The IES, together with the VUB political science department and RHEA, the VUB’s interdisciplinary research centre on gender, diversity and intersectionality, received very good news. The Strategic Research Programme EDGE was evaluated positively and will be able to continue its activities for a new 5-year period. The Strategic Research Programmes are financed by the Research Council of VUB and are meant to stimulate the work of a limited number of strong research groups.

Senior Associate Richard Lewis attended to annual International Metropolis Conference in the Hague (September 18-22)on behalf of IES bringing together academics, policy makers and non-governmental organizations to discuss migration in the context of a system of global justice. This is a timely topic given the political and human rights issues which much of the world is facing, especially the Middle East.

​The Institute for European Studies is proud to announce that on 5 September 2017 IES Associate Lisanne Groen was awarded the prestigious UACES (the academic association for contemporary European Studies) Best PhD Thesis Prize for her thesis (2016) on the effectiveness of the European Union (EU) in multilateral climate change and biodiversity negotiations. The prize is awarded to the PhD thesis that made an original and promising contribution to research in the area of contemporary European studies.

Within the framework of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project COP21 RIPPLES “COP21: Results and Implications for Pathways and Policies for Low Emissions European Societies”, the IES (Prof. Dr. Sebastian Oberthür and Gauri Khandekar), along with project partners – Wuppertal Institute, University of East Anglia, and Climate Analytics – produced a report on “The Core Challenges and Governance Functions of International Climate Governance”. The COP21 RIPPLES project aims to analyse the transformations in the energy systems, and in the wider economy, that are required in order to implement the Paris Agreement, investigate what steps are needed to attain deeper, more ambitious decarbonisation targets, and explore the socio-economic consequences that this transition will trigger.

On Wednesday 27 September IES Jean Monnet professor Harri Kalimo gave the keynote speech at a dinner, hosted by one of the European Parliament’s leading MEPs in environmental issues, Ms. Sirpa Pietikäinen. Talking to the Association of Environmental journalists, Professor Kalimo elaborated on how implementation should today be prominently addressed in two respects: it is one of the key “enablers”, listed in the Commission’s 7th Environmental Action Programme, and better implementation also figures prominently on the Juncker Commission’s Better Regulation agenda

On 26 September, IES Executive Director Anthony Antoine delivered a keynote speech on "the salient role of the universities in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and the particular importance of societal impact of multidisciplinary research in developing sustainable and global solutions" at the Helsinki Challenge Global Impact Camp in Brussels. The Global Impact Camp in Brussels was a two-day intensive co-creation session focusing on societal impact of research, funding and collaboration with international experts and EU decision-makers. 

On September 27, the EEG cluster, in the context of research carried out for EU FP7 project BFSJ, organised its third policy forum in the series on sustainable aviation fuels. The focus this time on policy environment, innovative initiatives and future trends outside of the EU. We had speakers from Brazil (Ministry and airline representatives), Indonesia (ministry and ICAO experts) and the USA (policy agency) presenting perspectives from their countries.

In the current difficult environment, will the EU be able to protect its citizens while also projecting its values into the world? In what ways has the EU’s international role and standing been subject to change? We invite paper abstracts and panel proposals (deadline 23 October) for the sixth European Union in International Affairs (#EUIA18) conference (16 - 18 May 2018 in Brussels), a multidisciplinary biannual event at which international studies scholars and policy practitioners debate the role of the EU in the turbulent realm of international affairs. In 2018 it will focus on the theme of ‘Protecting and Projecting Europe’.

Building on its leading World Circular Economy Forum 2017, held in Helsinki in June with more than 1600 participants, the Research Innovation Fund SITRA organised on Wednesday 12 October in Brussels a high level seminar on “the EU advancing a Global Circular Economy” . In his keynote speech, the European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen explained that for him, the circular economy has become a megatrend, just as is digitalisation, and that the EU is in a leadership position in driving it. 

Klaudia Majcher spoke about algorithmic decision-making and discrimination at the Legal Research Conference organised on 21-22 September by the Research Centre for the Future of Law at Católica Law School in Lisbon. The aim of this year’s conference on “Law in the Era of Technological Change” was to discuss the impacts of emerging technologies on the areas such as intellectual property, data protection, privacy rights, electronic commerce, free speech, and cybercrime.

The Institute for European Studies welcomed on Monday, 9 October 2017, Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies at the University of Copenhagen, for a public lecture on “The Satellite Mosque in Europe: Arab Preachers on TV and Internet”. After giving an overview of modern media’s development within the Arab world, Prof. Skovgaard-Petersen illustrated the importance of religious contents on TV through the examples of various “Ramadan Musalsal”, popular TV series that are specifically produced for and consumed during the fasting month of Ramadan.