Martina Vukasovic The 2016 edition of the General Conference of ECPR (European Consortium for Political Research) took place in Prague, 7-10 September 2016. Approximately 2000 participants presented their most recent work in political science, policy analysis, public administration and related areas of inquiry in almost 70 different sections. The newly formed ECPR Standing Group on […]

Jens Jungblut The 24th World Congress of Political Science organized by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) took place from July 23 until July 28 2016 under the title “Politics in a World of Inequality”. The conference was held in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland) and around 3000 participants, mainly from […]

Meng-Hsuan Chou, Isaac Kamola & Tamson Pietsch Across the world, higher education is rapidly changing. Universities are increasingly seen as key engines of a ‘knowledge economy’, producing the innovation and the workers crucial to new industries. Driven by rankings that claim to measure ‘world-class’ status, and by the incentives and liberalised regulations of national governments, […]

María del Carmen Calatrava Interdisciplinarity has become a major topic in discussions of higher education structures, knowledge production and research funding. The demand for criteria and tools for its evaluation is subsequently increasing. Interdisciplinary research can be evaluated according to its many different aspects—including collaboration, integration of disciplines, generation of new areas of research or […]

Merli Tamtik Despite long-lasting resistance from the member-states and the unwillingness to yield power ‘naturally’ to the supra-national level (Gornitzka, 2009), the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation has established itself as a leader in coordinating European research policy. How do we explain this emerging role of the European Commission in shaping European research […]

Inga Ulnicane ‘Crisis should not be wasted’. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008, this idea has been repeated many times suggesting that crisis should rather be used as an opportunity for innovative solutions and necessary reforms. One of such potential changes emphasized by European institutions has been prioritization of research and […]

Mari Elken and Jens Jungblut On the 3rd and 4th of March 2016, the European Research Area collaborative research network (CRN) had its final workshop at the Directorate General for Research & Innovation of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Building on the diverse activities and encompassing research that has been conducted within the framework […]