Entrepreneurial Mindset for junior researchers
May 2, 2024  

Course on Entrepreneurial Mindset for Junior Researchers

In the constantly evolving landscape of academic research, it is becoming more and more evident how important entrepreneurial skills – such as effective communication, team management and environmental scanning – are for researchers. In response to this need, Tallinn University has introduced a new course entitled “Entrepreneurial Mindset for Junior Researchers” as part of the C-Accelerate project, curated and delivered by Tanya Escudero and Ulrike Rohn.

Entrepreneurial Mindset for junior researchers

Course participants at TLU

Aimed at PhD students from a variety of disciplines, the course was designed to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset that would enable them to successfully navigate both academic and real-world challenges. The objectives of the course were threefold: firstly, to introduce junior researchers to entrepreneurial thinking; secondly, to guide participants in exploring their inner strengths and domain expertise for impactful contributions within and beyond academia; and thirdly, to encourage interdisciplinary interactions, collaborations and network development.

The timing for developing this course was particularly good. From September 2024, the PhD curriculum at Tallinn University will include a centrally delivered module on transferable skills across all schools and disciplines (offering short practical courses and workshops of 1-2 credits). By piloting this course in the spring semester of 2024, it has been possible to fully integrate it into the upcoming curriculum.

Entrepreneurial Mindset for junior researchers

The course was structured into six two-hour sessions, most of which took place on consecutive weeks. Both lecturers were present at each session to encourage dialogue and create a dynamic environment. Students were asked to keep a self-reflective journal: each week, they responded to a question related to that session’s topic, which then served as the basis for further reflection in subsequent sessions.

Session 1: Theoretical Foundations

This first session served as an introduction to the course and key entrepreneurial concepts and terminology. Students applied entrepreneurial thinking to research contexts and engaged in discussions to deepen their understanding.

Session 2: Discovering the entrepreneurial self

With a focus on self-discovery, this session explored personality archetypes, inner strengths, resilience and values. An in-class self-reflection exercise encouraged students to identify their strengths, weaknesses and skills.

Session 3: Domain expertise

Students looked at their specific domains of knowledge and identified how their expertise fits within the framework of entrepreneurial competence. The session included activities to map domains and link personal strengths to domain expertise.

Session 4: Building your network

This session covered the basics of networking, including understanding different network roles such as collaborators, mentors and stakeholders. Students practised identifying their current and ideal networks to support their research projects and future endeavours.

Session 5: Impact on society

Participants considered how to integrate societal factors into their work, identifying strategies to increase their impact. The group exercise involved creating an impact canvas outline a project idea which combined their strenghts, knowledge, and networks and could potentially have a societal impact.

Session 6: Presentation and Wrap-up

The final session was dedicated to refining the impact canvas, presenting ideas and reflecting on the course. Feedback was collected to assess the outcomes of the course and to plan future iterations.

More information about the course and the feedback received at Tallinn University’s website.

About the trainers:

Entrepreneurial Mindset for junior researchers

Tanya Escudero is a Research Fellow at the School of Humanities, working on topics related to communication with migrants and linguistic minorities. She is also Senior Adviser of Doctoral Studies at Tallinn University. She has curated, delivered and organized numerous trainings at TLU focusing on practical and transferable skills for PhD students. She is currently curating the new module on transferable skills at Tallinn University which will be implemented for the first time in 2024.

Ulrike Rohn is Professor of Media Management and Media Economics at the Baltic, Film, Media and Arts School (BFM). She is the co-Head of the Tallinn University Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT), President of the European Media Management Association (emma), co-Editor of the Journal of Media Business Studies. Ulrike leads and is part of various research projects, including projects on entrepreneurship and media management.

Tanya Escudero - Integration Foundation Conference
December 1, 2023  

Invited speaker at the 2023 Integration Foundation Conference (Tallinn, Estonia)

The Integration Conference “From Security to Solidarity: Challenges of Integration in the Times of Crisis” took place in November 2023. The event proposed an in-depth exploration of integration-themed topics, providing a platform for discussions and best practices exchange, drawing from narratives both within and outside Europe. The Integration Conference is designed for experts in the field of integration, policymakers, scholars, but also enthusiasts, practitioners, representatives from the third sector and the general public.

The conference opened with an overview of the results of the project “Improving Communication with Migrants for Crisis Preparedness” led by Tanya Escudero, that served as a transition to move from the covid crisis to the current war crisis.

More about the Integration Conference and agenda here.

Abstract: The project “Improving Communication with Migrants for Crisis Preparedness: Lessons Learned From COVID-19”, which was carried out by researchers in Estonia, Finland and Latvia, sought to map obstacles in communicating with communities with low command of the official language and identify good practices that could be implemented in future emergencies.
The results show that, in addition to the underlying distrust of state institutions among the population, there have been several obstacles that have further aggravated the situation and perhaps put society at risk, including insufficient information available in non-official languages or the slow provision of this information; conflicting or confusing messages from official sources; the viral spread of misinformation in different spheres, such as social media; a lack of cooperation between governments and other stakeholders; and monolithic strategies that are not adapted to the needs and concerns of specific communities, such as the approach adopted during the vaccination campaign.

The resulting reports are available for open access here.

August 6, 2024  

C-Accelerate. Programme Handbook. A Guide to Foster the Entrepreneurial Mindset  (2024)

Abstract: C-Accelerate is a project aimed at increasing innovation, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindset in higher education for the arts and creative practices. The consortium consists of four European universities, including FilmEU, the European Universities Alliance for Film and Media Arts, and Aalto University. 

Collectively, the consortium aims to promote entrepreneurial mindset education, innovation, and research in the multidisciplinary field of cultural and creative sectors and industries. C-Accelerate presents an ambitious innovation vision action plan that covers four dimensions, including entrepreneurial education, project development, support structures for creativity and knowledge transfer, and collaboration and institutional engagement.

This manual outlines the core values and purpose of C-Accelerate, a collaborative project focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. The manual  includes case studies, such as the example of Tallinn University, to ilustrate how C-Accelerate supports and encourages entrepreneurship in various contexts.

The manual provides guidance and strategies for fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, promoting interdisciplinary teamwork, utilising design thinking, and more. Overall, this manual serves as a valuable resource for those looking to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in their organisations. 

How to cite

Bengs et al (2024). C-Accelerate. Programme Handbook. A Guide to Foster the Entrepreneurial Mindset. Aalto University. https://fliphtml5.com/fouak/chfd/C-Accelerate_Programme_Handbook_2024/1/.

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Visit C-Accelerate website

August 6, 2024  

Vaccination narratives in a multilingual society: on intercultural communication and trust  (2023)

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have shown that in order to tackle the problems encountered during a health crisis of this scale, it is necessary to work on communication strategies that reach out to the whole society, including linguistic minorities, who are often one of the most vulnerable groups in such situations. In Estonia, one of the main focuses of the government during the pandemic was the vaccination campaign, as the uptake of vaccines was quite low, especially among the Russian-speaking population. In this country, the ethnolinguistic Russian minority makes up one-third of the society, but communication with and inclusion of this segment of the population has not always been satisfactory. This study aims to understand how the government’s intercultural communication strategies have impacted this minority by focusing on the reactions to vaccination and the different narratives that emerged in response to the posts on the Facebook page of the Republic of Estonia Health Board (Terviseamet). The narratives point to a distrust of the government that, while already existing prior to the pandemic, has had a huge impact on the reception of information during this period.

Keywords: Crisis communication, Vaccine hesitancy, Government trust, Social media, Health inequity, Intercultural communication

How to cite

Escudero, T. and Maadla, J. (2023) “Vaccination Narratives in a Multilingual Society. On Intercultural Communication and Trust” in Declercq, C. and Kerremans, K., Routledge Handbook of Translation, Interpreting and Crisis. London: Routledge, 304-318. DOI: 10.4324/9781003207580-25.

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January 18, 2023  

Communication with linguistic minorities in Estonia during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned (2022)

Executive summary:

In a multicultural and multilingual society, such as Estonia, effective intercultural communication is key to the inclusion and social participation of communities with low command of the official language. The COVID-19 health crisis proved that failure to reach all groups in society impacts whole countries negatively. However, little research attention has been paid to intercultural crisis communication to open up new paths and solutions. 

The present study was developed in response to this need and is an output of the project “Improving Communication with Migrants for Crisis Preparedness: Lessons Learned From COVID-19“, which was carried out by researchers in three countries, namely Estonia, Finland and Latvia. Its aim is to suggest rapid-response crisis communication strategies for delivering information to linguistic minorities during emergencies. Furthermore, due to this study’s transnational nature, it seeks to strengthen cooperation between the states of the Baltic Sea Region in dealing with cross-border emergencies and find ways to use the knowledge generated by this cooperation to address problems at the local/state level.

To achieve the main goal, we sought to map obstacles in communicating with non-Estonian- speaking communities within Estonia and identify good practices that could be implemented in the future. To this end, we interviewed representatives from organisations that have played key roles in the communication effort during the pandemic crisis. These stakeholders came from five Estonian sectors, namely government institutions, companies, higher education institutions, NGOs and the media.

The results show that, in addition to the underlying distrust of state institutions among the population, there have been several obstacles that have further aggravated the situation and perhaps put society at risk, including insufficient information available in non-official languages or the slow provision of this information; conflicting or confusing messages from official sources; the viral spread of misinformation in different spheres, such as social media; a lack of cooperation between governments and other stakeholders; and monolithic strategies that are not adapted to the needs and concerns of specific communities, such as the approach adopted during the vaccination campaign. The identification of these obstacles and the ways in which various stakeholders have addressed them has provided the basis for making some recommendations for future crises.

How to cite

Escudero, Tanya; Maadla, Jekaterina; Jakobson, Mari-Liis; Polynin, Ivan (2022). Communication with linguistic minorities in Estonia during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned, Tallinn University.

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