News from the IES

Research Team from the 3E (Environment, Economy and Energy) Research Centre of IES has published a comprehensive report for the Office of the Prime Minister of Finland on greening public procurement. The research consortium in Project HILMI, with professor Harri Kalimo as the Principal Investigator and Max Jansson, Lea Mateo and Selçukan Unekbas contributing, included also the University of Eastern Finland, Finnish Environment Institute and the Lappeenranta University of Technology. 

The European Commission has awarded a consortium involving VUB, led by Brussels-based consultancy company ICF and South Korea-based consultancy Ecosian, and also comprising three other partners the €2.4million project EU-Republic of Korea Dialogue Support Facility. The KF-VUB Korea Chair will lead management of the VUB's involvement in the project, in particular with regards to security- and connectivity-related activities. 

"North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un", a book written by Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies, has been rated as one of the top 10 books reviewed in 2020 by International Affairs.

The editorial team of the International Affairs journal wrote in their book review that “Ramon Pacheco Pardo does an absolutely brilliant job of outlining the North Korean perspective on its changing relationship with the US. Pacheco Pardo draws on discussions with US, Chinese North Korean and South Korean policymakers to demystify the North’s Strategy adding important detail to cursory accounts of the country as a rouge state.” A full book review is available here.

The IES 3E Research team, together with its partner institutes (University of Eastern Finland, Finnish Environmental Institute, and Yale University), co-organized and chaired three back-to-back expert workshops on the Circular Economy and product policy. The workshops are a part of the research project KITUPO, focused on some of the most topical issues within circular product policies; extended producer responsibility (EPR) and product-service-systems KITUPO is co-managed by professor Harri Kalimo.