PhD Veiko Karu

Closed mines are not only an engineering challenge they are a governance challenge. Who is responsible? Which authority leads? How are financial guarantees set, adjusted, and enforced? What happens when sites are abandoned, ownership is unclear, or regulation is fragmented across borders?

REMINDNET "WG1 Government and management practices" focuses exactly on this reality: comparing legislation, governance, and management practices across European mining countries and then translating the comparison into usable government structures and management tools for long-term legacy stewardship.

The Working Group is structured to keep it practical:
📝 one track examines legal and governance frameworks (strengths, gaps, obstacles),
📝 another track looks at implementation: procedures, responsible bodies, and the management tools actually used by authorities.

The outcome is not “more reports for shelves.” The point is to help mine authorities and regulators make decisions that hold up in the real world. Especially where mining districts cross borders and legacy risks are long-lived.

If you represent an authority, regulator, policy unit, or standards body: WG1 is where your experience becomes system-level progress.

Read more: https://www.remindnet.eu

🎓 Looking for future PhD candidates in Management!

Are you interested in how organisations work, how people make decisions, and how management can help companies, institutions and societies navigate complex change?

The EBS Management specialisation PhD programme is open for candidates who want to explore the connections between management, organisations and human behaviour through high-quality doctoral research.

This could be a strong next step for you if you are:
✅ considering an academic or research-focused career
✅ an experienced professional who wants to deepen their management expertise
✅ interested in strategy, organisational behaviour, finance, leadership, innovation or organisational change
✅ looking to connect rigorous research with real-world management challenges

At EBS, doctoral research can be linked with faculty research interests, knowledge teams, research projects, external collaborations and business-relevant challenges.

📍 Location: Tallinn, Estonia
🌍 Language: English
⏳ Duration: 4 years / 240 ECTS
🎓 Degree: PhD in Management
📅 EU application deadline: 1 August 2026

If you are ready to turn your research idea into a doctoral project, this is the right moment to take the next step.

🔗 More information and application link:
https://www.ebs.ee/en/university/doctoral-studies/management-specialisation

Photos from last Doctoral Spring Colloquim
Estonian Business School

Europe has a long mining history and with it, a long tail of responsibilities: mine water rebound, tailings and waste dumps, subsidence, contaminated soils, and “orphan” sites where ownership and funding are unclear. These legacies don’t stop when extraction stops.

REMINDNET (COST Action CA22138) exists to change how Europe manages post-mining reality by aligning governance, financing, and technical practice into a shared, comparable, and actionable knowledge base. The REMINDNET core aim is straightforward: compare legal frameworks, governance structures, and management approaches for closed mines across member countries and harmonise best practices and lessons learned for sustainable management of extraction legacies.

What makes REMINDNET different is the network logic: it brings together experts who normally work in parallel (geoscience, mining & environmental engineering, economics, social science, law, spatial planning) and turns that diversity into a community of practice with shared outputs. Especially a European mining legacy database and QGIS-based visualisation, supported by an open-access platform.

If you work with post-mining land, regulation, ESG risk, remediation, or regional transition, this is your ecosystem. Contribute a case, join an activity, or collaborate on good-practice guidance.

One of the fastest ways to improve post-mining outcomes is simple: train the next wave of people who will run closure, aftercare, governance, and regional transition.

REMINDNET "WG4 Training and capacity-building opportunities" is built to do exactly that: planning doctoral training workshops, supporting early-career participation, and turning good practice into digital learning content and guides.
What’s coming is concrete:
📝 Training Schools are scheduled in Torino (March 2026) focusing on legislative and management aspects, and Bodrum (May 2026) focusing on socio-economic aspects and financing methodologies.

📝 REMINDNET also supports Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) and broader mobility to accelerate cross-country knowledge transfer.

If you supervise PhDs, lead a lab, work in an authority, or build professional training in mining legacy management: WG4 is an open door to collaborate, host, teach, and co-create materials that last beyond a single event.

I keep my research in one place on ResearchGate! Partners, students, and collaborators can quickly access publications and ongoing work without chasing files across multiple platforms.

See the platform: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veiko-Karu

My current focus sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, circular economy, and research & innovation in the raw materials sector, with a practical track record in cross-sector collaboration to advance more sustainable mineral exploration and mining practices.

On my ResearchGate profile you’ll find:
✅ Publications and full-text uploads spanning geosciences/mining engineering topics and applied sustainability challenges (including oil shale and mining-related environmental/geo topics).
♻️ My listed expertise areas (e.g., Environmental Impact Assessment, Sustainable Development, Water Quality, Spatial Analysis, Teaching).
🤝 The Sustainable Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Lab presence and related network connections: https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Sustainable-Deep-Tech-Entrepreneurship-Lab-Veiko-Karu

If you are working on CRMA / NZIA-aligned value chains, responsible sourcing, raw materials criticality assesment, mining legacies, or circular business models in raw materials: what kind of evidence or case material would be most useful for you right now: academic papers, policy synthesis, or teaching-ready content?

🚀 Looking for future PhD researchers in entrepreneurship!

EBS is inviting ambitious candidates to join the Entrepreneurship Specialisation PhD programme — a doctoral track designed for people who want to connect rigorous academic research with real-world business, venture creation and entrepreneurial impact.

This is a strong opportunity for:
🎓 graduates aiming for an academic or research-intensive career
💼 experienced professionals and entrepreneurs who want to investigate entrepreneurial phenomena through doctoral research
🏢 candidates working with company-funded, venture-based or applied innovation projects

What makes this programme especially relevant is its practical orientation: research is not treated as something separate from the real world. Instead, candidates can explore entrepreneurial processes, ventures, organisational interventions, MVPs and applied business challenges as serious objects of academic inquiry.

📍 Location: Tallinn, Estonia
🌍 Language: English
⏳ Duration: 4 years / 240 ECTS
🎓 Degree: PhD in Management
📅 EU application deadline: 1 August 2026

If you are interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, venture-based research or the bridge between academia and business, this could be your next step.

🔗 Learn more and apply via the EBS Entrepreneurship Specialisation PhD page.
https://www.ebs.ee/en/university/doctoral-studies/entrepreneurship-specialisation

Photos from the last Doctoral Spring Colloquim
Estonian Business School

What happens after extraction ends — and the real work begins? ⚒️

I’ve been following AfterMine: Post-Mining Bulletin to spotlight practical pathways for the next chapter of mining regions: reuse, reclamation, risk management, governance, financing, and “what actually works” on the ground.

If you’re working on mine closure, abandoned mines, brownfields, or just transition — subscribe and follow along.

AfterMine: Post-Mining Bulletin: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/aftermine-post-mining-bulletin-7422512689916301312/

Estonia’s black shale, locally known as graptolitic argillite (Dictyonema shale), has often been treated as a “problem rock”: metal-rich, sulphidic, and environmentally sensitive. But in the era of critical raw materials and battery value chains, it also looks like an under-explored future resource.

A few facts that matter in an Estonian context:
📝 Estonia is estimated to have more than 60 billion tonnes of graptolitic argillite.
📝 It is rich in uranium, molybdenum and vanadium (plus other metals) and is also reported to contain gold, rhenium and platinum.
📝 Vanadium is increasingly discussed as a “battery metal” and is listed as a critical raw material at EU level.

⚙️ History is a reminder: uranium was produced from local Dictyonema shale in Sillamäe after World War II, but the approach proved economically challenging and the legacy highlights why modern projects must be clean-by-design.

This is exactly where Estonian Business School can add value: translating geology into credible business cases, de-risked investment narratives, responsible governance models, and new ventures that combine extraction/processing innovation with environmental safeguards and community benefit.

If Estonia were to pilot a responsible black shale valorisation pathway, what should come first: vanadium, molybdenum, or remediation-driven metal recovery?

🌍 Digitalisation and sustainability are no longer separate conversations.

They are now one shared challenge:
How do we use digital innovation to create real progress — without losing sight of long-term sustainability?

This is exactly the focus of the 6th EBS International Summer School on Digitalisation and Sustainability, taking place on 10–14 August 2026 at Estonian Business School in Tallinn.

During one intensive week, students, academics, and professionals from around the world will explore the twin transition through lectures, workshops, teamwork, and a collaborative capstone assignment.

Why join?

✅ International learning environment
✅ Practical tools for analysing future trends
✅ Digitalisation + sustainability in one integrated programme
✅ Teamwork, decision-making, and communication skills
✅ 6 ECTS credits upon successful completion
✅ Tallinn in August — one of the best places to learn, connect, and reflect

The future will not be only digital.
It must also be sustainable.

And that future needs people who can understand both.

📍 Tallinn, Estonia
📅 10–14 August 2026
🎓 6 ECTS
🔗 More information and application: https://www.ebs.ee/en/university/summer-school

🎯 COST Action CA24160 — COS-MICs: Comics × Science

We’re uniting researchers, creators, educators, publishers, and end-users to make science more accessible through comics: advancing public understanding, education, and research across Europe and beyond.

Our aims
📝 Federate a global network and open up scattered research and resources; highlight under-represented voices and young researchers; build strong academic–industry partnerships.

📝Create practical tools: educational guides, a MOOC, an impact-assessment framework, a bibliography database, and collaborative comic anthologies.

📝Build capacity & inclusion: training schools, STSMs, and leadership opportunities for women and YRIs; strong participation from ITCs and Near Neighbour Countries.

7 Working Groups: Language of Science • Sci-/Non-Fiction Narratives • Science in Social Contexts • Comic-Based Practice & Research • Comics in Science Education • Gender & Science • Communication, Dissemination & Training.

If you care about science communication, education, and creative industries, follow COS-MICs and get involved.

Read more: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA24160/