The TROPICO project (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) aims to comparatively examine how public administrations are transformed to enhance collaboration in policy design and service delivery, advancing the participation of public, private and societal actors. It will analyse collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and its consequences. Assessing the institutional conditions and individual drivers and barriers is crucial for understanding the transformation of governments towards greater collaboration. The state structures and administrative traditions provide different 'starting points' of the public sectors in Europe. Likewise, individual attitudes, skills, and expertise of officials play a decisive role in understanding this transformation. Subsequently, TROPICO will examine collaboration practices within governments (internal) and between public, private and societal actors (external), across a variety of policy sectors. We will study the actors and means of innovative collaboration, including ICT, and how they are interlinked. Lastly, assessing the effects of collaboration for legitimacy, accountability and government efficiency is essential to provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformation towards open, innovative, and collaborative governments. Our multidisciplinary project will follow a truly comparative approach, examining ten countries representing the five administrative traditions in Europe: Nordic (Norway, Denmark), Central and Eastern European (Estonia, Hungary), Continental (Netherlands, Germany), Napoleonic (France, Spain; Belgium (mixed)), and Anglo-Saxon (United Kingdom). We will combine rigorous quantitative and qualitative research methods. TROPICO puts a strong emphasis on the inclusion of stakeholders and users throughout the project to test and reflect upon the applicability of our key findings and policy recommendations.

Klimakrisen kræver en hurtig og effektiv reduktion i udledningen af drivhusgasser i alle sektorer på globalt plan. De seneste rapporter fra FN’s Klimapanel foreslår at fokusere på reduktion af økonomiske aktiviteters udledning af CO2. Stater, som ejer og kontrollerer omkring halvdelen af den globale olie- og gasproduktion, kan bidrage til dette mål ved fx at sælge ud af aktiver, lade olie- og gasressourcer blive i jorden eller omdirigere investeringer i fossile brændstoffer til investeringer i vedvarende energi. Vi mangler imidlertid viden om staternes konkrete involvering i klima-skadelige aktiver: Hvor og hvordan optræder stater som ejere af fossile brændstoffer? Hvilke faktorer forhindrer en afhænding af disse aktiver? Og endelig, hvilke faktorer vil kunne fremme staters bestræbelser på at reducere deres ejerskab af ’fossile’ aktiver? For at besvare disse spørgsmål vil DECARB-projektet udvikle en stor database, der kortlægger investeringsprofilerne for stater som ejere. Projektet vil derudover undersøge, i hvilket omfang politik og relationer mellem stater, virksomheder og politiske eliter hæmmer eller fremmer den grønne dagsorden. Ved at kombinere kvalitativ og kvantitativ viden vil DECARB-projektet levere et sæt konkrete anbefalinger for, hvordan stater kan blive mere grønne ejere og investorer. Projektet vil give civilsamfundsaktører redskaber til at følge, i hvor høj grad regeringer leverer på deres løfter om grøn omstilling.

What? Are populists good for democracy? Or, do they undermine it? How should we react? Should we even react at all? Many European democracies now face these questions. The project aims to address the question of how European democracies respond to populists in practice and what works. Responses to populist parties include policies and acts of public authorities, political party strategies and civil society mobilisation. They can be deployed locally, at state level and at the international and EU level. It includes ostracism, judicial review, and direct action by national and transnational NGOs. The project will produce a book with theoretical reflections on how to identify effective responses to populist parties and illustrative examples to guide research and public policy. Why? The Brexit referendum, growing support for populist programmes, and more populist parties in government, makes the question of responding to populists pressing. We know a great deal about why populists breakthrough electorally and who supports them. There is a lively debate about whether populism is a ‘pathology’ or a ‘corrective’ for liberal democracy. We know much less about the focus of this project - how to respond to populists. Features of the contemporary ‘populist playbook’ also complicate the issue of responses: Populists positions on democracy tend to be more ambiguous than extremists, making choices of responses more complex. Populists have become 'global actors', producing responses encompassing multiple territorial levels. How? The book will argue that old-style repressive measures of militant democracy won’t work against populists. Political grievances need to be aired. Yet populists’ ability to implement anti-democratic and anti-liberal measures should be constrained by the multilevel system of institutional checks and balances in Europe: robust procedures against corruption and misrule: transnational and domestic civil society resistance: and mobilisation of the profound interdependence of European states to promote compliance with existing commitments to liberal democratic governance. The book includes a new typology of responses to populist in Europe: identifies the main goals of the responses and 'perverse' effects, and presents a new model of 'democratic defence' for European multilevel governance.

The specific objectives of the MIRNet project are as follows: 1) to institutionalize migration and integration research carried out at Tallinn University by establishing the Migration and Integration Research Centre (MIRC); to advance the quality and volume of research on migration and integration issues in cooperation between the MIRNet project partners; to advance networking between academic researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders in the field of migration and integration in Estonia and the MIRNet partner countries; to advance public dissemination skills of the MIRC regarding the research results in the field migration and integration. These objectives will be achieved in partnership between Tallinn University (TU), Sussex University (UoS), Roskilde University (RU) and University of Tampere (UTA). The Sussex Centre for Migration Research is one of the largest and most widely respected specialist migration research institutes anywhere in the world and home to the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, the highest-ranked interdisciplinary migration journal in 2016. Roskilde University is a leading research institution in the region focusing on a broad range of topics in the field of ethnic relations and nationalism, including migration and integration, the politics of diversity and linguistic minorities. Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation at the University of Tampere is a leading multi-disciplinary network organisation focusing on the ways in which an increase in transnational activities is connected to political, socio-economic and socio-cultural transformation in different parts of the world. The experience, knowledge and authority of these three leading research institutions in the field will provide a perfect guide to Tallinn University and the MIRC in achieving the objectives outlined above.

Unikke danske sundheds- og befolkningsstatistikker, som med stor detaljerigdom går tilbage til midten af det 19. århundrede, dokumenterer hvordan den danske befolkning udviklede sig da den høje børnedødelighed fra infektionssygdomme forsvandt. For specifikke sygdomme (kopper) har vi fundet tidsseries der går helt tilbage til 1800 Vi vil bruge disse data til at konstruere og analysere tidsserier for udvalgte smitsomme sygdomme fra perioderne før og efter indførelsen af masse-vaccinationsprogrammer med henblik på at besvare centrale spørgsmål: Hvordan påvirker vacciner de epidemiske sygdommes økologi og påvirkning af befolkningen over tid? Var store mæslingeepidemier virkelig forbundet med en generel stigning i børnedødelighed? I hvilken grad kan reduktionen af børnedødelighed vi har set i Europa over det 20. århundrede tilskrives vacciner? Vores centrale ide er at udnytte Danmark rige og sundheds- og befolkningsstatistikker til at belyse centrale spørgsmål om børnevaccinationernes betydning for folkesundheden i lyset af den seneste års genkomst af sygdomme som mæslinger, fåresyge og kighoste, der ellers har været næsten udryddet med vacciner i flere årtier. Projektstøtte vil forankre et nyt internationalt forskningsmiljø på RUC med start januar 2018, hvor LS tiltræder som professor i Population Health Sciences. Forskningen intensiveredes over de sidste 2 år takket være hendes ERC Marie Curie Actions Horizon 2020 visiting professorat HistoricEpi på K