Rainer Kattel is an Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

n academic and science administrator; he is an expert on innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

 as well as political philosophy

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

.

Kattel was born in Tartu

Tartu

Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...

, Estonia, and attended the University of Tartu

University of Tartu

The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...

 and, for several years, the University of Marburg, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, on a DAAD

German Academic Exchange Service

The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....

 scholarship. He obtained a BA

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in a specially-designed major, Political Philosophy

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

, an MA

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in Classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

, and a Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in Public Administration

Public administration

Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

, all with the highest distinction, "summa cum laude" or equivalent. After some research positions at the University of Tartu, he was elected, in 2002, aged 28, to a full professorship and chair

Chair (official)

The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...

 in Public Management

Public administration

Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

 and European Studies

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 at Tallinn University of Technology

Tallinn University of Technology

Tallinn University of Technology is the only university of technology in Estonia, and one of the three most important institutions of higher education in Estonia generally. It is located in the capital city of Tallinn, Estonia...

. Since 2004, he is also the Head of the Department of Humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

 and Social Sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

. In 2007, he was elected "Faculty Member of the Year".

Kattel is one of the main protagonists of the Estonian innovation strategy and policy (especially as concerns Biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 and ICT

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

); he is a member of the Innovation Policy Council, Research and Development Council of the Republic of Estonia, since June 2003, as well as a member of the Estonian Biotechnology Expert Group of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Internationally, he has worked mostly as a consultant for the UNDP (e.g. national development plans of Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

 and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

). Between 2002 and 2006, Kattel was also Senior Research Fellow at Estonia’s leading public policy

Public policy

Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...

 think-tank, PRAXIS. Especially his critical regular opinion pieces in the national daily, Eesti Päevaleht, have gained him a general national audience as well.

Kattel forms the executive board of The Other Canon

The Other Canon

The Other Canon Foundation is a center and network for research of heterodox economics founded by Erik Reinert. The name refers to the founders' message of there being another economic canon, alternative to the ruling neoclassical economics...

, a center and network for heterodox economics

Heterodox economics

"Heterodox economics" refers to approaches or to schools of economic thought that are considered outside of "mainstream economics". Mainstream economists sometimes assert that it has little or no influence on the vast majority of academic economists in the English speaking world. "Mainstream...

 research, along with co-founder Wolfgang Drechsler

Wolfgang Drechsler

Wolfgang Drechsler is a Public Administration, Political Philosophy and Innovation Policy scholar. He is Professor and Chair of Governance, and one of the founders and directors of the Technology Governance program, at the Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia.Drechsler holds degrees...

 and main founder and executive chairman Erik Reinert.

Selected publications in English

• Techno-Economic Paradigms: Essays in Honour of Carlota Perez (co-editor), Anthem, London, 2009. (ISBN 9781843317852)
• Creative Destruction Management: Meeting the Challenges of the Techno-Economic Paradigm Shift (with Tarmo Kalvet, ed.), Praxis, Tallinn, 2007.
• Knowledge-based Economy and ICT-related Education in Estonia: Overview of the Current Situation and Challenges for the Educational System (with Tarmo Kalvet), Praxis, Tallinn, 2006.
• Made in Estonia (with Marek Tiits and Tarmo Kalvet), IBS, Tallinn, 2006.
• Knowledge-based Economy and ICT Education in Estonia (with Tarmo Kalvet), Estonian Information Technology Foundation, Tallinn, 2005.
• Enhancing the Capacities to Govern. Challenges Facing the Central and Eastern European Countries. Editor (with Bryane Michaels and Wolfgang Drechsler), NISPAcee, Bratislava, 2004.
• Competitiveness of the Estonian Economy and its Future Outlooks. Research and Development and Innovation Policy Report (with Marek Tiits and Tarmo Kalvet). Research and Development Council of the Republic of Estonia, Tallinn, 2003, 2nd edn. 2005.
• The Constitution of the Polis. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2001.