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Can strong institutions prevent abuse of power on the one hand or collapse into anarchy on the other? Can efficient bureaucracies help achieve long-term growth and development goals? Can governance indicators reliably measure — and help prevent — state corruption and conflict? These were...

Dear reader, We’re delighted to present the new website of UNU-MERIT. With this we aim to boost our visibility in a dynamic and integrated way. Dynamic, by using numerous sliders and 3D tag clouds refreshed with every new post. Integrated, by embedding all possible media, from lecture slides to vide...

This year’s UN-Habitat Global Report on Human Settlements is dedicated to sustainable mobility. In its foreword, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon highlights the urgent need to invest in urban transport to ensure sustainable development around the world. Undoubtedly, 2014 will see a multiplication of...

I started my PhD in 2008 as a mid-career professional, having already worked for several years in Iran and a few years in Afghanistan. Due to my previous experience, I realized that I wanted to continue working with children. I also wanted to work on Iran as I thought my local knowledge would be a k...

The latest PhD defence from our part-time GPAC² programme looked at ‘Mozambique Governance Assessments in the Context of Aid Effectiveness Discourse’. Laura Torvinen, who previously worked for UNDP and is now a senior advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland, defended successfully on 21...

UNU-MERIT has openings for visiting researchers and professors in Innovation, Governance and Development. These are available at all levels after completion of a PhD, and for periods of between one and six months in 2013 and 2014. Proven prior research experience in a relevant theme (as evidenced by...

From innovation to migration, economic development to public policy, UNU-MERIT’s research is organized around seven themes based on broadly common approaches. Five research theme leaders have so far come on camera to explain the broad lines of their research programmes, covering methodologies,...

There was a full house for the latest Charles Cooper memorial lecture, given by Professor Sidney G. Winter, former Chief Economist of the US General Accounting Office. Professor Winter spoke at length about ‘Dynamic Capability — The Concept and How It Helps Us Understand Economic Change&...

Will Syria break apart along sectarian lines? What are the origins of the conflict? What are the pros and cons of a US-led intervention? How is the war impacting individual lives? These were among the questions of a panel debate on the Syrian civil crisis at Maastricht University in October 2013. Pa...

Welcome to UNU-MERIT! We quickly wanted to tell you something about UNU-MERIT, who we are and what our masters programme is all about. UNU-MERIT is the UN’s institute for comprehensive innovation: a research and training institute that mobilises knowledge, education and policy to unlock the full pot...

Bolivia was the location of our latest training course on the ‘Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policies’ (DEIP). One of the least developed countries in Latin America but with one of the highest investment rates in education, Bolivia is a special case in many ways. In the last few years the Boli...

Fellows on our part-time PhD programme (GPAC²) work for governments and international bodies around the world. Their day jobs land them at the centre of events in geopolitical hotspots, meaning they are often better informed than even the best connected journalists. In this new series, we speak with...

In October 2013, Jun Hou successfully defended his PhD thesis on ‘Complementarity in Innovation and Development: A Cross-country Comparison’. Having analysed several thousand firms in more than 30 developing countries, he gives a range of recommendations. In particular, these are based on commonly f...

We are now accepting applications for the Migration Management Diploma Programme (MMDP), which starts on 1 April 2014. Sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we offer 10 scholarships per year to government officials from 40 developing countries with at least three years’ experience in t...

The Future of Industrial Work UNIDO, Vienna 19-20 September 2019...

Rectification notice, 9 July 2019 [Dutch below] The initial report Dealing with (non-)deportability: A comparative policy analysis of the post-entry migration enforcement regimes of Western European countries by Dr. Marieke van Houte and Prof. Dr. Arjen Leerkes, which was cited in a range of Dutch a...

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