Tallinn University is the largest humanities university in Tallinn and the third largest public university in Estonia, with over 7,000 students (9.5% international) and nearly 1,000 staff. Founded in 2005 through the consolidation of several universities and institutes, TU is known for its innovative and enriching approach to research and education. It encompasses six schools, two colleges, and six research and development units, which conduct interdisciplinary studies in educational innovation, digital and media culture, cultural competences, healthy and sustainable lifestyle, and society and open governance. The university's goal is to support Estonia's sustainable development through research and academic partnership, producing intellectuals and advancing public dialogue. The mission is to promote intelligent lifestyle and improve society and citizens' well-being through research-based decisions, particularly in educational innovation and healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Research under those two focus fields is conducted by the Institute of Ecology and by the Centre for Educational Technology.
Institute of Ecology (IofE, established in 1992) is a research institute under the School of Natural Science and Health. IofE is the leading R&D institution in the research of the functions and development of water-related ecosystems. IofE also actively contributes to higher education, environmental education and sustainability. This helps to contribute to the science-based management of ecosystems and their restoration, as society needs from science more than just knowledge about the sustainable use of natural resources. Building a sustainable society requires integrated collaboration with other academic disciplines.
The Centre for Educational Technology (CET) is a department within TU's School of Digital Technologies, is leading R&D centre for digital innovation and education in the Baltic countries, with expertise in technology-enhanced learning, competency management, and brain-computer interaction. It is a key contributor to the Estonian E-university consortium's technology-enhanced learning infrastructure. IofE and CET have extensive experience in sustainability education and the design of educational applications, and have participated in numerous international projects. The university's new facilities provide state-of-the-art working conditions and technical resources for the project. Based partly on two directly involved R&D institutions, in 2019 a new research group was formed to solve modern-day problems related with sustainability. The research group for Sustainability, Environmental Education and Communication Skills (SEEMIK, seemik.tlu.ee) combines specialists in ecology, education, psychology, digital technologies and communication. The main focus of the SEEMIK is to investigate and improve environmental education and communication, whether in the form of citizen science, educational innovations, improving the competences of teachers or communication skills of researchers. Relevant competencies of this research group will be used to carry out project activities.