European Research Agenda Research Articles

Food chain management for sustainable food system development: a European research agenda

AbstractFood Chain Management is a rather new research domain. As a consequence, the domain and the research challenges within the domain are not yet clearly defined. This corresponds with the variety in the definition of food chains and networks that might focus on either closely cooperating enterprises along the value chain with an executive coordination element or, alternatively, on a network of enterprises in dynamically evolving business relationships. Management challenges in closely cooperating enterprises are closely linked to challenges in enterprise management and can draw on research in this domain; however, management activities in and for networks involve additional challenges that require focused research engagement. The dependency of all participants in the chain on consumers as the ultimate customers and the dependency of the quality of final products on the engagement of all participants in the production and distribution of products require new managerial activities and, in turn, support by research. This article discusses the background of future research needs and formulates priority challenges for managerial improvements toward an increased sustainability of the food sector. [JEL classifications: Q010, Q130, D290, L140] © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Guidelines for the “Perfect Inner City”. Discussing the Appropriateness of Monitoring Approaches for Reurbanization

In this paper, we analyse the appropriateness of monitoring approaches for the observation of inner-city reurbanization processes. Reurbanization is conceptualized here as a process of long-term stabilization of inner-city areas by both a readiness of present residents to stay and an influx of new residents. It has been recently re-set on the top of the European urban research agenda since non-growth has proved to be a major path of future development for many European cities. Recent research evidence across Europe underscores the fact that reurbanization depends much on local settings of institutional, socio-economic and infrastructural factors. To foster a clearer understanding of the nature and dynamics of local reurbanization, to assess its extent and progress and, what is more, to help practitioners to shape sustainable policy initiatives appropriate to the respective context, reurbanization needs to be observed over the long term. The complex character of reurbanization sets new challenges for monitoring approaches and indicator-based tools. Due to the genuine relation of the present debate on reurbanization to the phenomenon of non-growth or the return of the compact city, the focus in this paper is set on demographic development trends and their impact on inner-city change. In this vein, our paper presents a monitoring design and a respective newly developed indicator set for reurbanization which focuses more on the initial recognition of reurbanization than on its long-term stability. Methodically, chances and limits of the integration of household-related indicators and qualitative knowledge on reurbanization into monitoring tools are highlighted. Empirical and statistical evidence is taken from a recently completed EU FP 5 research project and from municipal surveys.

Pathogenomics: An updated European Research Agenda

The emerging genomic technologies and bioinformatics provide novel opportunities for studying life-threatening human pathogens and to develop new applications for the improvement of human and animal health and the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infections. Based on the ecology and population biology of pathogens and related organisms and their connection to epidemiology, more accurate typing technologies and approaches will lead to better means of disease control. The analysis of the genome plasticity and gene pools of pathogenic bacteria including antigenic diversity and antigenic variation results in more effective vaccines and vaccine implementation programs. The study of newly identified and uncultivated microorganisms enables the identification of new threats. The scrutiny of the metabolism of the pathogen in the host allows the identification of new targets for anti-infectives and therapeutic approaches. The development of modulators of host responses and mediators of host damage will be facilitated by the research on interactions of microbes and hosts, including mechanisms of host damage, acute and chronic relationships as well as commensalisms. The study of multiple pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes interacting in the host will improve the management of multiple infections and will allow probiotic and prebiotic interventions. Needless to iterate, the application of the results of improved prevention and treatment of infections into clinical tests will have a positive impact on the management of human and animal disease. The Pathogenomics Research Agenda draws on discussions with experts of the Network of Excellence “EuroPathoGenomics” at the management board meeting of the project held during 18–21 April 2007, in the Villa Vigoni, Menaggio, Italy. Based on a proposed European Research Agenda in the field of pathogenomics by the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics the meeting's participants updated the established list of topics as the research agenda for the future.

The innovative medicines initiative (IMI): a shot in the arm for European diabetes research?

The academic community has been quite vocal in complaining about inadequate public funding for diabetes research in Europe [1], and rightly so! The intrinsic and relative lack of earmarked research funds (as compared with the USA) for this particular disease area is truly alarming [1], and our public authorities, both national and international, seem unwilling to rise to the challenge. But if we want our strident alarm calls to be seen as constructive criticism rather than complaints, we must be alert to new opportunities and support them if appropriate. While intended to address just a part of a greater problem, and with a relatively modest budget on the grand scale of things, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI; for further information see: http://www.imi-europe.org/, last accessed in June 2007) may present us with just such an opportunity. There is growing concern that Europe is lagging behind its competitors in developing and launching new drugs. This is due in part to considerable under-funding within a fragmented environment characteristic of much European biomedical research [2]. To redress this imbalance, we need closer collaboration between the public (national governments and the European Commission) and private (pharmaceutical companies and small and medium enterprises) sectors, and much more money on the table. Certainly, any collaboration between academic and industry research groups must be part of a package that ensures academic independence and freedom from domination by the evil empire (‘Big Pharma’ in this particular context). If public funds are involved, as they will be for the IMI, a robust yet transparent competitive review process must be in place, and we should be on our guard to make sure the IMI gets this right. Equally important, any new initiative of this kind must be creative and dynamic in order to capture our imagination and—more important still— imaginative science, and this will involve breaking free from the stranglehold of Brussels and its cumbersome procedures. Let us review the plans in light of these expectations, if not requirements. To begin with, how did this all come about? The European Commission invited the Research Directors’ Group of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) to develop a European Strategic Research Agenda. Its task was to identify bottlenecks in biomedical research and development (R&D) [2] and to come up with a plan, the IMI, in order to address them. The goal is to make Europe more competitive, and to benefit patients. The IMI has four major ‘pillars’:

Education in Informatics at Sofia University - current status and future plans

The paper presents some real experiences, emerging models and lessons learnt based on the case of Sofia University - Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI), and its partners. Sofia University has always played a very important role for the development of the country. The university experiences a lot of challenges related to the overall transformation of the economic and social system in the country, the changing models of education, the new role of the universities in the knowledge-based society and the great demand for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) specialists. Sofia University is also challenged by the opportunity to be actively involved in the development of the European space of higher education. The outcomes of an internal university project aimed at the establishment of ACM/IEEE based BSc programs in Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems are described and analyzed. Some experience in developing a layer of MSc programs as a live link to the professional ICT society and ICT industry is also described. Some future plans for the development of the Computing Curricula and its coordination with the European ICT education, research and innovation agenda are presented as well.

Neighbourhood Effects and the Welfare State. Towards a European Research Agenda?

Abstract This paper raises four broad questions related to the neighbourhood effect issue. (1) Is there really a strong relation between housing mix and social mix? (2) How does the social composition of neighbourhoods affect residents' social interaction and behaviour? (3) Are social opportunities of individual residents related to their neighbourhood context? (4) If there is such a relation, to what extent is this produced through local social interaction? While the answer to the first question is often taken for granted, not only by planners but also by urban research, the following three have been much discussed over the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic. Most researchers hypothesise that neighbourhood effects would be less pronounced in countries like Sweden, where planning practices, social class differences, segregation patterns, and welfare state regulations substantially differ from those found in the U.S. However, recent empirical studies – based on large longitudinal datasets – confirm ...

Trade unions and CSR: a European research agenda

AbstractThere is much evidence that Corporate Social Responsibility has increasingly become embraced by industry in Europe. The transfer to Europe of what essentially is a concept embedded in American capitalism, however, results in some interesting contextualizations. One of the most interesting of these is the impact of CSR on one of the most powerful actors to determine the social responsibility of corporations in the European context, namely trade unions and their institutional infrastructure. In many cases unions perceive CSR as a threat, as it transfers yet more power and discretion to managers. By contrast, trade unions in countries with a strong corporatist tradition claim to be themselves drivers of CSR. An altogether different situation exists in Eastern Europe, where unions lack the legitimacy and influence to shape the emerging CSR agenda. Given such a spread of positions, what similarities and differences can be detected in union approaches to CSR? Which specific aspects of CSR are supported by European unions? How have European unions adapted their strategies in response to CSR? This article employs an institutional comparison perspective of selected European countries to explore the role unions play in CSR activities. It maps out the conceptual territory and provides one of the first overviews of the topic.Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Theoretical and Methodological Significance of Information and Communication Technology in Educational Practice

In September 1998 the Research Network ‘ICT in Education and Training’ was initiated at the conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). The new network reflected the recognition and growing importance of information and communication technology (ICT) with respect to education and learning processes. ICT was, for example, expected to aid in transforming education, to better fit the learning of various types of pupils, and to assist in the prevention of school demotivation and drop-out. Moreover, ICT was assumed to help in overcoming negative consequences of organizational differences between schools and in improving learning processes and effects of learners both in and out of school. Since the initiation of this network, a stable number of more than 50 ICT-oriented contributions from all over Europe and abroad have been presented yearly at the educational conferences of EERA. Each year rather different themes and particularities can be noticed, but it also seems that some specific topics come up again and again. In my opinion these recurring themes reflect the possibility of fulfilling at least part of the original expectations and promises associated with the introduction of ICT in education and training. These issues have to do with the theoretical foundation of transformational aspects of ICT, in particular of Internet-based ICT; with various methodological aspects which are related to these transformational potentials of ICT; and the development and implementation of such aspects and potentials both in and outside school practice; and the experiences or results of these ICT-based approaches compared with more traditional educational processes and effects. To further develop such topics in the European context and to promote the possibilities of their development and realization in research and in practice, I selected some exemplary contributions to the EERA conference in 2005. The focus was on promising theoretical and methodological papers that could make the future-oriented transformation claims more concrete, as much as possible in reliable and valid ways. This includes a concentration on theoretical analysis and reflection, the necessary systemic design of education to promote and optimise learning processes and effects, the integration of multilevel organizational and managerial support facilities, and appropriate procedures to administer or monitor and evaluate learning in and outside school. Although more contributions on the 2005 conference seemed relevant, for pragmatic reasons four contributions were chosen to represent the aforementioned focus on the ‘transformation’ role of ICT in education and training. The goal of their presentation in this issue of European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) is to promote their impact and illustrative role in both the European research agenda and – possibly – forthcoming EERA conferences. In the first article Colin Harrison pays attention to what he calls ‘postmodern research and elearning’. He clarifies that, by taking another position or another view, we see other things than before, or represent the world in other ways than we were used to. The result is that we get along

Advancing integrated care for older people through EU policy & a European research agenda on integrated care for older people

Advancing integrated care for older people through EU policy & a European research agenda on integrated care for older people

Untying and retying family migration in the New Europe

This special issue comes at a time when political debates on the future of a ‘United Europe’ are raging. As more countries are gradually being introduced into the EU superstate, old questions take on new importance. The focus of this issue is on migration and, in particular, family migration. We suggest that this is a critical topic in the European research agenda. We consider both how family‐related migration affects the social, demographic, and economic contours of the emerging European superstate, and also how the superstate and its political functioning itself influences family migration. We argue that the transformation of Europe into a single market represents a significant conceptual challenge for those accounts of family migration that wish to inform social policy. However, to date, research on family migration in Europe lacks the coherent theoretical focus exhibited by case‐study research from North America. Also, despite the recent recognition that most geographic mobility implicitly and explicitly involves families, the role of the household in migration continues to be poorly understood, particularly in the European context.

Competition Law and Corporate Ownership Structure: a European Research Agenda

There is historical evidence which suggests that mergers can be a potent agent for change in a transition towards a US-style corporate governance system where widely-held companies play a pivotal role. Moreover, past events suggest that competition law can influence whether ‘transformative’ acquisition activity will occur. Despite this, little has been said in the contemporary discourse on comparative corporate governance about how competition law and mergers might be catalysts for change. This paper seeks to familiarise a European audience with the relevant dynamics. For expository purposes, the analysis will focus on historical events occurring in the United States and the United Kingdom, the country with corporate governance arrangements which resemble America’s more closely than any other nation. Nevertheless, there will also be discussion of questions which merit attention from a Continental European perspective, accompanied for illustrative purposes by references to circumstances in Germany.

Public relations in Europe: A kaleidoscopic picture

This paper is a second report on a Delphi study, which is part of the European Public Relations Body of Knowledge project (EBOK; see also Vol. 4, No. 4 of this journal). The EBOK project is led by a European project team. The Delphi research project questions the existence of a European authenticity of public relations. The project suggests that the present state of public relations professionalisation in Europe is far from complete. Nevertheless, the study reviews an enormous diversity of “schools of thought” and possible dimensions of a European approach to public relations. The paper also stresses the need for a European research agenda to learn more about the European identity of the subject internationally known as public relations.

Recent European research on older drivers

This paper discusses European research on older drivers published since 1985. It is not intended to be an exhaustive review; rather, the focus is on those issues that have been most topical during the past fifteen years. First, the paper deals with general efforts to integrate ageing into transport policy design. The emphasis is placed on differences in the European and American perspectives and discourse. Second, some research issues that have been topical in the European research agenda are reviewed, with a few examples of each. Third, a brief outline is given of newly emerging research issues of importance.

Poverty in Europe: competing paradigms of analysis

This article examines the relationship between some of the dominant conventional perspectives on European social policy and the European poverty research agenda: in particular, the studies of poverty which have been conducted under the auspices of the European Commission. These studies have been shaped by the political agenda of the Commission but have been relatively isolated from theoretical debates concerning European social policy. However, a substantial reconfiguration of the European poverty discussion is now under way, involving redirection of the research agenda towards wider issues of social stratification and political order.

Privatizing Policing in the European Marker: Some Issues for Theory, Policy, and Research

This paper examines the growth and significance of private policing, which has received considerable attention in North America and the UK but relatively little in the rest of Europe. The paper draws upon European sources to describe the implications of the privatization of policing for civil liberties and the expectations that citizenship carries regarding state provision of policing services, and for the development of a market in policing in the post-1993 European Union. It suggests that there is the potential for the emergence of a new ‘policing complex’ and considers how certain developments in sociological theory may illuminate aspects of this trend. It concludes by offering a future European research agenda on this topic and comments on the social policy implications of a mixed economy of policing that erodes the citizen's legitimate expectations of equality in protection from crime and incivilities.

‘Universal’ GIS versus national land information traditions: Internationalization of software or endogenous developments?

There are large and surprising gaps between the diffusion of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in European countries. Whereas in some countries, notably in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, GIS technology has already become standard practice in cartography, local land management, and planning, other countries have been extremely slow in adopting the new technology. This paper discusses why this is so. The hypothesis is that national land information traditions determine the institutional environment and procedures into which the new technology needs to be integrated, and that this restricts the transfer of ‘universal’ GIS software developed in different national settings. The paper ends by drawing some conclusions out of this for a European GIS research agenda.