In 2015, Estonia launched its e-residency program that gave foreigners the ability to apply for a digital residency in Estonia, even if they don't live in the country. At the time of writing, more than 40,000 people have obtained e-residency. Moreover, these e-residents have established nearly 6,700 companies in Estonia, benefiting from Estonian business-friendly tax laws, access to online payment systems, and so forth. Recently, a small number of academic papers have emerged that discuss the governance and business aspects of e-residency. However, most of the key texts have been authored by civil servants, and there has been a lack of analyses on how the e-residency initiative shapes the broader global political economy. Some of the crucial questions are as follows: How does the proliferation of e-residency program impact the EU-level efforts of international tax cooperation, as well as the concept of economic citizenship that underlies the international tax system? Should the e-residency initiative be seen as a new solution to the governance challenges of the EU's Digital Single Market, or does it rather accelerate international race to the bottom in business regulation? How does the initiative alter the self-perception of both Estonian government and the entrepreneurs that use e-residency? By analyzing the broader political economy of the initiative, the PEER project carries a potential for significant academic and policy-level contributions. Utilizing interviews, textual sources and financial statement analysis, the project focuses both on the governance side of the initiative and its users. The result will be a broad-ranging, inter-disciplinary inquiry into a phenomenon that may have potential to transform the concept of citizenship. The results will have high policy-relevance not only in Estonia, but also within the European Union, as well as in those EU member states that are allegedly considering implementing similar initiatives.

The EU set an ambitious goal towards decarbonising the energy system and to reach climate objectives in 2030/2050. PV is recognized as one of the key renewable energy solution to fulfil the climate-neutrality, defined by strategical SET-plan target of 30% (10TW) world’s energy demand by 2050. To meet these goals in an economically and environmentally meaningful way, energy demand and CO2 emissions for the production of PV cells must be well below those of mainstream crystalline silicon. Today’s available highly efficient thin film (tf) PV technologies relies on scarce elements (indium in CIGS; tellurium in CdTe) or contains elements like lead or cadmium that fall under the EU RoHS-directive. BOOSTPV proposes development of novel absorbers and proof of concept tf solar cells entirely based on emerging, low-cost, earth abundant and green bismuth chalcogenide PV materials. The approach is based on a rapid technological development of low temperature processes, using robust, resource saving, high yield and easily scalable close spaced sublimation technique. BOOSTPV will promote the research excellence of the fellow and research group via two-way transfer of knowledge, strengthening their expertise and innovation at international level. Cost-efficient, stable and lightweight tf solar cells will be fabricated, using processes with reduced environmental impact and carbon footprint, paving a solid base for further development and deployment of ground-breaking technologies that will feed the innovation cycle, progress in BIPV/PIPV application variability and support the value chain of the next generation PV in EU.