GTD completed research projects

3WE: Well-being, Women and Work in Ethiopia: Creating synergies between SDGs 3, 5 and 8 through Foreign Direct Investment

The 3WE project received a €500,000 grant from the Joint SDG research programme of the Netherlands Scientific Organization (NWO), to conduct a four year study on how foreign direct investment (FDI) generated employment is affecting the well-being of workers, and women in particular, in Africa where FDI is becoming one of the main sources of new employment opportunities and economic growth on the continent.

The project studied this question through the case of Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, with unprecedented rates of female wage labour. It asked whether the rapid influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) from different types of investors into various sectors of the Ethiopian economy is creating decent work (SDG8) and how it impacts the well-being (SDG3) of the women employed in these industries.

 Read the 3WE project report which collects insights from research findings and stakeholder consultations to suggest how the country's horticulture and apparel firms can improve worker wellbeing.

GTD project team:

• Prof. Valentina Mazzucato
• Dr. Bilisuma Dito
• Dr. Elsje Fourie
• Dr. Konjit Gudeta

Project partners:

• Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute (EEPRI) of the Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA)
• Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos)
• European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

SWFsEUROPE: Legitimacy, Financialization, and Varieties of Capitalism: Understanding Sovereign Wealth Funds in Europe

Legitimacy, Financialization, and Varieties of Capitalism: Understanding Sovereign Wealth Funds in Europe (SWFsEUROPE) was an ERC-funded project (€1,414,722) led by Dr. Adam Dixon. SWFsEUROPE researched the evolving and variegated pattern of ‘sovereign fund capitalism’ in Europe, developing a new theory of the relationship between states and global finance. Dr. Ilias Alami and Dr. Milan Babic were the postdoctoral researchers in this project.

The number and size of SWFs has grown substantially in the last decade, leading to an unsettled debate regarding their legitimacy in the global political economy, particularly as many originate from the Global South and from illiberal political economies (e.g. China). By analysing the behaviour of SWFs, their interaction with different stakeholders at home and abroad, and how they are legitimised as financial actors in the global political economy, this study provided new critical insights into the contemporary relationship between the state and the market.

MO-TRAYL: Mobility trajectories of young lives: Life chances of transnational youths in Global South and North

MO-TRAYL aimed to develop a better understanding of the relationship between migration and young people’s life-chances by studying youth’s mobility trajectories. The project was led by Prof. Valentina Mazzucato and received funding from the ERC.

MO-TRAYL broke new ground by studying simultaneously youths in the Global South who remained ‘at home’ and those who migrated to Europe by making use of unique new longitudinal data collected in the Global South as well as new data in the Global North that specifically traces the mobility trajectories, the resulting different family compositions along the way, and how both affect life chances.

MiLifeStatus: Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition

Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition (MiLifeStatus) was a five-year research project led by Prof. Maarten Vink. It studied the relation between migrant naturalisation and integration. MiLifeStatus received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682626).

LIMES: The Hardening and Softening of Borders

LIMES, the Latin word for border, was a doctoral programme for 13 talented PhD candidates in the domain of the humanities and social sciences, centred on the theme of ‘The Hardening and Softening of Borders: Europe in a Globalising World’. It received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (grant agreement No 847596).

LIMES was led by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), thereby working closely with University College Maastricht (UCM), the School of Business and Economics (SBE), and the Faculty of Law (FL). 6 out of 13 PhD candidates were employed by FASoS and 2 PhD candidates were part of GTD.

Challenging Masculinities? The institution of marriage for young Senegalese migrant men under conditions of involuntary return to Senegal

Karlien Strijbosch received a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for her PhD research project 'Challenging Masculinities? The institution of marriage for young Senegalese migrant men under conditions of involuntary return to Senegal'. Her supervisor was Prof. Valentina Mazzucato. 

CHERN: the China in Europe Research Network

CHERN – the China in Europe Research Network – was a platform for knowledge exchange about China’s increasing presence in Europe among academic and non-academic communities.

Funded by the Cooperation in Science and Technology programme (COST) of the European Union (starting from November 2019 until November 2023), CHERN’s remit was trans-European, encompassing countries irrespective of their EU membership.

GTD was represented at CHERN by Dr. Adam Dixon, who was one of the two management committee members for the Netherlands.

MAFE: Migrations between Africa and Europe

The MAFE project studied the scope of African migration to Europe, and its consequences for poverty. The project was led by Prof. Valentina Mazzucato and it included 1 PhD candidate.

TCRA: Effects of transnational child-raising arrangements on life-chances of children, migrant parents and caregivers in Ghana and The Netherlands

The TCRA project consisted of 3 projects: 

1. TCRA: Effects of transnational child-raising arrangements on life-chances of children, migrant parents and caregivers in Ghana and The Netherlands
2. TCRAf-EU: Effects of transnational child-raising arrangements on life-chances of children, migrant parents and caregivers between Africa and Europe
3. TCRA-SAN: The functioning and consequences of transnational child raising arrangements in South and North: Angolan, Nigerian and Ghanaian migrant parents living in South Africa and The Netherlands

Prof. Valentina Mazzucato led all three projects and 2 PhD candidates were involved.

TRANSMIC: Transnational Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities

The TRANSMIC project was coordinated by Maastricht University's Faculty of Law. Prof. Valentina Mazzucato and 1 PhD candidate represented GTD in the project.