Current Third-Party Funded Projects

1) Point Alpha Research Institute

 

2) Transnational Governance and Human Rights

 

The project will 1) achieve the increased internationalization of the Fulda academic study landscape. Furthermore, 2) the establishment of a Fulda Center for Transnational Governance serves the international networking with experts from research and practice. The project also provides for the 3) internationalization of the doctoral center “Social Sciences with a focus on globalization, European integration, interculturality. These project parts create essential prerequisites for the international visibility of Fulda as a university location with a specific profile and the positioning of the university in the international scientific landscape.

In the project, the international mobility of students in the courses offered at the SK Faculty as well as for doctoral candidates, teachers and administrative staff (incoming and outgoing) will be strengthened, technical infrastructure and digital courses will be further developed and co-teaching with international partners independent of physical mobility will be integrated into the course programme.Furthermore, the better international visibility of the Fulda social and cultural sciences will be achieved. Established collaborations with universities in and outside Europe are going to be further developed and supplemented by new ones. Specifically, we are planning to expand our collaborations with GJU Amman, Birzeit University Ramallah, SUNY Cortland, MacEwan University Edmonton, Sciences Po Toulouse and University College London. These collaborations are relevant to the project elements described below.

The project combines the strengthening of the already existing international cooperation structures in the field of studies, research and doctoral studies with the development of new, precisely coordinated elements: a) the creation of a joint degree program for the interdisciplinary course Master Human Rights Studies in Politics, Law and Society (MAHRS) established in 2018  with the GJU in Amman, b) the implementation of an English study track in MAHRS, c) the establishment of a Fulda Center for Transnational Governance and the systematic involvement of practitioners from transnational organizations in teaching and research, d ) regular international guest lectures, e) three international Fulda summer schools for doctoral candidates and f) an international conference on the future of doctoral studies.

3) Bridge Program Hesse Ukraine

4) Jean Monnet Network “Debating Europe (DebatEU)”

 

Approved Funds 300.000.- Euro

Period 09.2020 – 08.2023

Applicant and Head of the project: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

 

Projektbeteiligte: Thomas Berger, Marcus Feßler (Institure inter.research e.V.); Prof. Dr. Cecile Robert (Sciences Po Lyon), Dr. Willy Beauvallet (Université de Lyon II), Prof. Dr. Igor Vidačak; Prof. Dr. Ana Matan, Prof. Dr. Tonči Kursar (University of Zagreb); Prof. Dr. Damjan Lajh; Prof. Dr. Danica Fink Hafner; Prof. Dr. Meta Novak (University of Ljubljana); prof. Dr. Niilo Kauppi (Helsinki University); Dr. Laura Landorff (Aalborg University)

 

The Jean Monnet Network “Debating Europe” (DebatEU) uses debate as a methodology for

a) spreading knowledge on the European Union (EU) to target groups previously not well informed

b) gaining knowledge about citizens´ opinions

c) integrating teaching and research activities

d) enhancing exchange between citizens, students, academics and EU practitioners via conferences, events, a website, social media and various publications.

 

The purpose of debate in the network is twofold: By debating Europe in citizen focus groups, conferences, social media, and further publications and events the network aims on one hand at generating a dialogue and an enhanced understanding of the EU among citizens. On the other hand, the network aims at learning what citizens’ reasons are to be critical or distanced from the EU. The network activities will lead to fruitful exchanges between academics, especially young researchers, students, citizens, civil society activists and EU practitioners, i.e. EU officials, as well as EU and national politicians. The process of exchanging and debating enhances the legitimacy of the EU not only as a polity, but also as a policy-making process by regaining citizen’s trust in their ability to use political discussions to influence the policy-making process, including a wide range of actors.

 

These efforts are badly needed: Despite the activities of the EU and national institutions as well as intermediate institutions and actors, research as well as opinion surveys diagnose a growing gap between what has been termed “EU elites” and EU citizens. The EU has a legitimacy problem, support rates have been decreasing during the peak of the financial crisis and despite the economic situation improving, votes for populist, extremist, anti-EU and anti-democrat parties and movements are on the rise throughout the EU. At the same time, the Europeanisation of politics and decision making continues to impact and transform the national democratic systems of the member states.

 

Our network takes stock of this situation. The primary aim is to open debate and get into a dialogue on the EU with citizens that are neither engaged in EU-oriented civil-society organisations, nor in political parties, in order to bridge the gap between the EU and its citizens. The core of the network consists in citizen focus group discussions that the network members will organise in their home countries – three focus group discussions per country and 18 altogether in three years, with minimum ten citizen participants. The country selection is particularly adequate for our task. We include network members from Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and Slovenia, and hence, we will reach citizens in Eastern, Northern, Central and Southern EU member states, founding member states and nearly all of the following enlargements rounds, small, medium and large member states. Accordingly, the network will enhance an open debate on the EU with around 200 citizens so far not engaged with the EU in six member states.

 

The network´s results will deliver well-based findings about the sources of contemporary EU-criticism and the character of the oft-cited gap between EU elites and average citizens that can be considered as representative for the EU altogether as they come from a representative selection of EU countries. Research findings will be spread and further debated in conferences, network events, via a website and social media, and various publications. These activities will on one hand serve at promoting active EU citizenship and values, enhance awareness of the EU, and facilitate future engagement and people-to-people dialogue. They will also enhance understanding of debates on priority reforms of the EU in the framework of the two-year Conference on the Future of Europe, where universities and research centers are also invited to support the Conference process, and enhance the quality of citizen involvement and deliberations on the EU reforms at various levels. DebatEU is split into three work packages:

 

Work package 1 – Opening Debate

 

1.1. Citizen focus group discussions

In all participating countries and by all network members, three citizen focus group discussions (see part F) will be carried out, i.e. 18 altogether (in six countries and in three years), each with minimum 10 citizens.

 

1.2. Analysis of the focus group discussions

The focus group discussions will be recorded, transcribed and analysed in a comparative assessment across all participating countries (see part F).

 

1.3. Regular network meetings

These will allow continuous exchanges and communication.

 

1.4. An online platform

It will provide the basis for exchanging results and further discussion on the research.

 

Work package 2 – Learning from Debate

 

2.1. Teaching research seminars

The focus group discussions will be carried out in relation to teaching research seminars in all participating institutions, in order to actively include students into the process or research and knowledge production. They will be open to MA and Ph.D. students. Online course for students and citizens

 

2.2. Online course on the EU

Students that participated in the teaching research seminars and citizens that participated in the focus group discussions are invited to follow an English language online course of the EU, which is offered jointly by University Fulda and institute inter.research e.V. The objective of the course is twofold - providing background knowledge about the EU and the opportunity to continue EU-related activities and knowledge transfer.

 

2.3. Ph.D. course

In cooperation with the international Graduate School in Social Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Ph.D. training courses will be organised and offered to the Ph.D. students in the member institutions.

 

Work package 3 – Disseminating Debate

 

The results will be communicated in different ways:

 

3.1. Network website

The network will have a website for communicating events and network results.

 

3.2. Social Media

Network events and results will also be communicated via Instagram and Twitter accounts of the network.

 

3.3. Panels and papers at international conferences

Network results will be presented at international academic conferences in the field.

 

3.4. Opening Conference (Fulda, 2021)

 

3.5. Midterm Conference (Helsinki, 2022)

 

3.6. Closing Conference (Zagreb, 2023)

Yearly conferences of the network at Fulda, Helsinki and Zagreb serve at discussing research results of the network, connecting the teachers/network members and the students as well as other researchers. Citizens and stakeholders will be invited to the conferences.

 

3.7. International academic publications

Network results will be published in international perr-reviewed academic publications.

 

3.8. Policy event in Brussels

The network results and especially policy advice will be presented in a policy event in Brussels. Representants of EU institutions will be invited.

 

3.9. Policy advice brochure

A policy advice brochure directed at EU practitioners in the sense of EU stakeholders, EU officials, as well as EU and national politicians will be published.

5) Jean Monnet Projekt „Bridging the Gap between the EU and its Citizens“

 

Jean Monnet Chair

Approved Funds: 50.000 Euro

Period: 09.2019 – 08.2022

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

 

The Jean Monnet Chair project “BridgE” has the thematic focus and aim to help bridging the gap between the European Union and its citizens by enhancing active debates on the EU. 

Despite the efforts of EU and national institutions as well as intermediate institutions and actors, research as well as opinion surveys diagnose a growing gap between what has been termed “EU elites” and EU citizens. The European Union has a legitimacy problem, support rates have been decreasing during the peak of the financial crisis, as the respective Eurobarometer data clearly show, and despite the economic situation improving, votes for populist, extremist, anti-EU and anti-democrat parties and movements are on the rise throughout the EU. At the same time, the Europeanisation of politics and decision making continues to impact and transform the national democratic systems of the member states.

The work programme for the Chair takes stock of this situation. The primary aim is to debate the EU with a) students and b) citizens that are neither engaged in EU-oriented civil-society organisations, nor in political parties, in order to bridge the gap between citizens and the EU. 

In order to do so, teaching, citizen focus group discussions, public events, and research activities will be integrated. The results will deliver well-based findings about the sources of contemporary EU-criticism and be disseminated in public discussion events, academic conferences, and via publications directed at academics and EU practitioners in the sense of EU stakeholders, EU officials, and EU and national politicians. The work will help to bridge the gap between EU elites and average citizens.

In all this, a particular focus is set on MA students and young researchers, including them into the research process in teaching research seminars and additionally in offering them training courses in cooperation with Fulda Graduate School in the Social Sciences.

The work plan of the Chair follows three objectives (Teaching and Debating Europe, Networking and Communication, Dissemination) that are carried out in the following work packages:

Work package 1 – Teaching and Debating Europe 

1.1.     Teaching/research seminars organised around citizen focus group discussions aim at debating Europe with students and citizens. BA, MA and Ph.D. students will be actively integrated into the research activities. They will be guided into carrying out a proper research on citizens opinions on the EU. The focus group discussions will allow for developing a broad understanding on the European Union’s perception and the reasons of citizen support or citizen distrust in and of the EU. All in all, understanding the background reasons of average citizen´s opinions on the EU will allow for a more nuanced assessment of the alleged gap between the EU´s elites and its citizens, and the ways to bridge it.

1.2.     In cooperation with the international Graduate School in the Social Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Ph.D. training courses will be organised and offered to the participating Ph.D. students.  

1.3.     A MA course will teach research methods and research design specifically directed at MA students in EU studies and with topics in EU studies. In their third (pre-thesis) semester it prepares them for presenting an exposé for their MA thesis and start working on it well prepared. 

Work package 2 – Networking and Communication

BridgE will also become the nucleus for an accessible and inclusive community of discussion on the European Union where issues are debated critically with a wide range of views. It will transfer expert knowledge and research results into public debate and will enhance the level of public deliberation about the EU. The process of exchanging and debating enhances the legitimacy of the EU not only as a polity, but also as a policy-making process by regaining citizen’s trust in their ability to use political discussions to influence the policy-making process, including a wide range of actors.

Networking aims at connecting the Chair, students, other researchers, citizens as well as stakeholders, practitioners and EU and national politicians by several tools and activities: 

2.1.     The Chair will have a publicly accessible website that presents the aims and rationale of the project, announces news and events, publishes reports on the events and presents the most important research findings. The website will be immediately set up upon beginning of the project.

2.2.     A more specific and password protected online platform is the basis for a) uploading the results of the teaching research seminars and the analyses, and also b) for a comment and discussion platform that connects citizens, stakeholders, students and the Chair.

2.3.     Citizens, stakeholders, practitioners and EU and national politicians will be invited to regular debating events.

2.4.     Panels at international conferences will be organised to further connect the Chair with the international academic community.

Work package 3 – Dissemination

Besides the activities above, the results will be disseminated via the following channels:

3.1.     Relaunch of the Europe Certificate programme directed at non-social-science students from all faculties at Fulda University of Applied Sciences under the applicants´ direction.

3.2.     A concluding conference serves at discussing the results of the teaching research seminars against the state of the art in the discipline and with practitioners.

3.3.     Presentations at the major international conferences in EU Studies and Political Science (IPSA, EISA, ISA, CES, ECPR, UACES) are carried out.

3.4.     International academic publications.

3.5. Publications directed at practitioners.

 

6) Practising Transnational Politics (PATRAPO)

 

Approved Funds: 285.379.Euro

Funding Institution: European Union

Period: 03.2021 – 02.2023

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

Project Participants: Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Autonomous University Madrid, Zagreb University

 

Summary

United Nations Model Games (MUN) is a worldwide practice of simulations in which participants take on the role of an international delegate in a simulated committee of the United Nations (UN). Against this backdrop, the goal of Practising Transnational Politics in Blended Learning (PATRAPO) is to contribute to the international MUN community by developing open access transnational teaching kits and a handbook for a two-semester series of online blended learning seminars that train students for the participation in MUNs. To do this, PATRAPO builds on a cooperation of three European Universities and a Canadian associate partner university for training for MUNs. For the time being, neither such a transnational structure nor such teaching kits and handbooks exist.

The partner universities are Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Autonomous University Madrid, Zagreb University and, as an associate partner, MacEwan University Edmonton. The partners all have previous experience both in MUN model games and in EU projects and can build on previous MUN activities. The advantages of such a joint structure are the mutual support, the possible synergy effects, a widening of the respective horizons to different input and experiences, and last not least a development and implementation of best practice teaching kits as well as a joint grading scheme. Besides it furthers intra-European relations and fosters EU values. Based on their individual experiences, the partners will jointly develop, establish and implement the following elements and aim at the following results, to be carried out in a yearly rhythm:

1)     a teaching kit for preparative joint blended MUN training seminars (including work in small groups and virtual seminar sessions; 1st semester of each academic year) at all participating institutions, including: teaching curricula, seminar plans, active-learning methodology, material, content, explanation, organization, training video collection (accessible on the project website). We aim to teach 30 students per semester.

2)     a teaching kit for joint blended MUN (including delegation work in small groups and a virtual MUN; 2^nd semester of each academic year), including: procedure, technical solutions, organizational advice, and detailed description of “how-to” (accessible on the project website). We aim to teach 30 students per semester.

3)     a handbook including a manual (intellectual property of the partners) and user advice for third parties for the two teaching kits. The handbook will be made available open access on the project website.

4)     a project website to provide information on the project, the ongoing process and the teaching kits as well as the open access handbook with manual.

5)     four intensive staff trainings for blended MUN seminars for applying these facilities: the project is a learning system including further training for teachers. We plan four staff trainings with two participants from Fulda UAS, two participants from UAM Madrid and one participant from UNIZG at the beginning of each semester.

6)     intensive study programmes to attend life MUN (if pandemic allows it, if not, in a big virtual MUN). At least 30 students should participate per year.

7)     until the end of the project, the blended MUN seminars shall be implemented as permanent elective courses in all participating institutions and a joint ECTS grading scheme established.

The project aims at permanently establishing the new seminar series and the cooperation of the participating universities and build appropriate infrastructures in order to provide long-term benefits with respect to student competencies and the quality of the participating universities. Partners will establish a joint ECTS grading scheme. All students will obtain ECTS credits according to the institutional demands at each partners’ university and study program for participating in the MUN seminars. The joint blended MUN training seminars at all participating institutions will be maintained after the end of the EU funding as a fixed part of the partners’ study programmes and teaching activities. A project website will be set up by the partners and include a project description of PATRAPO, the ongoing process, results and links to the two teaching kits as well as the handbook including a manual and user advice for third parties for the two teaching kits. The website will be continued and updated after the end of the EU funding by the partners. In order to organise the seminar series, the regular exchanges in online meetings of the partners will also continue. The project PATRAPO will connect not only the faculty members but also students of the participating universities and thus build a basis for further exchange and collaboration.