Projects

We shall custom-engineer MAS and metabolomics NMR and apply it on selected problems, notably Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, COVID, diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, fluor ion batteries, wood chemistry, also universal AI-assisted diagnostics and monitoring. We shall in particular focus on phytochemicals as the fastest and least harmful option to address acute health issues like SARS infection and neurodegenerative diseases. New hardware, based on fast mechanical spinning up to 15 Million RPM, electron spin polarization transfer (DNP), a sophisticated multi-axes sample rotation (DOR) and also 1.2GHz NMR magnets are expected to provide an unprecedented resolution and sensitivity in NMR, rendering it principally more helpful for a significantly wider range of material sciences and biomedical topics. In complex functional cases, the NMR will be arguably more informative and convenient than presently popular methods of plasmon resonance, CryoEM, X-ray or MS.

Building on TalTech’s expertise in the field of computer engineering and its high-level capacity in the domain of diagnostics and testing of nanoelectronic systems, this project aims at establishing in TalTech, with the strong support of the Advanced Partners, the capacity to R&D&I a complete customised AI-chip design flow. The research ambition of the TAICHIP (TalTech AI-chip) action is a leading-edge forward-thinking R&D framework for reliable and resource-efficient custom AI-chips based on open HW architectures (e.g., RISC-V, NVDLA), open EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools, methodologies and implementation technologies satisfying the requirements of AI applications of tomorrow. TAICHIP project also allows building at TalTech the necessary scientific knowledge, research skills, administrative and management skills, as well as strengthening its advanced training and education capacity. Evenly related to the central goal are the additional measures that focus on building the supporting capacities, as well as dissemination, exploitation and communication, and public policy focused activities.

The project aims to redesign the current RAPID sensors to make them more fault-tolerant. This makes the testing of underwater sensor devices faster, easier, and more reliable. These sensors help researchers understand the physical conditions fish experience in hydropower plants. Currently, testing the sensors is slow and requires expert knowledge. This project will create a simple computer program that allows anyone to check the sensor's condition in just a few seconds. The results will help make future sensor systems more robust and easier to use in the field.

This project aims to foster children’s digital and AI literacy and promote their rights and safety in digital environments across the Western Balkans, with a particular focus on Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Grounded in principles of inclusion, ethics, and empowerment, the initiative responds to the urgent need for structured, rights-based digital education that reaches all children—especially those from marginalized and underrepresented groups. The project will empower children aged 8–18 with the knowledge and critical thinking needed to navigate the digital world safely and ethically, introducing key concepts such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and misinformation. Through a cascade Training-of-Trainers (ToT) model, over 250 educators will be equipped to deliver gender-sensitive, age-appropriate digital and AI education using an inclusive training curriculum and a co-designed Digital AI Literacy Toolkit. To ensure that children are not just passive recipients, the project will actively engage them as co-creators and campaigners, enabling them to lead awareness initiatives such as “My Digital Voice” and contribute to resource development. The approach will prioritize Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to close digital access gaps for girls, children with disabilities, rural youth, and those in institutional care. On the policy level, the project will drive change by producing a regional Policy Paper and organizing roundtables with ministries and digital stakeholders, advocating for the integration of children’s rights and ethical AI use into national education and child protection strategies. By combining local action with regional and EU-level dialogue, the project will build long-term capacities, promote cross-border collaboration, and contribute to a safer, fairer digital future for all children in the Western Balkans and beyond.

Around 13% of the adult population suffers some form of kidney damage, and the death rate of complications related to chronic kidney disease (CKD) is very high. The primary cause of death in CKD patients is cardiovascular disease. Vascular calcification (VC), one of the cardiovascular complications, is prevailing in CKD. One of the causes of VC in CKD is the disbalance between VC inhibitors and inducers due to failed kidney function. During the dialysis therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, inducers and also inhibitors are removed from the patients’ blood. This project (VasCalDi) aims to develop unique optical methods to estimate VC and monitor VC inhibitors removal during dialysis in patients with ESRD. The project's goal is to make the work of hospitals and physicians more efficient and improve the life quality and survival of ESRD patients by monitoring disturbances in VC inhibitor balance and vasculature allowing timely interventions.

The general goal of the project is to foster the transition to a fully carbon-neutral economy. The objective is to find new effective and low-cost amine-based protic ionic liquids (IL) for latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES). ILs can be considered potential “green” phase change materials (PCM) which have received little attention despite their excellent properties, like high enthalpy of fusion, high density, stability, and the potential for utilizing renewable feedstocks for their production. The project uses both computational and experimental methods for finding the most likely ILs for LHTES applications. Consequently, the study will provide broad fundamental knowledge on the applicability of ILs considering their physicochemical properties as well as toxicity, corrosivity, and stability along with the impact of nanoparticles on their performance.

This MSCA project focuses on the development of high-performance carbon dots (CDs) from sustainable biomass sources, specifically lignin and peat. Unlike general synthesis projects, this research prioritizes achieving high quantum yields through optimized doping and advanced purification and separation approaches to obtain well-defined, fractionated products. Through systematic characterization, the project ensures the production of materials with non-toxic properties, specifically tailored for high-contrast bioimaging and cellular labeling. The goal is to establish a robust protocol for creating sustainable, medical-grade fluorescent probes that outperform traditional toxic semiconductor quantum dots.

The aim of the financial competence development project led by TalTech is to provide, in collaboration with various institutions and researchers, the necessary scientific expert group to solve various problems related to improving financial literacy and to conduct measurements and experiments during the project. The project will carry out the analysis described in the initial task, answer the research questions, and additionally propose activities and measures to improve financial literacy. Researchers from TalTech, the University of Tartu, Tallinn University, Estonian Business School, and Mainor Business School will participate in the project, along with external partners from Aalto University (Finland), Trier University (Germany), and Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany).

The Notary Chamber of the Republic of Azerbaijan launched an initiative to improve capacity building programs for lawyers and candidates. To this aim, it ordered from TalTech the organisation and provision of train-the-trainer courses for Azerbaijani judges in collaboration with experts from Germany and Estonia. New courses developed through performance of this contract shall close the gaps in the basic legal education of Azerbaijan, especially with regard to the case solution method.

The project aims to shed light on the differences in the national regulation of children’s autonomous decisions. There are still considerable differences as to the regulatory approaches and preconditions for autonomous decisions of minors in Europe. The approaches largely foresee autonomy of minors based either on an individual assessment of their capacity to understand or on their age, with context-related differences. In order to understand national approaches, renowned national experts from 11 selected countries will contribute to the project, in addition to the project leaders, by reporting on the legal situation in their respective legal orders. The results will be discussed during the project and made available to the research community.

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are the only short-term alternative to fossil fuels in aviation. Considering the increased number of passengers forecasted in the near future, a massive increased in SAF production has been estimated in the years to come. To fulfill this increase in demand, the combination of existing and new renewable production chains is needed. Current SAF-producing pathways are at different levels of maturity, implementation or even commercialization. However, lowering the cost and supply chain development are key challenges for commercial-scale SAF deployment. Using biowastes as feedstock for SAF is challenging but necessary to make SAF competitive with fossil fuels. In this context, yeasts may be key players to generate economically-viable SAF intermediates (terpenes or fatty acids (FA)) in an environmentally-friendly way from biowaste. This SAF production by biological means is very new and presents a lot of remaining challenges and training gaps that have to be addressed. YAF research programme aims at; i) producing carbon sources from biowastes, ii) developing new yeast cell factories to produce SAF, iii) designing new bifunctional catalysts, iv) achieving efficient strategies for FA/terpenes extraction, and v) creating robust framework tailored to the scaling-up methodologies and life-cycle sustainability assessment of different SAF producing routes, which will support decisionmaking. To achieve this, the right integration of biology, biotechnology, chemical engineering and environmental sciences will be required. Thus, the prime training/networking aim of YAF is to train the next generation of researchers in a highly interdisciplinary and intersectorial research environment such that they can soundly address upcoming challenges concerning production yeastbased SAF. YAF has been designed to strengthen European research and innovation, enhancing research visibility and generating a critical mass to address European (and global) challenges

This project aims at enhancing expert workforce and digitalization in the field of fault diagnosis, condition- based maintenance of wind turbines and related components in the partner institutions by bringing innovation in higher education teaching and learning methods in wind energy and applied artificial intelligence for maintenance decisions, increasing its relevance for the labour market and the society as a whole. The project will help partners in Vietnam and Thailand to produce in-house human resources in the field of condition-based maintenance of wind energy, making both the countries independent of external consultants. The main objective of the project is to implement real problem-based teaching and learning methods in the curriculum of higher education institutions (HEIs) of the partner countries. The expertise and know- how of the EU partner universities and their long- term teaching and research in this field would make this project objective achievable. Moreover, this project will build the capacity to produce graduates with independent, global insight, interdisciplinary expertise, competence in wind energy, and intercultural expertise. The project will also help the EU partners to renew their education in renewable energy and build a sustainable flow of students in both directions.

While there exist ways to observe the sea surface, the underwater environment requires extended research. Filling this knowledge gap is in line with EU Mission Starfish 2030. Any movement in fluid creates a pressure change. The source of such changes can be natural phenomena like waves, currents, or iceberg calving. These pressure changes also include man-made dynamics, like moving vessels or wastewater release, and can be detected and monitored using pressure sensors. These sensors are non-invasive, energy-efficient, and work submerged. The sensitivity to weak signals may suffer in presence of strong sources like waves or currents. Separation of different sources can be treated as a ”cocktail party problem.” The main purpose of this proposal is to address this challenge and contribute to underwater sea monitoring. We aim at creation of algorithms for source separation, detection and localization to work on low-cost platforms, and validate performance in real deployments.