ITN RegPol² Project partner meeting

The ITN RegPol² (Socio-economic and Political Responses to Regional Polarisation in Central and Eastern Europe) member organisations’ introductory event on “Basic understandings of core-periphery relations in Central and Eastern Europe” took place from 3-7 November 2014 in Bratislava

The ITN RegPol² is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme with the objective of preparing 16 young researchers for careers in academia, public administration, NGOs and the private sector. The reseach topics within the project focus on a better understanding of the development of regional disparities between metropolised regions and the remaining parts in Central and Eastern European countries. The network includes public and private partners from Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The first workshop was devoted to the exchange of different institutions’ experiences with approaching the topic of regional development and the introduction of first research ideas by the young researchers. This international cooperation of professionals offers new opportunities for deepening the main project topics, also taking their international impact into account. The lectures from international guest were followed with great interest. Prof. Merje Kuus (University of British Columbia) gave insights into the development of European Union politics and Prof. Ulrich Ermann (University of Graz) introduced different consumption patterns in Europe. In addition to that, presentations on academic ethics, methodology and data use were offered.