Estonian Ministry of Education and Research allocated 7 million euros to distribute over seven years for both the Centre of Excellence for Energy Efficiency, led by Professor and academician Jarek Kurnitski of the University of Technology, and the Centre of Excellence for Strategic Mineral and Carbon-based Resource Circular Economy, led by Professor Riina Aav.
According to Professor Kurnitski, the Centre of Excellence for Energy Efficiency aims to help break the trend of rising energy consumption and support a breakthrough in the full renovation of residential buildings in Estonia. The best expertise in engineering, data science, and social sciences in Estonia is being brought together for this purpose. ‘We will also work on the energy efficiency and resilience of new buildings where the energy transition has largely already taken place. The biggest challenge, however, is improving the energy efficiency of existing homes and workplaces. There is still a lot of work to be done to achieve a breakthrough,’ said Jarek Kurnitski.
The Centre of Excellence, led by Kurnitski, is already organising a scientific luncheon titled ‘Socially Cohesive and Broad-Based Renovation of Buildings’ on 26 January, at the Estonian Academy of Sciences, which will analyse the current situation of the Estonian building stock and present the best current solutions for energy-efficient renovation.
The Centre of Excellence for Strategic Mineral and Carbon-based Resource Circular Economy is jointly aiming to find solutions for managing complex supply chains and ensuring the quality of recycled materials. The objective is to overcome the technological challenges associated with mineral and carbon-based raw materials. ‘The results of the researchers working together can make a significant contribution to sustainable development and more efficient use of resources in a global context.’
In addition to researchers of natural sciences, engineering and economics from the Tallinn University of Technology, the Centre of Excellence is also bringing together researchers from the University of Tartu and the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics.
The 40 researchers in the Centre of Excellence will be working in four groups: the working groups on strategic mineral raw materials, carbon-based raw materials, industrial transfer of circular technologies, and the business applications and modelling analysis of the circular economy.
According to Tiit Lukk, Vice-Rector for Research at TalTech, the Centres of Excellence provide an amazing opportunity for cooperation not only within the University, but also between different research institutions. ‘A research group is like a string quartet, where music is played by a small number of musicians and is limited to four instruments. In contrast, a university is as varied as a symphony orchestra, which also gives the opportunity to play very different kinds of music, because in addition to string instruments, the wind and percussion instruments also add colour to the music. A centre of excellence, however, is like a chamber orchestra, which can perform a much wider repertoire than a quartet, but is more limited than a symphony orchestra due to the assortment of instruments. And yet, a chamber orchestra (the Centre of Excellence) is large and distinctive enough to give concerts on larger stages (do research that speaks more to society as a whole). Interestingly enough, a chamber orchestra is made up of around 40 to 50 musicians, which is also the number of researchers contributing to the Centre of Excellence,’ commented Lukk.
In total, ten Centres of Excellence were financed to achieve the objectives of the ‘Estonia 2035’ long-term development strategy. These Centres involve 10 evaluated research institutions and more than 80 research groups.
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