News

Here’s what participants have to say about our EPRM revamp Last semester, the Capacity Development Office at UNU-MERIT made changes to its flagship Evidence-Based Policy Research Methods (EPRM) programme based on feedback from its participants, who are working professionals from across the globe loo...

Tips and tricks from our dual career PhD fellows To kick off the 2023–2024 academic year, three of our dual career PhD fellows – Ari Perdana, Ilsa Meidina and Laisa Daza Obando – held a panel discussion about careers in multilateral development banks, describing their personal experiences of working...

On 28-29 September, UNU-MERIT held its annual Internal Conference — an intensive two-day gathering that convened all of our PhD fellows (both full-time and dual career), researchers and professors for an in-person research exchange. During this much-anticipated event, our academic community members ...

By Robert Oakes (Senior Researcher, UNU-EHS) and Talitha Dubow (postdoctoral researcher, UNU-MERIT) The UK’s home secretary, Suella Braverman – the minister responsible for setting immigration policy – has said the United Nations refugee convention is not “fit for our modern age” and should be reneg...

This week, Scientific American published a news piece on the increasingly common worldwide concerns about rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence, and how this ‘AI anxiety’ can be managed. The article features UNU-MERIT researcher Sanae Okamoto, an expert in psychology, cogn...

Results from a new evaluation study In 2020, the EU’s EUR 80 billion research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020 came to a close after running since 2014. Now, as its successor Horizon Europe kicks into gear, analyses and learnings from the original programme are being put forth to inform...

New research article highlights three tips In light of new AI (artificial intelligence) technologies such as ChatGPT affecting education, Louis Volante, affiliated professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT, co-authored a recent article offering educators research-informed pathways on how to harness AI to pro...

Last week, we welcomed a new cohort of students, who have come from across the globe to join our Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) programme. Before diving into their studies, more than 80 students from 29 countries stepped into student life at UNU-MERIT through two intr...

By Shyama V. Ramani (Professorial Fellow, UNU-MERIT) and Maximilian Bruder (PhD fellow, UNU-MERIT). ChatGPT has been touted as a tool that is going to revolutionise the workplace and home. AI systems like it have the potential to enhance productivity but could also displace jobs. The ChatGPT website...

Lessons from the three-day event in Rio de Janeiro By Mercedes Menéndez, Carlo Pietrobelli and Jorge Valverde From 20 to 22 July 2023, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) met for a three-day conference in Rio de Janeiro. There, the UNU-MERIT UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology ...

By Luk Van Langenhove and Luc Soete, former directors of UNU-CRIS and UNU-MERIT Hans van Ginkel, who passed away on Thursday, 27 July 2023, was a formidable figure by any standard. He was also one of those rare individuals who knew he could make a difference − and so he did through his times in char...

A post by Cristina Mancigotti, Capacity Development Coordinator at UNU-MERIT’s Capacity Development Office  Students consider dropping out of courses for a number of reasons, but our research shows that peer discussions and local context examples during class sessions can increase engagement a...

New pilot programme provides online certification to professional education – and enhanced employment value As a working professional, Joshua Antwi from Ghana was unable to enroll in UNU-MERIT’s full-time Master in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) programme, despite his desire to acqu...

   European Innovation Scoreboard 2023 released today The twenty-second edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which provides a comparative analysis of the research and innovation performance of EU Member States and selected third countries, was published today, 6 July 2023. The ...

Participants share their key takeaways from UNU-MERIT’s Migration Management Diploma Programme The Migration Management Diploma Programme (MMDP) is a capacity development programme which has been offered by UNU-MERIT since 2013. This programme is designed for government officials working in mi...

  UNU-MERIT affiliated researcher nominated for thesis-based educational game In 2016, Irina Burlacu de Paoli (UNU-MERIT PhD alumna and external lecturer at Maastricht University’s Summer Programme in European Studies) created the Mobility Era Game, a research-based financial literacy boa...

A post by Alex Hunns, social protection researcher at UNU-MERIT New UNU research explores the extent to which climate crises affect 20 of the world’s largest refugee settlements  Encampment has defined refugee policy since the Second World War, and refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in their ...

  Meet the new UNU-MERIT board member Behnam Taebi As a child, Behnam Taebi was interested in nothing more than understanding how everything works, making his education and training as a material science engineer an obvious professional choice. Now, however, Taebi works as a leading ethicist an...

Six questions with UNESCO Chair speaker and Duke University professor Gary Gereffi Few understand global value and supply chains – let alone the differences between them – more deeply than Gary Gereffi, a Duke University professor who has been studying our global production frameworks in...

  Episode 12 of the Director’s Corner Podcast series: Director Bartel Van de Walle speaks with Sanae Okamoto, researcher at UNU-MERIT In this conversation, Bartel and Sanae discuss – among other related topics – the findings of a new report from the United Nations University Climate...