The Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR) is an interdisciplinary research institute based at Maastricht University's Faculty of Law. The mission of the institute is to conduct research, to offer courses and seminars and to advise on the role of international regulation in addressing problems and challenges resulting from the process of economic globalisation.

The Maastricht Centre for European Law is a large research community in EU law and consists of some 30 scholars. The Centre covers a broad range of areas of research in both institutional and substantive EU law, and the relation between EU law and national law.

The Maastricht Centre for Human Rights facilitates and supports research in the field of human rights at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law. Research conducted at the Centre is interdisciplinary, with a focus on public international law, criminal law and social sciences.

About

OPENCULT focused on the use of the open method of coordination (OMC) as one of the new cultural policy tools employed by the EU in the wake of the European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World (COM(2007) 242). The project studied the configuration of the cultural OMC, the institutional structures and policy objectives that define it, and the complex array of policy processes and instruments that it involves. It explored whether the cultural OMC has had a bearing on Member States’ cultural policies and it also examined its effects on EU cultural action.

Project funding: Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union, Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie), Intra-European Fellowships (IEF), grant agreement FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF no. 327091

The main objectives of OPENCULT were the following:

 to study the genesis of the cultural OMC and map the policy objectives, institutional 
 arrangements, processes, procedures and instruments  that determine it;
 to examine in a comparative fashion the effects of the cultural OMC on Member 
 States’ cultural policies;
 to investigate the effects of the cultural OMC on EU cultural action;
 to identify the factors that can strengthen the ability of the cultural OMC to contribute 
 to the development of national and EU policies that  protect and promote cultural
 diversity;
 to ensure broad diffusion of the project’s findings and stress its relevance for cultural
 policy-making.  

OPENCULT’s work plan consisted of four phases.

Phase 1 – State of the art
 

Phase 1 set the theoretical framework of the project. It provided a critical overview of the state of the art and existing literature on EU cultural action, national cultural policy-making in the light of European integration and the OMC. In particular, it contextualized the OMC within the broader debate on EU governance and addressed the establishment and evolution of EU cultural policy and its interaction with Member States’ cultural policies.
 

Phase 2 – Empirical analysis
 

Phase 2 engaged in empirical analysis, involving in-depth research on: 
a) the configuration of the cultural OMC and its evolution in the context of two distinct cycles (2008-2010; 2011-2014);
b) the effects of the cultural OMC on Member States’ cultural policies; and 
c) the effects of the cultural OMC on the EU’s cultural policy and broader cultural action.  
 

Phase 3 – Analysis of empirical data
 

Phase 3 focused on the analysis of the empirical data collected. It sought to:
a) evaluate and explain similarities and differences as regards the effects of the cultural OMC on Member States’ cultural policies; and 
b) assess the impact of the cultural OMC on the EU’s cultural activity. 

Phase 4 – Dissemination of results

Phase 4 run throughout the duration of the project. It was designed to achieve the widest possible diffusion of the project’s scientific and policy-related output and access the project’s potential users and key target groups: academics, researchers, national and EU cultural policy-makers, civil society and the public at large.

Project duration: February 2014-September 2016

European Commission, Culture 
European Agenda for Culture  
The Cultural OMC
European Parliament, Committee on Culture and Education
Council of the European Union, Education, Youth, Culture and Sport 
European Commission, Research and Innovation, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 

• To identify and measure integration outcomes, integration policies, and other contextual factors that can impact policy effectiveness
• To describe the real and potential beneficiaries of policies in seven key areas, namely employment, education, political participation, access to nationality, family reunification, long-term residence, and anti-discrimination.
• To collect and analyse high-quality evaluations of integration policy effects.

The key research outputs will be an interactive website building on the successful MIPEX website and an E-book presenting all the data through easy-to-use country profiles, analysis, and databases. This data will be calculated separately for every country and for each of the seven policy areas. In order to deliver these outputs, the MIPEX team will:

• Update policies - the project will provide detailed and comparable accounts of the most recent policy changes, building on the baseline data gathered in the MIPEX research. A new strand on health will be added in partnership with the COST/ADAPT research network and the International Organisation for Migration.
   
• Collect and analyse statistical information on policy outcomes, context, and beneficiaries.
   
• Identify and analyse evaluations of policy effects in at least 10 Member States. 
   
• Publish and disseminate the results - press campaign will be organised in all 28 EU Member States and in-depth policy debates in at least 12. At the final event in Brussels, the results of the research, evaluations and national debates will be presented, aiming to link national with European debates and the Stockholm Programme with the Europe 2020 strategy.

The project “Integration policies: Who benefits?” is co-funded by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals. The project started in November 2013 and will finish in April 2015. 

The project will conduct a complete review of integration outcomes, policies, and beneficiaries in the 28 EU Member States. In addition, the project aims to include other countries, Norway, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan, and major OECD countries of immigration, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US (at the costs of partners in these countries).

Food and health have become key priorities for most EU member states during the last decades. This is a consequence of the continent-wide growing obesity epidemic and high rates of diet-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In addition, adjusted dietary patterns for certain population groups, such as elderly people and pregnant women, should be promoted. The ultimate goal is to promote a healthier eating pattern for the complete population. 
At first, raising public awareness of appropriate ways to eat more healthily was the approach used by most EU Member States, to tackle diet-related problems in the population. However, the impact of increasing public awareness appeared to be not sufficient to significantly change the eating behavior of consumers. Therefore, new methods need to be used in order to reach a systematic change in eating behavior. It has become clear that the development of effective measures for improvement is a demanding task and requires further systematic research and innovative approach. One main question that this research needs to tackle is the role that innovation in food and new basic research technologies could play in counter-acting the alarming rise of diet-related problems. The dialogue between scientific and civil society communities is essential in this matter. In order to begin to address the use of research and innovation in the food industry, INPROFOOD project was started.

INPROFOOD is a three-year project involving 17 partners across 13 EU countries. The project gets funded, as an FP7-project, by the European Commission. Goal of the project is to foster dialogue and mutual learning between industry, academia and civil society already in the earliest stages of the research processes. The dialogue between these three key players should be directed towards performing effective research and developing innovative approaches (technical and social) for dealing with the food and health challenge. It was developed from the basis that social discourse among research institutions, industry and civil society is a basic pre-requisite for moving towards a more reliable and achievable vision.

The project has been divided into seven work packages, around different key activities. INPROFOOD uses several methods to visualize and promote the dialogue between academia, industry and civil society, of which the most important are interviews, workshops and an Open Space Conference. Interviews were conducted in all participating countries, to map the current process of research programming and identify important stakeholders in the field of food in the participating countries. Next, several workshops were organized in all countries, as a participatory needs assessment. In these workshops, stakeholders from industry, academia and civil society organization could give their view on the best and worst case scenario, regarding the funding of research in the field of food and health. In addition, a European Open Space Conference has been organized, where all relevant actors could express their ideas concerning the design of food research. Finally, the outcomes of all activities will be used in the development of an action plan for the future of research programming. The results of all activities will be reported and distributed to all interested parties.

The Law Faculty of Maastricht University is involved in the INPROFOOD project, as representative of the Netherlands. The team of Maastricht University is involved in mapping and analyzing current processes of research programming in the area of food and health, via conducting interviews and organizing workshops. In addition, we are involved in the development of an action plan, with the goal to promote societal engagement, drawing on the insights obtained through those interviews and workshops.

More information on the INPROFOOD project and already published results can be found on the project’s website www.inprofood.eu.

• Closing Conference INPROFOOD
• Workshop ‘Inclusive research programming and implementation’
• Workshop Copenhagen
• Project presentation Brussels

Read more

Workshop ‘Inclusive Research Programming and Implementation’

On October 8, INPROFOOD will organise a workshop in cooperation with the Eatwell project of Maastricht University. The day will be divided in two parts, on research programming in food and health and the implementation and enforcement of regulations regarding food. 

Since the INPROFOOD project will finish on 31 October 2014, the team of Maastricht University organised this workshop as a final dissemanation acitivity. Activities of the last three years and their results will be presented, together with recommendations for future research programming in food and health. 

The second part of the day will focus on implementation and enforcement of the Health and Nutrition Claim Regulation in several EU Member States. This EU regulation has been designed with the idea to prevent consumer misleading, communicate an honest message to consumers and prevent unfair competition on the market. Although this is a European regelation, implementation and compliance is partly in hands of the national authorities. During the workshop the compliance strategies of several Member States will be discussed. In addition, an economic and legal view on different enforcement strategies will be presented by several expert. 

Location of the workshop will be the Limburgs Museum in Venlo and the duration is from 12.00 untill 19.00. For more information and registation, please contactm.urlings@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

In order to spread the results in a convenient way, several so-called policy papers have been developed. Each document contains information and results of one or more project activities. The results are focused on the methodology of the project as well as on the specific outcomes of the activities.   

Official policy paper 1
Official policy paper 2
Official policy paper 3 
Official policy paper 4
Official policy paper 5

Dissemination and communication of results to the public are of great importance for the success of the project. Within INPROFOOD, this activity is laid down in Work Package 6 which falls under responsibility of the consortium members from Portugal. In order to optimise dissemination strategies in other projects, Portugal has developed a document with their main findings around successful dissemination. This document has been designed also in light of other so-called ‘Science in Society’ projects, which aim to bridge the gap between scientific research and the public.

Maastricht Law Faculty is a partner in the DREAM (Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets) FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network. The Pan-European doctoral research project will run for 4 years, and focuses on research that will find practical ways of making the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons for Disabilities a reality in the daily lives of people with disabilities in Europe. The DREAM Network has been awarded a grant by the European Commission of 3.7 million euros, with approximately 450 000 euros being ear-marked for Maastricht.        

The project will be coordinated by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and involves five other academic research centres based in the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Several leading international research institutes will also contribute, including the Harvard Project in Disability.

The project is premised on the idea that smart EU policy initiatives on disability are not just good for people with disabilities, but also help expand markets and increase overall levels of economic activity. Digital Europe, the main umbrella body for European software and hardware manufactures and services, is a key commercial partner in the project.        

14 Early Stage Researchers, or Ph.D. researchers, will be funded under the project, of which two will be based in Maastricht (one in the Ius Commune Research School and one in the Human Rights Research School). All the researchers will carry out at least one paid internship at a leading European civil society organisation, such as Interights (London), Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (Budapest), the European Disability Forum (Brussels) or the European Group of Human Rights Commissions.         

Lisa Waddington is leading Maastricht's involvement in the project.

Dream FP7 

INPROFOOD

MIPEX

OPENCULT

Every year the staff of the Department of International and European Law coaches teams of the Maastricht debate and Moot Court. 
Here's an overview off all Moot Courts. 

Furthermore the Department of International Law also provides teaching staff to the University College Maastricht, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Maastricht School of Governance en the China-Europe School of Law.