Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Katie Kuschminder has won a ‘Rubicon’ grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Kuschminder will now spend two years at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, close to Florence in Italy. Research Kuschminder will conduct research on Nigerian and Syrian migrants arriving in Europe via Italy. ...
Our EU Trend Reports tackle innovative business practices from a policy perspective. They help policymakers better understand the latest trends in business and industry innovation and provide specific policy recommendations to unleash the potential of European businesses and scale-up successful innovative solutions in the EU. Two trend reports are published every year, drawing on case studies and conference outcomes. ••• The latest innovation trends — from drones to food to collaborative p...
Corruption occurs in rich and poor countries alike — and is therefore a global concern. Yet evidence shows that it affects poor people disproportionately and helps turn fragile states into failed states. Ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day, marked every 9 December, I want to highlight the link between corruption and migration, which is all too often overlooked. On this day of anti-corruption, migration may not be the first topic that comes to mind. Yet with a humanitarian refugee cr...
In this seminar, Dr Ágnes Töttős shared some of the challenges in harmonising legal migration rules that she has identified during the negotiations in the relevant Working Party of the Council of the EU that she also chaired during the Hungarian Presidency. These included lengthy negotiation processes and specific challenges for Member States in working through complex legal problems, such as the dispute of using parallel national schemes, reforming provisions on intra-EU mobility, and ensuring ...
The emerging trends of service innovation for smart industry, traceability across the value chain, and the Internet of Things are the focus of a new trend report for the EU’s Business Innovation Observatory, co-authored by Dr. René Wintjes. There is one common factor in these emerging trends: how innovations are helping to grow smart value chains. Disruptive solutions are improving output and productivity, saving time and money, while cutting time-to-market and respecting the environment —...
Improving Europe’s capacity to innovate and be globally competitive requires further efforts to encourage disruptive ideas and foster their commercial up-take. These are some of the conclusions to be drawn from the latest ranking of innovation performance across Europe. The European Commission’s Innovation Union Scoreboard 2015 reveals that the EU’s overall level of innovation has remained stable. However, the crisis has left an impact on the private sector’s innovative activit...
Twenty-five years of European border restrictions have not only failed to curb immigration but have actually had counterproductive results — through an increase in irregular migration and an increasing dependence of migrants on smugglers, argues Prof. Hein de Haas. In recent months, a record number of refugees and migrants have drowned in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea. According to recent UN estimates, in 2014 almost 220,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean, and at least ...
“We need to be more transparent and clear about what development money is used for and that it actually goes into development work.” Dr. Melissa Siegel Gender, inequalities, security and migration are the guiding themes of the EU ‘Brainstorming on Challenges for International Cooperation and Development’, a conference held in Brussels on 13 March 2015. Part of the European Year for Development, the conference was opened by Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International C...
Our EU Trend Reports tackle innovative business practices from a policy perspective. They help policymakers better understand the latest trends in business and industry innovation and provide specific policy recommendations to unleash the potential of European businesses and scale-up successful innovative solutions in the EU. Two trend reports are published every year, drawing on case studies and conference outcomes. ••• Without smart factories Europe will lose more manufacturing jobs; without c...
UNU-MERIT’s founding director, Prof. Luc Soete, has been appointed to the high-level group of experts for research, innovation and science policy at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research. He joins 37 other experts from among others academia, industry and science. The group gives policy and strategy support to the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, a post currently held by Ireland’s Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. The overall aim is to create growth that is sm...