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Summer Focus WELCOME to our third quarterly newsletter of 2015, rounding up the latest news and events from UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. We explore the push and pull of international development: innovation through science and entrepreneurship, and governance through public policy analysis. This time we feature the latest EU Innovation Scoreboard, as well as event reports from Milan Expo 2015 and the European Meeting on Applied Evolutionary Economics. |
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Latest News The academic year closed with a special ceremony for our award-winning MSc programme, plus a raft of PhD defences at both UNU-MERIT and the School of Governance. Meanwhile, our fellows contributed to UN observances including World Telecommunication & Information Society Day, World Environment Day, and World Refugee Day. They also gave expert commentaries on major events, like the Nepalese earthquake and Nigerian elections. Additionally, please see our report and interviews from the 2015 European Meeting on Applied Evolutionary Economics (EMAEE). |
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Upcoming Events We look forward to welcoming you to our African Social Transfer Course in Cape Town, South Africa, starting 27 July. There are also places left for our Summer School on Discovering Econometrics with ‘R', from 3 August, and for our revamped course on Evidence-Based Research Methods, starting 7 September, plus our next Master's Open Day on 10 October -- all in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Finally, we hope to see you in Dakar, Senegal for our 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development in Africa, on 26-27 November. |
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Recent Publications May 2015 saw the publication of the EU Innovation Scoreboard 2015, which found a decline in SME innovations but improvements in human resources. Our researchers also co-authored a major report on disruptive innovations such as driverless cars. We also released a handbook on development, which tracks how wealth and poverty relate to changes in health, education and population growth. Finally, we released a new study on the knowledge transfer activities of public research organisations (PROs): in other words, how research is turned into income. |
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Alumni Activities The Future Sustainability Leader award, 2015, went to PhD alumnus and affiliated researcher Dr. Carlos Cadena Gaitan. In April, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania was appointed UN Special Envoy for Yemen. Then in May, MPP alumnus Mahmud Henry Rogers stood as a candidate in the UK parliamentary elections. We also spoke with PhD alumnus Dr. Aziz Atamanov about his career at the World Bank. Please contact Sueli Brodin for more details about our Master’s and PhD alumni activities. |
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Crunching Numbers In the second quarter of 2015, our researchers published inter alia one book, 17 journal articles, and 10 working papers. We also hosted eight joint seminars and produced 22 videos and 16 blog posts. Across social media, by the end of June, our Facebook page had drawn more than 4,600 ‘likes’, while our YouTube channel had amassed over 77,000 views and 430 subscribers. Meanwhile, we had more than 1760 followers on our Twitter account. Please follow us any which way you can! |
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Multimedia Until next time, in early October, please check our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Recent blogs focus on Mozambique at 40, e-learning in Africa, and overseas development assistance. We also present highlights from our ‘press reviews’, covering major publications month-by-month, plus videos on global education governance and on conflict, development and education with former Dutch Ministers Jan Pronk and Jo Ritzen. Finally, please help us improve our website by completing this short survey of eight questions. |
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