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I’m involved in an exciting pilot project on ‘Open Educational Badging’ – and I must admit that it’s scary because I barely understand ICT, especially coding. Still, the participants in the ‘Evidence-Based Research Methods’ (EPRM) programme that I direct will be awarded online badges that can be lin...

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are emerging technologies that many people are afraid of, including so-called ‘experts’ and policymakers. Perceived threats include the loss of millions of jobs, leading to mass unemployment and spiralling social and economic problems. One popular study b...

This month I travelled from Maastricht to Bruges on the day that happened to be the hottest day ever recorded in both Dutch and Belgian meteorological history. As weather experts were explaining how a wave of hot air had moved north from the Sahara across continental Europe, it became clear to most ...

The Great Recession of the late 2000s hit Europe hard, with the perfect storm of an economic downturn and a productivity slowdown. What’s more, it compounded years of already anaemic growth. Since then, EU states and agencies have worked hard to contain these problems, but a decade later there are s...

Most discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) are characterised by hyperbole and hysteria. Though some of the world’s most prominent and successful thinkers regularly forecast that AI will either solve all our problems or destroy us or our society, and the press frequently report on how AI wil...

"Breakthrough innovations often emerge from a combination of different types of knowledge from different areas… The next step is to track these innovations via relevant data sources and comparative indicators.”...

How many times have you rolled your eyes when someone said a country is progressive because half the parliament is made up of women? How much can this really tell us about gender equality and women’s participation in any particular country? Why does it even matter? As such a hot topic, I was excited...

"I was really happy to be there for three days, sitting down not only with researchers but also communicators and journalists. It was a really nice experience to work with them, to understand what are the best ways to communicate with society. Not only our results but also our passion, our emotion a...

I work as a freelance consultant, and the bulk of my career has focused on project evaluation, research and supporting humanitarian development organisations in designing projects and programmes. I chose this course because I thought it would address my needs and improve my performance, especially d...

"In a way, he has a vision that is more eclectic, more theoretical than somebody like Helen Clark, who would be more practical and policy-minded. But their concerns are more or less the same: the future of the planet and sustainable development. They simply take different approaches."...

Migration scholars Dr. Marieke van Houte and Prof. Arjen Leerkes authored a report on how different Western European countries deal with the deportability and effective non-deportability of rejected asylum seekers. The report, which was commissioned by the Van Zwol committee appointed by the Dutch g...

In my dissertation, I am looking at the link between a popular form of social protection – cash transfers – and child nutrition. Previous research has shown a mixed effect, sometimes positive, sometimes no effect, so I was interested in investigating this issue in more detail. I was also interested ...

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It was a pleasure to present our SMART choices and SMART tools project at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Spring Conference – particularly the development and roll out of our tailor-made toolkits. Following a discussion on the employability of public policy graduate...

“What I discovered about myself during the Europe For Citizens conference in Malta is that I actually know something about migration,” said Adam Hussain, a British student on our Master’s programme at UNU-MERIT. “I was able to spread the knowledge that I have acquired to people who do not stud...

With the post-world war international institutions eroded and under threat, a “strong and united Europe” standing alongside the United Nations, has never been more essential, said UN chief António Guterres in Germany on Thursday. The Secretary-General was in the ancient continental capital of Aachen...

In May 2019, the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a summary report for policymakers, “suggesting that around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of b...

Uganda’s refugee policy is praised worldwide as it is different from other hosting countries: refugees can stay in settlements or they can decide to move to a city. In both cases, they can seek employment anywhere. Yet, only in the first scenario do they receive humanitarian assistance and a piece o...