Publications & Events

Anna-Lena Rüland Large science projects, also known as “Big Science”, are typically presented as a win-win for all stakeholders involved, including for the local community. Yet research has shown that local opposition to Big Science is common, although it tends to be short-lived and often fails to raise wide-spread awareness. Some argue that this is […]

Facilitated by the freedom of movement within the European Union (EU), the Erasmus programme established in 1987, and the Bologna Process initiated in 1999, physical intra-European student mobility has become a taken-for-granted aspect of higher education.

The 2024 edition of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference took place at the University College Dublin, 12-15 August. The section of our ECPR Standing Group on Knowledge Politics and Policies included 10 panels on topics such as knowledge diaspora, higher education, university governance, science diplomacy, and Artificial Intelligence.

Universities not only produce Europe’s intellectual elites and scientific knowledge, but they are also key actors in science diplomacy, regional innovation ecosystems and cultural reproduction. The European Union (EU) is increasingly recognizing this and engages in the steering of European universities, for example through its funding programmes.

The release of ChatGPT in late 2022 captured the public imagination. It provided a tool everyone can play around with, making Artificial Intelligence (AI) accessible to many. It also raised a lot of urgent questions, including about protecting copyrights, fighting disinformation, and avoiding discrimination.

In March, I decided to apply for a UACES Microgrant to receive funding to attend the 12th Biannual Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, which took place between June 19th and 21st, 2024, in Lisbon at the Universidade NOVA.   The SGEU Biannual Conference, a significant event for those working in […]

Climate change, authoritarianism, poverty, terrorism, energy-shortages, genocide, population growth. These are only some of the global challenges the world is currently facing. Lists of global challenges seek to identify the greatest of them, international organizations like the United Nations take them as the starting point for their Sustainable Development Goals, and non-governmental groups like the World Economic Forum put them at the top of their political agenda.

Behind the Artificial Intelligence (AI) hype about its numerous benefits, uncomfortable questions concerning the problematic social impacts of AI on issues such as justice, fairness and equality are intensifying. While it has been argued that AI has a potential to eliminate human bias, growing evidence suggests quite the opposite – that AI is amplifying and exacerbating gender, racial, ethnic and other stereotypes.

If you are a PhD candidate, you might have heard at some point that it would be good for you to attend an academic conference. Well, I would say that you must! As a final year PhD Candidate in International Relations at the University of Kent, I have attended international conferences since 2021, the second […]

Last month, the first endorsed workshop by the ECPR Standing Group Knowledge Politics and Policies unfolded at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Lüneburg (Germany). The workshop with the theme “The Politics and Policies of Skills Shortage” brought together thirteen scholars from across Europe who are working on the issue of skills shortage from different disciplinary angles.