EBS International Summer School on Digitalisation and Sustainability

EBS Summer School 2025

Location: Tallinn, Estonia (11-15 August 2025)

ECTS Credits: 6 ECTS

The Estonian Business School is excited to announce that admissions are now open for our fifth annual International Summer School. A one-week summer school is planned for 11-15 August, on our campus in Tallinn, Estonia.

EBS brings together students and speakers from all over the world, allowing for the exchange of ideas on two of the megatrends that change modern societies: digitalisation and sustainability. The challenge of a so-called “twin transition” is clear: the world needs to digitalise to take advantage of the vast advances in digital products, but this needs to be accomplished in a sustainable fashion.

The summer school focuses on trends, uncertainties and complexities in intersections of digitalisation and sustainability on a global level. The course helps participants to learn multifaceted nature of digitalisation and sustainability in national and international level. Through lectures and workshops it demonstrates how to use different social science methods in order to get a better grasp of future trajectories. It also helps participants to summarise and communicate complex issues in the intersection of digitalisation and sustainability in an easily understandable way. The course improves decision-making and teamwork skills through capstone assignments. 

Combining our diverse business, economic, policy, and management perspectives offered by the summer school’s distinguished faculty, lecturers, and speakers will provide fundamental ingredients for generating new ideas. We are well on our way to making this event a summer tradition at EBS, providing a platform for future leaders to gather at EBS and turn their ideas into reality.

We will take various site visits (last year’s program included a visit to a startup incubator, a tour of Old Town Tallinn and the Estonian parliament, and a museum trip).

There are also online options for streaming over the internet, with the professional support of the EBS IT team.

Keynote Speakers

Yoko Alender

Yoko Alender is an architect, city planner, and politician. She has been a Member of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) since 2015, re-elected in 2019 and 2023. She was elected to the Tallinn City Council in 2013 and 2017. Yoko is a Member of the Estonian Reform Party and serves as Chairman of the Environment Committee. She served as the Estonian Minister of Climate from 2024 to 2025. She has worked in architecture, city planning, cultural management, and politics. Yoko has four children, is a certified yoga teacher, and leads the parliamentary group for mindfulness in the Estonian Parliament.

Sigrid Rajalo

Sigrid Rajalo is the Director of the Innovation and Technology Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in Estonia. Since joining the Ministry in 2013, she has played a relevant role in developing Estonia’s innovation policies. Sigrid was instrumental in creating Estonia’s first demand-side innovation policy and facilitating the country’s accession to the European Space Agency. She has held several key positions, including Head of the Innovation Policy Unit and Strategy Advisor. Additionally, Sigrid has served on the supervisory boards of Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and Tartu Science Park, currently holding the position in state-owned company Metrosert which is launching Estonia´s very first Research and Technology Organization function. She is also a Guest Lecturer at the University of Tartu and has obtained PhD in Economics.

Ave Schank-Lukas

Ave Schank-Lukas is working as the Acting Head of the Commission Representation in Estonia since August 2024. Before taking up the current duties, she was the economic counsellor at the Representation. In her previous functions in the European Commission, she has been working on EU’s agricultural and trade policy, in particular on agricultural markets and relations with China. She has also worked in the Secretariat-General’s European Green Deal team, and contributed to the Estonian Presidency of the EU in 2017 as an adviser to the Presidency team at the Estonian Permanent Representation to the EU. Before joining the Commission, she was an Estonian civil servant, working for the Ministry of Agriculture. Ms Schank-Lukas holds an economic degree from the University of Tartu in Estonia and a post-graduate diploma in European studies from the University of Southern Denmark.

Tea Danilov 

Tea Danilov is Head of Foresight Centre at the Estonian Parliament.  She graduated from the University of Tartu with a Master of Economics degree, specialising in econometrics and economic theory. She has worked in Enterprise Estonia as the Director of Export and Entrepreneurship Centre, and in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications as the Head of Internal Market Department and Economic Development Department.

Speakers

One of the greatest assets of the summer school is our excellent speakers, who include visionaries from the public and private sectors, including prominent public officials, entrepreneurs, and academics. The speakers covered a range of subjects, tackling issues particular to Estonia, the region, and the world.

• Yoko Alender, Chairman of the Environment Committee, Estonian Parliament and former Minister of Climate. 

• Ave Schank-Lukas, Acting Head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia

• Sigrid Rajalo, Director of the Innovation and Technology Department, Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

• Veiko Karu, Associate Professor, Estonian Business School

• Tea Danilov, Head of Foresight Centre, Estonian Parliament

• Sandra Reivik, Artificial intelligence enthusiast and practitione

• Shahab Anbarjafari, Chief Data Scientist and Director, PwC Finland

• Meelis Kitsing, Professor of Political Economy, Estonian Business School

Course Credit

The summer school curriculum is for master- and doctoral-level students, advanced undergraduates (final year), or those entering graduate-level programs. The summer school is taught in English.

The summer school utilises a variety of approaches such as lectures, keynote speeches, on-site visits, workshops, company presentations and team assignments. The session would involve a discussion of the critical concepts and empirical analysis. This would be supplemented with reading assignments. The summer school instructors will follow participative methods in class. The instruction will be predominantly through interactive lectures and workshops.  Students are expected to come prepared to the class whenever a reading is prescribed. To make the best use of the learning opportunities, each participant must actively participate and be ready to share his/ her perspective to build the skills of presentation and the attitude of collective learning. Groups of 5-7 students will be formed for the capstone assignment which will be presented on the last day of summer school.

You will receive an official transcript of records granting 6 ECTS credit points when the summer school is completed and your summer school requirements are fulfilled.

Students will receive either Pass (P) or Fail (F) grade. They will be evaluated on the basis of team presentation and attendance and participation. The weightage given to each of these units is listed below:

• Class Attendance and Participation                      30%
• Group Project                                                           70%