TalTech to study Islam's contribution to the public sphere
An international research network at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) is promoting collaboration focused on Islam's contribution to the public sphere.
The Islamic Public Value Network, or IPV-net, is being led and managed by TalTech's Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, and started work in mid-September.
TalTech says the network also fosters critical debate. The Ragnar Nurkse department will head IPV-net for two years.
One other secular Western university, University College London (UCL), is joining TalTech and two from Islamic countries: Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) in Doha, Qatar, and the University of Indonesia, plus the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) in Bangkok, Thailand.
"This is not a scholarship program or a specific research project, but a collaborative network that occasionally organizes conferences, meetings, and joint activities among partner institutions," said one of the project's leaders, Rainer Kattel, professor at both TalTech and UCL.
The network builds on an earlier successful IPV project, which ran 2022–2025 under the guidance of UCL's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), initiated by Kattel. This project was funded by the philanthropic organization The John Templeton Foundation.
The newly launched IPV network is being fully financed by UCL funds as allocated to the Ragnar Nurkse Department.
Researchers involved in the network have stressed that in this context, IPV refers specifically to public good, and not to values. The focus is on how institutions, from hospitals to food systems and water supply, create benefits for society as a whole, often extending beyond Muslim communities.
"For serious universities, studying non-Western systems and logic is not optional, but essential. Western science has historically advanced precisely by learning from diverse traditions. Technical universities are no exception — their role in the global academic world also includes exploring alternative approaches to governance and the public good," Kattel went on.
TalTech pointed out that the IPV project has authored numerous publications and involved more than 40 researchers worldwide, including several leading scholars in public administration, many of them non-Muslims.
TalTech also said that IPV's not shied away from criticism, noting that in addition to its success stories, it has fostered constructive and critical discussion on institutions and the public good.
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Editor: Karin Koppel Andrew Whyte
