The 5th EBS International Summer School on Digitalisation and Sustainability will take place on August 11-15, 2025. 

 

The nature and focus of next year's program will be similar to our 2024 programme. It will focus on digital transformation, green transition and sustainable finance as well as on AI development and deployment. 

 

Keynotes and main speakers will be announced in January 2025.

We hope that you will join us next year! Feel free to contact us with any questions that you might have at summerschool@ebs.ee or leave us your information and we will keep you informed with the latest updates as soon as possible. 

 

 

 

 

Have a look at the 2024 programme: 

EBS Summer School 2024

Location: Tallinn, Estonia (12-15 August 2024)
& Helsinki, Finland (16 August 2024)

ECTS Credits: 6 ECTS

 

The Estonian Business School is excited to announce that admissions are now open for our fourth annual International Summer School. A one-week summer school is planned for 12-16 August, with the first four days in Tallinn, Estonia, and the final day, 16 August, at our campus in Helsinki, Finland.

 

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.

 

Full programme

Keynote Speakers

Maive Rute

• Keynote: The Diversification of Global Value Chains for Digital and Green Transformation

 

Maive Rute is Deputy Director-General & Chief Standardisation Officer, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW), European Commission. As Deputy Director-General in GROW, Maive Rute focusses on green transition of industries, resilience of supply chains, promotion of investments, standardisation and IP rights. In June 2022, European Commission nominated her the first ever Chief Standardisation Officer.  Between 2005 – 2019, she worked as Director for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and as Director and DDG in the research and innovation field of the European Commission. She has also served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Estonia and CEO of KredEx, the Estonian business and export financing body. She has studied at Harvard University, CERIS in Brussels, Danube University in Krems and Estonian University of Life Sciences.Website https://commission.europa.eu/persons/maive-rute_en

 

Fredrik Erixon

• Keynote: Innovation, Protectionism and Global Value Chains

Fredrik Erixon is a Swedish economist and writer. He has been the Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) ever since its start in 2006. The Financial Times has ranked Erixon as one of Brussels 30 most influential people. Fredrik Erixon is the author of several books and studies in the fields of international economics, economic policy, and regulatory affairs (welfare reforms, healthcare, competition policy, et cetera). His latest book (co-authored with Björn Weigel) was The Innovation Illusion:

How so Little is Created by so Many Working so Hard (Yale University Press) and he has previously written books about the history of political ideas, the role of social capital for economic growth, and international economic policy. His research interests covers international economics, European relations with Asia and North America, trade and regulatory policy, philosophy and technological change. His next book, Saving Liberalism for the 21^st Century, is about challenges from populism and other ideas to the open society. Erixon has advised several governments in Europe and the rest of the world, and is a frequent speaker at conferences. He regularly writes for international newspapers and magazines. In his previous career, Erixon has worked in development policy, financial markets, business consulting, and academia. Erixon studied at Oxford University, Uppsala University and London School of Economics.

Website. https://ecipe.org/person/fredrik-erixon/

 

 

Luca De Lorenzo

• Helsinki keynote: Financing digital and green transition

Head of Sustainability and Mandate, Member of the Executive Committee, Nordic Investment Bank

Luca has over 15 years of experience in the energy sector and sustainable finance. He is currently part of the executive team at the Nordic Investment Bank and heading the bank’s sustainability team. The unit is responsible for assessing all loan transactions for their potential productivity gains and environmental benefits, the two pillars of NIB’s mandate. Luca ensures that sustainability and mandate are at the core of the bank’s operations. Previously to NIB, Luca has worked at the Stockholm Environment Institute, where he has founded the Stockholm Sustainable Finance Centre with the aim to promote research and innovation in green finance and has worked with corporate clients on business strategy and sustainability while at The Boston Consulting Group.

 

 

 

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.

• Meelis Kitsing (EBS)
• Luca De Lorenzo Head of Sustainability and Mandate, Member of the Executive Committee, Nordic Investment Bank) 
• Maive Rute (European Commission)
• Fredrik Erixon (European Centre for International Political Economy)
• Tea Danilov (Foresight Centre, Estonian Parliament)
• Sandra Reivik (EBS)
• Prof. Laura Hosman (Associate Professor, Arizona State University)
• Indrek Seppo (AI programme manager at the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs in Estonia
• Kalev Kallemets (Co-founder and CEO, Fermi Energia)
• Bruce Baikie (Co-founder and co-director, SolarSPELL, ASU)
• Rasmus Udde (Innovation Lead, Sunly)
• Jüri Seilenthal (Director General, Estonian Trade Policy and International Economic Organisations Department, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 
• Shahab Anbarjafari (Computer Science Professor and Entrepreneur)
• Liisa Gross (Financial Analyst, Utilitas)

• Herty Tammo (Co-founder and lead angel investor, Startup Wise Guys)

• Ellen Elvira Tulvik (General Counsel, fly Nordica)

• Anna Broughel ( Johns Hopkins University)

• Liisi Karindi  (StratCommX)  

• Markus Hausammann (Vaat Brewery)

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%