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When I drive to work every day, most of my journey is recorded by cameras. Information about my route and speed of travel, as well as that of other people on the road at the time, can be used by governments to improve our national infrastructure, among many other things. It is the job of politicians...

Migration risks bringing Europe to a breaking point. It is about refugee boats, borders, Islam — about us and them. These are themes that not only concern society and politics, but also science and academia. … For more than 13 years, Prof. Melissa Siegel has been working on the theme of ...

A joint post by Tamara Kool and Theresa Ammann In this blog post we connect the current political climate with our current research project that systematically analyses the existing literature on ‘Gender’ and ‘Human Security’. … The global rise of authoritarian movements and the entry of far-r...

Imagine you, a researcher, are given a bag of money, unlimited time and personnel. What research would you do? Dr. Zina Nimeh, university lecturer of Social Protection and Human Development, wants to discover why people no longer appreciate the welfare state. … Solidarity is the basis of the w...

The Russian navy captured three Ukrainian military vessels and detained about 20 soldiers in the Kerch Strait in November 2018. Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the Russians have controlled this unique passage — shared by both countries — between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov. ...

I had been searching for a programme that allowed me to combine my specific research interests with a rather busy work schedule. The blended format with in-person classes and distance learning modules worked very well for me, by providing a good balance between flexibility of schedule and the opport...

Our researchers regularly give policy recommendations to the UN and its Member States — not just in emerging economies but also across Europe. In November 2018, Prof. Melissa Siegel spoke before the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament, where she briefed members on the migration situation, s...

For this sixth edition of our Science Reporting Workshop, Reach and Turn, we partnered with UNESCO, the City of Knowledge Foundation, and the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation — returning to Panama as a side event of the second Latin America and Caribbean Open Science...

A joint post by Profs. René Kemp and Shyama V. Ramani From entertainment to healthcare, innovation is everywhere. Yet, what is the end goal of all these new products and processes — and what should be the EU’s policy priorities? Should ‘we’ improve sustainability among rich c...

I’ve worked for UNICEF on programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, focusing not only on countries in development but also humanitarian contexts. This has given me a deep understanding of how to tailor programmes in order to ensure a timely and effective response – especially in emergency situa...

A joint post by Prof. Louis Volante and Dr. John Jerrim Educators around the world, particularly those in secondary schools, often default to a compelling story when they are trying to motivate their students: Work hard, achieve well and you will secure a successful future with attractive job prospe...

My research was about a set of public policies to support the semiconductor industry in Brazil. These policies started to be designed in the early 2000s, when it was identified that developing a semiconductor industry in the country would foster innovation in the electronics industry. The latter was...

Over the course of the year, we rolled out the SMART Choices and SMART Tools education project — which is finally available now via the Blackboard Open Education portal. SMART Choices is a collection of six online courses based on our MPP academic tracks: a set of courses designed to help stud...

A joint post by Prof. Shyama V. Ramani and Dr. Sanae Okamoto ‘The road to hell,’ goes the age-old proverb ‘is paved with good intentions’. In the 21st century, there can be no clearer example of this than the millions of underused or abandoned toilets in the developing world built for Sustainable De...

Sofia Luz Castaneda was the daughter of a wealthy family in Guatemala, a country in Central America. Her father was a farmer, who employed many men to cultivate his lands. However, one day, one of her father’s employees caught her eye – Samuel Bonilla. Sofia and Samuel fell in love, yet their union ...

My research addresses the problem of deforestation and forest preservation in Brazil. This country has the largest stretch of tropical forest in the world. Surprisingly, and this is good news for once, Brazil has reduced yearly deforestation levels dramatically over the last decade. Since the Rio Co...

Labour market experts Inge Hooijen and Julia Reinold researched the mobility intentions and behaviour of graduates in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion – the borderlands of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands – and found that big life decisions are down to more than an attractive labour market. “Obviously...

A UN Day 2018 message from UNU Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General David M. Malone. ••• The United Nations of 2018 exists in a world that is more interconnected than ever before. Countries are no longer insulated from the setbacks and challenges of other nations, and all profit in some way from ea...

I found out about the UNU-MERIT PhD programme through an online scholarship subscription. Initially, I was a bit surprised that governance and economics could be combined to form a single PhD programme – but then I saw how the two tracks work side-by-side in a complementary way....

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not the winning but the taking part.” So goes the famous saying by Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic Games. But does the same apply for competitive research grants? UNU-MERIT’s Fabiana Visentin joins co-authors Charles Ayoubi an...