CESERE - Environmental and Community Sustainability Research
Centre for Community and Environmental Sustainability and Security Research and Education CESERE focuses on contemporary and novel emerging issues related to sustainable, secure, empowered and environmentally responsible communities and protection of environment.
CESERE Research Focus
The scope of CESERE is applied research, development and innovation activities in the field of natural and social sciences and technology.
We perform environmental research and analysis of its societal aspects using combined systems view and integrated life cycle modelling that includes situations, interactions, scenarios and trends. CESERE carries out projects and studies related to sustainability, environmental awareness and security. To ensure the practical output of research and disseminate awareness, we engage communities and NGOs, develop and conduct environmental education programs, and conduct seminars and practical outdoor activities.
Key Research Areas
Our key research areas and approaches to support communities and environmental sustainability and security are:
- Sustainable and secure behaviour of communities
- Environmental research and analysis, ecological footprint analysis
- Modelling and analysis of ecosystem services, their impact to environmental sustainability and perception by communities
- Analysis of critical services and their continuity
- Environmental security, food security and energy security studies
- Analysis of social cohesion and empowerment of communities, modelling of societal aspects and cultural heritage issues
Selected List of Current and Previous Projects
The previous and current research projects of our team and network members have been focused either on specific aspects of the domain or on integration activities. Some of the most recent existing and previous research and projects, related to various aspects of sustainability and security, are listed hereunder.
Carbon sequestration solutions to meet the European Union’s climate goals (2023-2027). Horizon Europe project. Role: task leader, analysis of possible solutions and scenarios, environmental monitoring, synthesis of results. See more detailed information about the C-SINK project here.
Environmental protection and reducing environmental impact through green technologies (2022-2024). Role: responsible executor of the project, development of the study program, assembly of study materials, conducting trainings. Link to RoheTeh project website.
Resilience of Communities
Study of the resilience of communities and their organisations (2023, 2024). Role: coordination and conducting the study, analysis and synthesis of results.
Increasing of Resilience
Development project on analysis and improvement of community resilience and sustainability (2023,2024-2025). Role: elaboration and conducting of survey, performing risk and sustainability analysis, trainings and seminars.
Environmental Footprint
Study of the environmental footprint and opportunities to reduce it. Project 20110 (description of the project in ETIS). Role: field analysis, development of model and self-assessment tool, synthesis of results.
Security of Public Buildings
Analysis and elaboration of a model for ensuring the security aspects of buildings and related societal aspects (2018-2020, 2024).
UAVs, C-UAVs and security
Determination, analysis and design of capabilities, situation assessment and situation awareness in heterogeneous systems including sensor fusion, UAVs and counter-UAV focus together with societal and security and safety issues.
Environmental Awareness
Environmental awareness study programs (since 2019). Role: elaboration of study programs and curricula on environmental awareness and community sustainability, conducting the programs.
Our team and network members have participated and participating in 50+ international and national projects. The project programmes included, but not limited to EU Horizon 2020 and FP7 frameworks and European Defence Agency projects.
Recent Publications
Selection of recent publications related to community and environmental sustainability and security research and education:
The research report describes an integrated methodology for modelling interactions, scenarios and emergent behaviour in time-sensitive heterogeneous systems (e.g., in logistics, supply chain, security, socio-technical and cyber-physical systems, etc.). See the record in Zenodo.
The study of the crisis preparedness of Muuga residents focused on the perception of danger, respondents’ awareness of available resources and threats, preparedness for possible crises and ensuring sustainability, and communication and cooperation with the community and municipality. See the record in Zenodo.
The crisis preparedness survey of the residents of Harku municipality in Estonia revealed the threat perception of the residents of the municipality’s townships and villages, awareness of available resources and preparations for possible crises. Residents’ evaluations of communication and cooperation were also studied. See the record in Zenodo.
Knowledge Management
Online course and study materials related to Knowledge Management. More information: cesere@cesere.eu.
Activities Related to Projects and Development
The previous and current research projects of our team and network members have been focused either on specific aspects of the domain or on integration activities. Some of the existing and previous research and projects are related to:
- Modelling and analysis of environmental and carbon footprint of domains, agencies and organisations.
- Environmental and socio-economic analyses for environmental and community projects.
- Collecting and analysis of user requirements in social real-time, cyber-physical and sociotechnical systems related to communities’ sustainability, safety and security.
- Determination, analysis and design of capabilities, situation assessment and situation awareness in heterogeneous systems.
- Analysis and improvement of information exchange, knowledge management and devising corresponding decision making systems in heterogeneous organisations in different societal domains and communities.
- Analysis of trends, simulation of probable scenarios and prognosticating short and medium-time horizon.
- Modelling of teams, organisations and communities and their behaviour with a multi-agent approach and modelling of possible emergent behaviour.
- Developing and conducting study programs, seminars and workshops related to environmental sustainability and responsibility.
- Engaging communities and target groups, conducting practical experiments and analysing the behavioural change on environmental aspects.
Integrated Research Methodology
In order to capture essential characteristics of processes and actors and the dynamics of behaviour, an original integrated approach is used for capturing essential process flows, timing criteria of processes together with interactions and freedom of choice from multi-actor viewpoint. The methodology includes modelling and simulation of processes, scenarios and interactions.
Such models provide more precision and trustworthiness in understanding environmental and societal phenomena and prognosticating possible outcomes and alternative scenarios.
Cooperation on Research, Development and Innovation
We offer high level professional activities and expertise in R&D projects to research and understand various phenomena and trends. The focus is on communities, environment and society and to development respective solutions. Members of our team hold respective PhD and MSc degrees and have previous recognised experience and results on similar projects.
Besides ongoing activities we are open for discussions with potential new partners and consortia. We are interested in novel RDI projects in community research, technology usage, sustainability, security and resilience. We can support research by collecting user needs and requirements, developing and conducting surveys, analysis, simulation, modelling and training of the environmental and societal sustainability, security and wellbeing aspects.
In a project, we can also join a larger research team or consortia to complement the research with specific aspects. Those can be, for example, analyses related to societal, modelling and simulation aspects. The activities can be also related to engaging of communities and conducting practical environmental activities, if necessary.
Our ISNI: 0000000516918008. We also have PIC code for EU projects and Erasmus ID for Erasmus projects.
We are happy to discuss the possible participation topics by e-mail cesere@cesere.eu or by phone +372 5918 9000.
Project Writing, Seminars and Training at CESERE
We also offer training and seminars. The focus is in environmental, community and societal relationships and sustainability. The areas also include situation awareness, knowledge management, project management and project writing and financing.
Based on our experience, we can offer support in writing of Horizon Europe and other national and international projects.
More information about trainings is provided on the page Training and seminars
Contact and information requests: cesere@cesere.eu, phone +372 5918 9000.