Director: Mare Kõiva, Leading Researcher of the Department of Folkloristics at the Estonian Literary Museum, mare@folklore.ee, tel. 737 7740
Executive Manager: Piret Voolaid, Senior Researcher of the Department of Folkloristics at the Estonian Literary Museum, piret@folklore.ee, tel. 737 7742
Project Manager: Anne Ostrak, anne.ostrak@folklore.ee, tel 737 7746

The Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies (CEES) is supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund in the years 2016–2023.
The centre assembles 15 research groups with more than 60 researchers with a doctoral degree and more than 50 post-graduate students from the Estonian Literary Museum, the University of Tartu (from the sphere of the humanities and arts as well as natural and exact sciences), the Institute of the Estonian Language, Tallinn University, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the Institute of Cybernetics at the Tallinn University of Technology.

The Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies research is connected with focal phenomena of
a) the Estonian society and culture, some of them of carrying emblematic connotation: the Estonian language itself and its wide array of sublanguages and dialects, unique regilaul-verse, song festivals and the choir movement, original poetic culture, sacred sites;
b) the Estonian diasporas and ethnic groups (primarily Estonian Russians, Old Believers, Finno-Ugric minorities, neighboring and contact groups).
c) global cultural trends and local variations of global cultural phenomena (epic(s), humour, mythology, etc.), reinvented and modenized forms (e.g. punk song festivals),
d) contemporary culture, incl transmedia texts and behaviour.

At a complex study of the linguistic and cultural structure of ethnic groups in Estonia, analyses its content and philosophical starting points and proposes models for

The activity plan of the Centre of Excellence stipulates the work of twelve interdisciplinary working groups: