EstWell seminar Associate Professor Kelli Lehto: What can our genes tell us about mental health and well-being?
2024-12-09 16:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Tallinn) | TÜMRI hoone, Riia 23, ruum 116, Tartu, Estonia
What can our genes tell us about mental health and well-being?
Mental health problems affect nearly half of the population during their lifetime, but still remain challenging to prevent, detect and treat due to our limited understanding of their etiology. In this seminar, I will discuss how large biobanks and genetic data can help make progress. Specifically, I will:

Explore the role of genetics in mental health conditions and traits;
Discuss phenotypic heterogeneity as the key challenge in research on mental health and well-being;
Introduce the Estonian Biobank “Well-Being and Mental Health” Study which includes data from over 86,000 Estonians — approximately 10% of Estonia’s adult population; and
Outline future directions and ethical considerations for integrating genetics into personalized health care for mental health problems.

EstWell seminar Associate Professor Kadri Leetmaa: How rural elderly learn about digital world – methodological reflections from a recent learning experiment with elderly population in Estonia rural localities
2024-12-16 16:00 - 17:00 | University of Tartu, Näituse 2-102, Tartu, Estonia
The seminar will be conducted by Associate Professor of Human Geography at the University of Tartu, Kadri Leetmaa, and Lecturer in Cognitive and School Psychology, Triin Liin.
Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the way how society functions. Digital life is no longer just a means of communication, but instead, ‘digital’ has become ‘natural’, making hard to distinguish digital transactions from our general presence in the society. What has received relatively little attention, is who remains excluded from this transformative change. To compensate the gap digital transformation should be examined more from the perspective of the ‘margins’ of the society, through the places and people that are usually not at the centre of defining the smartification trends.
In the ongoing research project, we focus on rural areas and older people—we explore how elderly people in peripheral rural areas adapt to the increasingly digitalized life.
In the EstWell seminar we present our first methodological reflections from the ongoing learning experiment (Sept-Dec 2024, follow-up focus groups planned in Jan/Feb 2025) with rural elderly in four Estonian municipalities. We formed small local community study groups, where prepared digital learning took place on tablets in the experiment and control group setting, coordinated by local community researchers. In the seminar we mainly reflect the methodological aspects of the learning experiment.

EstWell seminar Karin Streimann & Triin Vilms (National Institute for Health Development): Blind Spots in Prevention Science
2025-01-13 16:00 - 17:00
„When cooperation with the university is not possible in ensuring the scientific basis of preventive intervention, how can the practical and academic common ground be created? It is possible to buy in expert assessment as a service, but it is difficult, everyone is busy, etc. … After all, public universities should contribute back to society … What is their responsibility?”
This question was asked by the local level prevention expert and illustrates the expectation to think about intervention evaluation with higher education institutions, but perception that it is difficult at the moment. Majority of the prevention research originates currently from a handful of high-income countries; there are only some feasibility and effectiveness studies completed in Estonia. In addition, researchers, implementers, developers and decision-makers understand prevention research differently: for funders the effectiveness study might mean evaluating satisfaction with the intervention, for implementers it can mean observation and relying on intuition while the scientist usually thinks about the randomized controlled trial.
Prevention science focuses on the development of effective interventions that reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors to improve the health and wellbeing of people in different settings. In this workshop we will discuss the blind spots in prevention science and pull on the thinking hats of different stakeholders to understand their perspectives. We will discuss how to bring more prevention research into Estonian scientific landscape and inspire researchers to study feasibility, efficacy and effectiveness of preventive interventions implemented in Estonia.

EstWell seminar Professor Andero Uusberg: Keeping our science applicable and our applications scientific
2025-01-20 16:00 - 17:00 | University of Tartu, Näituse 2-102, Tartu, Estonia
I will share my thinking about and experiences with using behavioral sciences to change behavior.

EstWell seminar Professors Tiia Tulviste & Eve Kikas: Learning, development and well-being at home and school
2025-01-27 16:00 - 17:00 | Tartu Ülikool, Näituse 2-118, Tartu, Estonia
The first part of the presentation focuses on why developmental psychologists recommend limiting children’s screen time and whether infants should avoid using screen devices altogether. The second part discusses how to measure motivation and what is the role of motivation in learning and well-being.

EstWell seminar Professor Peeter Ross: Patient Generated Health Data
2025-02-10 16:00 - 17:00 | TalTech, Akadeemia tee 3-LIB-109B, Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia
Healthcare data has traditionally been collected and stored by medical professionals. Decisions concerning a person’s health are made based on this data. In the digital age, health data are stored in various healthcare institutions’ databases. In Estonia, for example, the electronic medical records of hospitals or family doctors or the Estonian Health Information System. At the same time, these so-called health information systems mainly contain disease data, which, with a few exceptions, have been collected when a person has complaints or health conditions.
Our research group aims to find suitable data sets and tools for person-generated health data and to explore how to share this data with healthcare professionals. This would allow for an overview of a person’s health status when they are not sick , or their chronic condition is under control and to find data patterns that would help identify potential risks and prevent the development of diseases.
In the first half of the seminar, we will explore the existing digital environment for capturing and exchanging health data and information, and in the second half, we will add to them the part of the data generated and collected by the person himself and the research of this domain.

EstWell seminar Professor Kairi Kreegipuu: Truly National Electricity: Brain Biopotentials
2025-02-17 16:00 - 17:00 | University of Tartu, Näituse 2-102, Tartu, Estonia
In the presentation, I will introduce the research and recent findings of our team in the field of measuring brain biopotentials. It turns out that these psychobiological signals reflect ongoing information processing, human states, and sometimes even some of our national characteristics. In any case, these are studies that cannot yet be replaced by re-analyzing information in big data repositories, as the exploration of what do they show is still ongoing. However, by combining rich background information and careful experimental studies, new opportunities for understanding humans may emerge.

EstWell seminar Professor Kirsti Akkermann: Personality-based profiling as the way forward to understand psychopathology
2025-03-03 16:00 - 17:00
The treatment of mental health problems is related to how psychopathology is diagnosed. As people rarely fit into a single diagnostic category in terms of their symptoms and mental disorders often co-occur, alternative models have been developed alongside traditional categorical classifications of disorders. In the seminar we aim to discuss how a dimensional approach and more specifically personality-based profiling can help to predict the symptoms, course, and potential treatment response.

EstWell seminar Associate Professor Taavi Tillmann: Can low well-being make you physically ill?
2025-03-17 16:00 - 17:00
Which illnesses are more common among people with low well-being? Are these associations causal? Let’s go one step back and look at the causes of well-being, such as a person’s physical environment, income, occupation, unemployment, educational and social resources, experience of discrimination – if these factors increase the risk of illness, then does this mechanism manifest itself via the “well-being” pathway, or other pathways? Which interventions exist that can break these causal chains, to improve well-being and prevent disease?

EstWell seminar Professor Merike Sisask: Social + health + care = well-being
2025-04-07 16:00 - 17:00 | Tallinna Ülikoolis, Narva mnt 25, Astra maja - Ruum A346
Mental health and wellbeing is not just an individual condition, but is shaped by a combination of social relationships, structural health support and community functioning, among other factors. A problem- and diagnosis-centred approach to mental health focuses too much on treatment and seeks solutions from the health sector, leaving cross-sectoral prevention in the background. The social health care research group focuses on the social determinants of mental health and preventive interventions. There are three main strands of research and development: mental health and well-being in communities across life span, children and young people’s everyday digital lives, suicide research.

EstWell seminar Leading Researcher Vitali Syritski: Molecularly imprinted polymers: towards development of sensors for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring
2025-04-21 16:00 - 17:00
Despite considerable progress in modern biosensors, significant limitations remain in terms of robustness and reusability, primarily due to the use of biologically derived recognition receptors, which are inherently labile and often lack chemical and thermal stability. As a result, replacing biological receptors with fully synthetic analogues has become increasingly important.
A promising alternative is the use of materials prepared by molecular imprinting, known as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). These materials exhibit high affinity and selectivity for their target molecules while offering advantages such as mechanical, thermal and chemical stability as well as broad operational versatility.
This seminar will highlight both past and recent advances by our group in developing MIPs to meet the demands of medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

EstWell seminar Associate Professor Mare Ainsaar: What influences individual and institutional satisfaction
2025-05-05 16:00 - 17:00
Mare presents results from research conducted in Estonia about factor influencing individual and institutional satisfaction in Estonia. We learn, if satisfaction with health care system is indeed satisfaction with healthcare and what shapes individual life satisfaction.

EstWell seminar Professor René Mõttus: Why assessing psychological traits well matters in well-being research
2025-05-12 16:00 - 17:00
Wellbeing is both a state and a trait. That is, some of the wellbeing variance is within people (change), some between people (stability). Which source of variance is larger? And why does this matter?

EstWell seminar Associate Professor Triin Lauri: From School Choice to Political Choice
2025-05-19 16:00 - 17:00
Why does the issue of school choice tend to spark near-hysterical reactions every spring in Estonia, a country committed to the comprehensive school model? How can school places be distributed in a knowledge society that values diversity of choice — without deepening educational stratification? What are Estonians’ preferences when it comes to education, and how much are these shaped by personal background, fairness perceptions, or the existing school system? And what does all of this have to do with policy feedback effects and political polarization?
This seminar offers a bird’s-eye view of Triin and her co-authors’ recent social scientific perspectives on education research — with a particular focus on school choice and the dynamics of educational inequality.

EstWell seminar Associate Professor Maie Bachmann: Making Sense of Brain Signals with EEG Markers
2025-06-02 16:00 - 17:00 | TalTech, Akadeemia tee 3-LIB-109B, Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia
Brain signals recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) may look like random noise at first glance, yet within this “noise” lies valuable information about our mental state. To uncover it, we develop and apply a variety of EEG markers. In the seminar I will present our latest results— which markers have proven more effective, what we have discovered so far, and how this approach paves the way for personalised mental-health care.

EstWell seminar Professor Ivo Fridolin: What is the benefit of sensor technologies to wellbeing sciences?
2025-06-09 16:00 - 17:00 | TalTech, Akadeemia tee 3-LIB-109B, Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia
Well-being sciences are classically associated with the fields such as psychology, public health and social sciences. This is also reflected in the structure of EstWell, where the majority of research groups are representatives of these fields. However, innovation has more favorable opportunities to emerge in an interdisciplinary research environment. The research group Sensor Technologies in Biomedical Engineering at the Department of Health Technologies of Tallinn University of Technology mainly cultivates engineering science, helping to strengthen the cross-disciplinary dimension in the center of excellence for well-being sciences.
Developments in sensor technologies, which enable more miniaturized, portable and non-invasive biomonitoring, offer several interesting options also in the direction of well-being sciences. The lecture aims to reflect this – for example, how sensor technologies could help improve the well-being of patients on end-stage renal replacement therapy and how the photoplethysmographic signal could be used for individual-based assessment of stress levels. It also provides a brief insight into the question “Does the small research group at Tallinn University of Technology have a role in the discovery and patenting of new metabolic biomarkers in the current frenzy of ‘omics’ research?”

Seminar Professor Luiz Pessoa: The entangled brain
2025-06-12 16:00 - 17:00 | University of Tartu, Näituse 2-102, Tartu, Estonia
Luiz Pessoa (University of Maryland) is a leading figure in both psychology and neuroscience. His research has meticulously dismantled the traditional separation of cognitive and emotional processes in the brain, laying the groundwork for integrated human neuroscience.
In this talk, Professor Pessoa will discuss how cognition, motivation, and emotion can only be understood as entangled phenomena.

EstWell Annual Conference
2025-08-25 10:30 - 2025-08-27 16:30 | Pühajärve spa hotell, Pühajärve küla, Otepää, 67414, Estonia
The annual grand gathering of the members and friends of the Centre of Excellence for Well-Being Sciences
EstWell Annual Conference Programme*
*Sessions marked with ENG are held in English; all others are in Estonian. The programme may have changes.

25 August

Moderator Merike Sisask
10.30 Welcome coffee and snacks
11.00 Introduction to the conference
11.30 Introduction to the Centre of Excellence, Andero Uusberg
12.00 Keynote of the day: Kaytlin Werner – Self-Regulation in Context: Why Managing Our Emotions and Behaviors Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All (ENG)
Whether we’re managing stress, resisting temptation, or working toward long-term goals, self-regulation is rarely as simple as choosing one strategy, using it, and then disengaging – instead, success often depends on context. In this talk, I share findings from my research on three key processes: strategy repertoire (the tools we have available when pursuing our goals), regulatory flexibility (the benefits of selecting the right tool for the right moment), and polyregulation (combining multiple strategies within a single regulation episode). Together, these studies reveal that there is no single “best” way to regulate our emotions and behaviour. Instead, effective self-regulation comes from matching the right strategies and tactics to the situation at hand. I’ll close by discussing how these insights can inform the development of personalized, real-time interventions designed to support people’s regulation efforts in daily life.
Kaytlin Werner’s research integrates the fields of emotion and motivation regulation using experience sampling and experimental methods. After postdoctoral fellowships in Toronto, Oregon, and Stanford, and before starting her professorship in Adelaide, Kaytlin will join the University of Tartu’s Affective and Regulatory Processes Lab for a year.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Breakthrough projects, session chair Andero Uusberg
What are the breakthrough projects (LMP) of the Centre of Excellence? How are the ongoing projects progressing, and what new ones could be initiated? This session serves as an introduction to the LMP workshops on Tuesday.
15.00 Coffee break
15.15 New applications, session chair Taavi Tillmann
What new useful applications have EstWell researchers launched this season?

Personality app “Personomist”, Kätlin Anni
Biosensing in stepped mental health services, Ivo Fridolin and Merike Sisask
Database of assessment instruments, Tuuli Ruus

16.15 Poster conference, session chair Merike Sisask (ENG)
What research results have EstWell PhD students taken out into the world this season?
18.00 Dinner
19.00 Outdoor landscape game
21.00 Board Games

26 August

Moderator Uku Vainik
7.30 Well-being Run & Walk – starting in front of Pühajärve Spa
9.30 Keynote of the day: Anu Realo (ENG)
Anu Realo (PhD in Psychology) is a personality and cross-cultural psychologist. She is a Professor at the University of Warwick and Tallinn University, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of Tartu. Her research focuses on cultural and individual variation in personality traits, subjective well-being, values, and social capital. She currently leads a major project on sustainable futures, funded by the European Commission. In her talk, she will discuss her research on subjective well-being both within and between individuals and cultures.
10.30 Coffee break
10.45 New data collections, session chair Kelli Lehto
What new data collections are being developed by researchers and partners of the Centre of Excellence?

LongEstWell, Mare Ainsaar
Upcoming “Cognitive Work” study by the Estonian Biobank, Uku Vainik
LongEstWell in the Health Portal, Peeter Ross and Kadi Lubi
Mental well-being app Mentastic, Ain Aaviksoo

12.05 Lunch
13.00 Workshops

Workshop “Policy analysis – how this is done?” Triin Lauri (ENG)Curious about what makes a policy work? Wondering how to study not just what happens, but why – and for whom?

This interactive 1.5-hour workshop explores key tools for analysing policies in welfare and education. It’s designed not just for political scientists, but for all social researchers interested in real-world effects.
We’ll ask:When and why use Difference-in-Differences?What is a Regression Discontinuity Design, and when does it shine?What’s configurational analysis (like QCA) – and is it for those who think policy is messy? (Spoiler: yes)How can we assess feasibility – and predict whether a policy can or should work?What do Street-Level Bureaucrats have to do with it – and how do they shape what policies actually become?
No matter your disciplinary angle – sociology, education, economics, public health – policy questions will find you. This workshop helps you think more clearly about what counts as good evidence, how to ask sharper questions, and how to turn insights into useful policy advice.
2. Workshop “Human-centred and personalised prevention – recipe for success or shortcut to failure?” Karin Streimann, Triin Vilms (EST)National and international strategies, development plans, and funding schemes increasingly highlight the need for novel, human-centred solutions to prevent and address complex societal problems. Preventive research has also focused largely on the individual or micro-level environment and on developing and testing solutions in those contexts. This approach assumes that complex problems can be prevented or mitigated without changing the surrounding systems. This workshop will discuss:
How does the lens of justice and equity relate to human-centred preventive solutions?What are the disciplinary and level-based differences in approaching and influencing problems?Which types of solutions are current research and development focused on, and where should the future focus lie – on influencing individual competencies and behaviour or on systemic factors such as environmental restructuring, pricing and tax policies, or regulations?How can we shift the perspective from human-centred to system-focused prevention? Do we see a need for this, and what role can we play in this transition?
3. Workshop “Inclusive Research Design in the Field of Mental Health and Well-Being” Merike Sisask (EST)
The Social Health Research Group invites you to take part in a workshop where we will explore how to make research in the field of mental health and well-being inclusive throughout the entire research process – from shaping research questions and designing the study to interpreting the results and achieving societal impact. We will discuss the role of target groups in preparing and conducting the research, interpreting data, and disseminating findings. The workshop draws on specific experiences from international projects (DigiGen, MENTBEST, MINDWORK) as well as doctoral theses that have employed creative and participatory approaches. We will address the benefits and limitations of participatory research, and highlight the importance of researchers’ creative and reflective thinking. The workshop offers space for exchanging experiences and supports participants in exploring questions and dilemmas that have emerged in the context of their own research.
14.30 Break
15.00 New insights into well-being from a micro perspective, session chair Jekaterina Reut
What have we newly learned about the psycho–physiological mechanisms of well-being?

Health behaviour and emotional experience, Kenn Konstabel
Measuring molecular markers of mental health, Jekaterina Reut
Language models and emotion regulation, Andero Uusberg
How do language and music tune the brain?, Kairi Kreegipuu

16.30 Coffee break
16.45 Breakthrough project meetings
Parallel discussions for those interested in breakthrough projects, sign-up during the conference
18.30 Dinner
20.00 Party

27 August

Moderator Uku Vainik
7.30 Well-being Run & Walk – starting in front of Pühajärve Spa
9.30 Keynote of the day: Henk van Steenbergen (ENG)
Henk van Steenbergen studies the interplay of emotion, motivation, stress, and cognitive control using both psychological and neuroscientific methods. He is Associate Professor at Leiden University and head of the Affective, Motivation and Action Lab. Research in health psychology has long suggested that positive emotions have numerous beneficial effects on health and cognition, which may be partially attributed to their stress-buffering capabilities. In this talk, I will highlight recent studies from my lab that demonstrate how positive emotions can mitigate stress and expand the mind. I will show how exposure to virtual nature positively impacts stress-related physiology and helps buffer stress reactivity when participants face stressful tasks. In line with the idea that positive affect can open the mind and broaden the scope of attention, I will then present evidence for the role of endogenous opioids in this modulation. Finally, I will demonstrate how a unique micro-level perspective on studying stress can enhance our understanding of the temporal dynamics of integral affect triggered by cognitive tasks. This approach aids in comprehending how stress arises and potentially predicting and understanding resilient functioning.
10.30-10.45 Coffee break
10.45-12.15 New approaches to familiar problems, session chair Rene Mõttus
What have we newly learned about the large-scale patterns of well-being?

Genetic links between adult ADHD symptoms and well-being and health, Triinu Varvas
How to Support Well-Being through Urban Nature? Book Presentation “Söödav Linn 2: 15 aastat Eesti linnaaianduse arengut”, Bianka Plüschke-Altof
Mapping school-based prevention ecosystems, Eike Siilbek
Health meaning-making in social media, Katrin Tiidenberg

12.15 Hotel check-out
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Workshops

Workshop “Digital agile testing for interventions” Taavi Tillmann (ENG)Digital health and well-being services can be implemented on a spectrum. On one end, we have rigorous evidence-based purists who want large trials before any roll-out. On the other, there are those advocating for earlier implementation based on public demand, political momentum, expert opinion, or perceived low risk.

Most real-world cases land somewhere in between – with opportunities to test what works. Digital interventions allow us to run multiple agile experiments in quick succession due to short feedback cycles.
Taavi will share a case of running four agile trials within four weeks during a London digital service rollout, showing how tweaks to SMS and postal messages (including “final reminder” phrasing) dramatically improved uptake. The workshop invites participants to explore how we could apply such agile methods when introducing new services.
2. Workshop “Practical AI tools for researchers – current landscape” Kari Kuulman (EST)Artificial intelligence is no longer futuristic hype – it’s a daily tool that can reshape how we do research. But which tools should we use, and how can we smoothly integrate AI into research, teaching, and supervision workflows?
15.00 Coffee break
15.30 PhD students networking session (ENG) / Open Council Meeting
17.00 End of conference

EstWell fireside chat with Emeritus Professor Mark Williams
2025-09-17 14:00 - 16:00 | EBS Tallinn, A.Lauteri tn 3, Tallinn, Estonia
Location: EBS Tallinn (A.Lauteri 3, room 415)
On September 17, we will welcome Professor Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology and Senior Research Fellow at University of Oxford, for a fireside chat with researchers. This is a pre-registration event. All the researchers from EstWell and participants from TOKO and Vaikuseminutid are warmly welcome to attend.
Mark Williams is a leading figure in clinical psychology and the founding director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (2008–2013). He is widely recognised for co-developing mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). His research has focused on psychological models and the treatment of recurrent depression, as well as the experimental cognitive psychology of processes that increase the risk of suicidality. A central aim of his work has been the prevention of suicidal depression through mindfulness-based approaches.
This informal discussion offers researchers an opportunity to reflect on the intersections of science, clinical practice, and lived experience. The conversation will be moderated by Maris Vainre and will allow space for both dialogue and questions.

EstWell seminar Cracking the ERC Grant Code: Lessons from the Winners Kelli Lehto & Triin Lauri
2025-09-23 11:00 - 12:00
Securing an ERC Starting Grant is a career-changing achievement—but also a daunting process. In this webinar, two successful applicants will walk us through their experiences: how they shaped their proposals, navigated setbacks, and what they learned along the way. Expect insights, practical advice, and candid reflections.
Read more here.

EstWell seminar Vascular Well-being of Renal Replacement Therapy Patients – Can Science Turn Back the Clock?
2025-10-07 11:00 - 12:00
The seminar will be conducted by Annika Adoberg, a PhD student and Junior Researcher at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Health Technologies, TalTech. Annika Adoberg is part of the Centre of Excellence research group on sensor technologies in biomedical engineering.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a significant challenge not only to physical health but also to social and psychological well-being, especially in situations where dialysis becomes the only option for survival for the patient. CKD is not limited to the accumulation of uremic toxins and persistent microinflammation, but also provides a model for studying accelerated aging. Vascular calcification in CKD patients is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and has implications for mental health and cognitive function. Elucidating its mechanisms and translating this knowledge into prevention and treatment strategies is a scientific priority and the creation of innovative solutions will help improve the quality of life of CKD patients and hold promise for promoting the future well-being of patients.

EstWell visitor seminarEconomic evaluations – in science and practice
2025-10-13 16:00 - 17:30
Healthcare decisions rely not only on clinical effectiveness but also on whether interventions provide value for the resources they require. Full economic evaluations offer a structured way to guide these choices by weighing both costs and consequences.

In this combined lecture, we will examine the limits of clinical trial data and highlight the role of decision modelling in filling evidence gaps. We’ll consider when to develop core models versus adapt existing ones, with practical examples, and then walk through the typical HTA submission process. Finally, we will look at the European HTA framework of 2025, and its implications for research and practice.

Riina Hallik (MSc, MMSc, RN) is a lecturer and master thesis supervisor in TalTech’s Digital Health curriculum and a member of the ethics committee of the Health Development Institute (TAI). In addition, co-founder of two Estonian digital health startups and a mentor. She has 12+ years of experience in research projects and was Estonian representative in European Taskforce for Harmonised Evaluation of Digital Medical Devices (DMDs) at EIT Health.

Riina will cover the following topics: what economic evaluations are and why they are needed, the main methods of full economic evaluation, and the limitations of using clinical trial data

Chiara Malmberg (MMSc) is a research manager at IHE (The Swedish Institute for Health Economics) and also several years of experience also in Mapi Group and ICON plc. In total she has 10+ years consulting experience in working with health economic studies, market access and HTAs. She has primarily worked with systematic literature reviews, health economic modelling as well as submissions to HTA organisations within Europe and Canada. Recent years focus has been on economic modelling including early economic models, core model development as well as model adaptations focusing on the Nordic countries.

Chiara will cover the purpose and role of decision modelling, provide an overview of core models versus model adaptation with examples, explain the typical HTA submission process, and give an overview of European HTA 2025.

EstWell seminar Social Health Care Research Group: Community-based research in the field of mental health and well-being
2025-10-21 11:00 - 12:00
The research seminar introduces the main research directions of the social health care research group and focuses on the role of communities in supporting mental health and well-being. How can we strengthen mental health ecosystems and community responsibility across different life stages and social contexts? The presentations will feature practical examples from ongoing research projects.
The seminar will be conducted by members of EstWell’s Social Health Care Research Group:
Merike Sisask, Professor of Social Health Care at Tallinn University
Käthlin Mikiver, PhD student and junior researcher at Tallinn University
Stella Täht-Vaik, PhD student and junior researcher at Tallinn University
Rainer Mere, SEKMO PhD student, Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute (ERSI)

EstWell seminar Personality and Well-Being Research Group: Selected recent work on well-being and individual differences
2025-11-04 11:00 - 12:00
At the seminar, members of the Personality and Well-Being Research Group will give a joint presentation:
Karin Täht and Toivo Aavik – “Associations Between Sexual Desire and Demographic Variables Based on Data from the Estonian Biobank”
Emily (Hongzhen) Cheng – “Necessary Condition Analysis as an Alternative Predictive Tool”
Maris Vainre – “Effectiveness of Smartphone Apps for Mental ill-Health”

EstWell seminar Brain Bioelectrical Signals Research Group: Recent work on EEG individual differences and functional connectivity
2025-11-18 11:00 - 12:00
The seminar will be led by Maie Bachmann, Associate Professor of Biosignal Processing at Tallinn University of Technology; researcher Laura Päeske; doctoral student-junior researcher Tuuli Uudeberg; and research assistant Maive Hanni.

The Building Blocks of Resilience: How Connection and Regulation Protect Mental Health
2025-11-28 11:00 - 14:30 | Baltic Media and Film School, Narva mnt 27, Tallinn, Estonia
Registration is open here.
The symposium will take place at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM), Narva mnt 27, room N-407, and on Zoom, depending on the participation option you selected in the registration form.
Human resilience is built on connection and the capacity to regulate our emotions. This symposium brings together experts from public health, psychology, and media studies to examine how connection and emotion regulation support mental well-being across diverse populations and communities. Broad topics include the growing need to understand vulnerability and strengthen resilience in modern society (Merike Sisask), how adapting our emotion regulation to different situations supports resilience (Kaitlyn Werner), the role of regulation in experiences of solitude and mental health (Thuyvy Nguyen), and how these dynamics unfold in digital communities (Katrin Tiidenberg). Together, the talks reveal how understanding connection and regulation can strengthen mental health across diverse populations and contexts.
Dr Thuy-vy T. Nguyen is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Durham University (UK) and the Principal Investigator of the Solitude Lab. Her pioneering research examines how spending time alone (solitude) affects emotions, thoughts, and wellbeing, and she has co-authored the book Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone.
Dr Kaitlyn M. Werner is a Research Fellow in Affective Psychology at University of Tartu. Her interdisciplinary work uses multi-method approaches to explore self-regulation, emotion regulation, measurement, and well-being across contexts, emphasizing advanced quantitative methods and reproducible research practices.
Prof Katrin Tiidenberg is Professor of Participatory Culture at the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School, part of Tallinn University. Her research focuses on people’s social-media practices — especially visuality, sex, political participation — and interrogates identity, community, norms and power. She leads major international projects, including on digital trust and technologies of wellbeing.
Prof Merike Sisask is a Professor of Social Health Care at the School of Governance, Law and Society (SOGOLAS) of Tallinn University and a board member of the Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute (ERSI). She was the editor-in-chief of the Estonian Human Development Report 2023 “Mental Health and Well-being”. Her main research areas include the social determinants of mental health and well-being, suicide prevention, and community-based mental health prevention programmes and their evaluation.

Program:
11-13 Presentations
13-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Panel discussion

EstWell seminar Emotional Landscapes: Where Happiness Lives and How to Serve It on Your Plate
2025-12-02 11:00 - 12:00
At the seminar, Kadri Leetmaa, Anto Aasa, and Jürgen Pikk from the Social-Spatial Context Research Group, and Kairi Kreegipuu from the Brain and Cognition Research Group will speak.
This presentation explores how the social and physical characteristics of people’s living environments shape their mental health and life satisfaction. Using mental health and contextual data from the Estonian Population Mental Health Study (2021–2022), we identify which environmental factors—ranging from neighbourhood social characteristics to green space availability—exert the strongest influence on wellbeing, and assess how these measured contextual indicators compare to individuals’ sociodemographic and psychological profiles in explaining mental health outcomes. We also compare the effects of perceived greenspace exposure with objectively measured greenspace metrics, showing that the two are not directly related and operate through different pathways in shaping wellbeing.

EstWell seminar University of Tartu Research Group on Well-Being Studies: Rethinking Well-being: A Multidimensional Approach
2025-12-16 11:00 - 12:00
In the Estonian Education 2035 vision document, well-being is defined as a process that manifests in people’s overall sense of self-efficacy and in harmonious relationships with the social, natural, spiritual, and technological living environment. Oliver Nahkur, a member of the Well-being Research Group, introduces a newly launched research and development project titled “Creating a Conceptual Model of Children’s Well-being in Estonia and Developing Its Indicators.” Dagmar Kutsar, in turn, discusses the multidimensional approach to well-being (including individual agency and co-creation of well-being across different levels of societal functioning and areas of social life). She invites reflection on the applicability of the recently developed interdisciplinary well-being model—spanning the life course and various domains—in striving toward human flourishing.

EstWell seminar Prevention Research Group: Risk and Protective Factors in Youth Depression: Exploring Mediation Effects
2025-12-30 11:00 - 12:00
This seminar will include a presentation by Hedvig Sultson and Eike Siilbek from the National Institute for Health Development.
This presentation will explore why and how to study mediation effects in the context of mental health – that is, the relationships between different risk and protective factors and the ways in which their effects unfold through one another. We will present a study examining the associations between family and peer relationships and depressive symptoms in adolescents, and whether these associations are mediated by difficulties in affect regulation. We will also compare mediation mechanisms across age groups and genders. The analyses are based on data from the Estonian Children’s Mental Health Study.

EstWell Mini-Conference Well-Being in Space: How to Measure and Understand Spatial Quality in Well-Being Research
2026-01-09 11:00 - 15:15
Registration: Spatial Well-Being Mini-conference – Fill in form
The event will take place in Tartu, at Vanemuise 46, room 327 and online via Zoom
The first part of the conference will be in Estonian and the second part in English.
At the conference, we will:

discuss the Estonian National Spatial Plan “Estonia 2050” currently under development, including what the new national spatial plan means for the well-being of Estonian society, settlement patterns, and people in different places, and how the state will analyse spatial well-being in a data-driven way over the coming decades;
hold a discussion to support preparations for a data use agreement between EstWell researchers and Statistics Estonia on the topic “Health and Contextual Data”;
gain inspiration from the Swedish example of linking geolocation data with register data.

After the conference, the EstWell Council meeting will take place.
Programme
11:00–12:30 The National Spatial Plan “Estonia 2050” and the Monitoring of Spatial Well-Being Changes in Estonia
Within the framework of the national spatial plan “Estonia 2050” currently under development, a data-driven monitoring methodology for spatial planning and spatial well-being has been developed.
The authors of the study, Pille Metspalu and Jürgen Pikk (Hendrikson & Ko; Department of Geography, University of Tartu), will present the indicators and key metrics created to enable the state to monitor changes in spatial well-being over the next 25 years.
This will be followed by a discussion on how to measure changes in well-being in space and which research questions EstWell researchers could address.
Background material:
https://www.riigiplaneering.ee/uleriigiline-planeering/uleriigiline-planeering-eesti-2050/uuringud#andmepohise-seire-ja
12:30–13:15 Lunch
13:15–14:45 Discussion: Preparations for the Data Use Agreement “Health and Contextual Data” with Statistics Estonia
Kadri Leetmaa (Department of Geography, University of Tartu) and Kairi Kreegipuu (Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu) will present the objectives of the Spatial Well-Being Flagship Project (LMP) and provide an overview of the preparation of the data use agreement and ethical approval.
Preparations are underway to link longitudinal (1989+) census- and register-based population data from the Population and Housing Census with health data for EstWell research purposes.
An inclusive brainstorming session will map shared research questions and data needs of well-being and spatial researchers.
14:45–15:15 Inspiration Talk: Using Swedish Geolocation Data in Social Science Research by Qinya Feng (https://qinyafeng.github.io/),
Department of Government, Uppsala University.
Recent applications from the Department of Government, Uppsala University, that combine geolocation data with other Swedish register data.
