 that is otherwise emitted with flue gases into the atmosphere. The development of such production technology is essential for stimulating a waste-reducing circular economy.
In the course of the project, the environmental impact of the novel technology will be analysed and compared with the environmental impact of the existing fossil-based plastics.
