On February 25, 2024, the “single voting day” for the national parliament and local councils took place in Belarus. This was likely the least free election in the history of the nation. Politically sterile, with no opposition on the ballot or in the election commissions, Lukashenka is ushering in a process that the democratic opposition calls a “special operation.”

Jakob Wollenstein

Originally published by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (reproduced with permission)

At the invitation of Judy Dempsey, Carnegie Europe, scholars, policy-makers and practitioners debate EU Democracy Promotion in this publication: "European democracy faces threats from both within and outside. To counter them, Europe needs leaders who are serious about upholding democratic values and addressing citizens' grievances'. Professor Korosteleva offered her take, as part of her work on SHAPEDEM-EU project. For more information please visit here.

The SHAPEDEM-EU project, bringing together 12 members of the consortium, across Europe and beyond, had its first mid-term review meeting with the European Commission and appointed by the Commission independent reviewers. The Steering Committee of the project, involving all team leads, presented its work on various Work Packages, and the project's cross-cutting issues including digital transformation, ethics and gender. The Commission representative was very pleased to see the project's progress, including all the extra activities that participants initiated themselves, going well beyond the project's call, to ensure knowledge co-production and its dissemination further afield.

ESRC Outstanding Societal Impact Prize 2023

Many congratulations to our own Dr Vangelis Pitidis, who has been a key contributor to this award-winning project focusing on waterproofing data. The project used citizen generated data to tackle the impact of flooding and enhance disaster and community resilience in Brazilian marginalised communities. Further details about this exciting initiative can be found here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/schoolforcross-facultystudies/igsd/newsevents/news/.

Director of Impact leads by example - excellent news and warmest congratulations, Vangelis!!!

Prof. Elena Korosteleva has been awarded Policy Support Impact (PSF) funding to connect her Oxford Belarus Observatory work with Warwick's Ukraine-Belarus hub (WUB-hub). The project will focus on the topical issues in the relations between the two peoples, in the context of the ongoing Russia's war against Ukraine. The project will run webinars, podcasts, policy briefs, workshops and a conference in the summer 2024, and prepare the ground for a large bid. Watch the space! Elena is grateful for the support of Rachael Kirwan and RIS in designing this project.