EGI: anOpen e-Infrastructure Ecosystem for the Digital European Research Area

Bringing the digital European Research Area (ERA) online means modernising Europe’s research infrastructure by promoting open science through the availability, accessibility and reuse of scientific data and results, the use of web- based tools that facilitate scientific collaboration and ensuring public access to research. As the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) is the largest European distributed computing infrastructure providing 24/7 access to large scale computing, storage and data resources through a federation of national resource providers, it allows scientists from all disciplines to make the most out of the latest computing technologies for the benefit of their research. This paper describes the methodology and approach for defining EGI’s role in bringing this digital ERA online. The work presented defines the roles and functions of EGI as an open ICT ecosystem, required service redesign, the added value of EGI for the European research communities and demonstrates the role that EGI plays in contributing to the Europe 2020 strategy for social-economic impact

Accreditation for transnational research access to official micro-data in Europe

Accreditation is a central element of the framework for research access to micro-data that currently is understood to be a barrier for transnational access. To better understand the nature and causes of the problem, and to devise potential solutions, we have mapped current arrangements across European countries. We identify similarities and differences as well as areas for improvement. Our key results are encouraging: almost all European countries do provide research access to their micro-data, and most of them allow non-national European researchers to access their data, though under varying conditions. However, some obstacles remain, and some of them require negotiation and coordination at policy-making levels. To overcome existing barriers, we propose some potential options for the future and concrete steps towards improvement, which if explored from now on, could substantially improve access while still ensuring safe and lawful conditions, and reducing the administrative financial burden of data providers

Transnational Corporations and Global Governance

Scholars and critics often lament that corporations rule the world, but predominant accounts of global governance imply almost the opposite: With theories populated by national governments and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, it might appear that nearly everyone except corporations writes the rules that govern across borders. This article compiles research on the varied ways in which multinational and transnational corporations have shaped global governance, drawing attention to the contours and limits of corporate power. Corporations can be seen variously as sponsors, inhibitors, and direct providers of global governance. They have, for example, been sponsors of neoliberal trade rules, inhibitors of some labor and environmental regimes, and providers of private standards for finance, safety, sustainability, and human rights. Scholars may be tempted to focus on just one of these roles or to presume unified corporate dominance, but it is important to grapple with all three and to investigate the conditions under which corporate actions are more or less unified and decisive.Introduction National, multinational, and transnational corporations in sociology Sponsors Inhibitors Providers: The rise of private authority Implications Disclosure statement Acknowledgements Literature cite

Ethnonationalist Triads: Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil Wars

Although the case-based literature suggests that kin groups are prominent in ethnonationalist conflicts, quantitative studies of civil war onset have both overaggregated and underaggregated the role of ethnicity, by looking at civil war at the country level instead of among specific groups and by treating individual countries as closed units, ignoring groups' transnational links. In this article the authors integrate transnational links into a dyadic perspective on conflict between marginalized ethnic groups and governments. They argue that transnational links can increase the risk of conflict as transnational kin support can facilitate insurgencies and are difficult for governments to target or deter. The empirical analysis, using new geocoded data on ethnic groups on a transnational basis, indicates that the risk of conflict is high when large, excluded ethnic groups have transnational kin in neighboring countries, and it provides strong support for the authors' propositions on the importance of transnational ties in ethnonationalist conflict.</jats:p

Cluster policy and the supporting organizations for transnational clusters promoting - Romanian initiatives

In some european areas there are thousands of active companies with quite similar profiles, but the information about the potential for cooperation among the countries in the area is scarce because of the lack of visibility of SME-s, in general, and of transnational connections between companies and the supporting organizations, in particular. To overcome the current situation which is characterized by this lack of an exchange of information among the european zones on the potential for antreprenorial cooperation, is necessary to have a common european concept and an active implication of the appropiate supporting organizations. On the basis of a context analisys our paper will try to highlighte the need for the following: • Stimulation of productive capacities of companies in order to create cluster networks in the strategic economic sectors, meant to improve the actual integration of the transnational competitive chains of SME-s and contribute thus to the narrowing of regional disparities and to an increase in the attractiveness of the regions lagging behind for FDI; • Improvement of information on the cross-border cooperation potential in theese areas of Europe and promote it, so that SME-s in the regions have a bigger visibility • Stepping up the development of some innovative economic policies, of vertical relations among companies, of the visibility and accessibility of local productive systems and continued growth at a regional level. As case study the author chose the Romanian initiatives for transnational clusters promoting in some of the strategic economic sectors.

Introduction: migrating heritage - experiences of cultural networks and cultural dialogue in Europe

No abstract available

Learning architectures and negotiation of meaning in European trade unions

As networked learning becomes familiar at all levels and in all sectors of education, cross-fertilisation of innovative methods can usefully inform the lifelong learning agenda. Development of the pedagogical architectures and social processes, which afford learning, is a major challenge for educators as they strive to address the varied needs of a wide range of learners. One area in which this challenge is taken very seriously is that of trade unions, where recent large-scale projects have aimed to address many of these issues at a European level. This paper describes one such project, which targeted not only online courses, but also the wider political potential of virtual communities of practice. By analysing findings in relation to Wengers learning architecture, the paper investigates further the relationships between communities of practice and communities of learners in the trade union context. The findings suggest that a focus on these relationships rather than on the technologies that support them should inform future developments

Reconsidering Cohesion Policy : the Contested debate on Territorial Cohesion

The incorporation of territorial cohesion as a regional policy objective has focused attention on the potential role of territorial cooperation in pursuing this goal. However, the broad agreement on the positive effects of territorial cooperation is not always matched by the same enthusiasm when funds are being allocated. The concrete impact of territorial cooperation is often difficult to identify. At the same time, in terms of the qualitative impacts of territorial cooperation, the added value of INTERREG for territorial cohesion is difficult to dispute

Joining forces: European periodical studies as a new research field

In recent decades, periodical studies have burgeoned into a vibrant field of research. Increasing numbers of scholars working in disciplines across the humanities — literary studies, history, art history, gender studies, media studies, legal history, to name a few — are exploring the press as a key site for cultural production, public debate and the dissemination of knowledge. [...