Institute for Global Sustainable Development » IGSD News (tag [EU Horizon])

Professor Korosteleva gives a keynote on Resilience in Berlin

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:49:44 GMT

I was delighted to give a keynote on my OUP book 'Complexity and Community in IR: Nurturing Resilience in Central Eurasia' to the KIU Competence Network of Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies, at Frankfurt (Order) in Berlin. While introducing some key concepts from the book - the VUCA-world, the Anthropocene, complexity-thinking and resilience - I drew a lot on my empirical work in the region, especially on Ukraine and Belarus, which was of interest and relevance to the PhD students (mostly from Ukraine) of this EU-funded network.

Thank you to Susann Worschecn, a Principle Coordinator of the network, for the invitation, and to the students- for so many questions you all had about resilience, Ukraine and the wider region.

Horizon Europe SHAPEDEM-EU Final Review with the European Commission

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:46:00 GMT

The Horizon Europe SHAPEDEM project concludes with its final review conference on 20 January 2026, with the European Commission. The consortium, comprising 12 partners from Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, and the UK, represented by the University of Warwick, presented its work to the panel of evaluators. The project focused on assessing the understanding and practices of democracy in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods, as well as the EU support for democracy as a composite stakeholder. Warwick was responsible for undertaking work - fieldwork and analysis - in the six countries in the eastern neighbourhood (WP2), drawing on the results of online surveys, focus groups, interviews, and roundtables. WP2 specific outputs included 8 published, submited and projected publications.

It has been three challenging years of research, including overcoming the obstacles of BREXIT, Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, Belarus civil war, Gaza war, and increasing geopolitical complexity around the globe. Yet, the project went beyond all expectations and has achieved a lot, including critiquing and offering specific recommendations to the EU on how best to support democracy efforts in around the globe. Team Warwick – including Anastasiia Kudlenko and Aijan Sharshenova – is grateful to the EU, UKRI and especially to the consortium and its leadership – for the support, and inspiration. Thank you!

Fieldtrip to Uzbekistan: project & funding scoping with UWED, 12-17 Nov 2025

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:50:00 GMT

Professor Korosteleva was invited to participate in the UWED research funding and project activities during 12-15 November 2025, organised and hosted by the Institute of Advanced International Studies. The week of learning brought together 30 researchers from different fields of knowledge - international politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, and legal studies - to focus on the issues and challenges of sustainable development and how they can be addressed through research collaboration and funding-building. Professor Korosteleva shared her experience of leading IGSD and chairing the Sustainability Spotlight, as well as her experience of being involved in the EU - UPTAKE, EUTOPIA, SHAPEDEM - and the UK (COMPASS and COMPASS+, AGRE, AHRC) capacity-building projects.

23-25 September: SHAPEDEM-EU final conference in Brussels

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:21:00 GMT

On 23-25 September in Brussels I participated in the final SHAPEDEM-EU project conference joined by a sister Embrace project. It is thrilling to see how much we have done over three years taking stock of local democracy perceptions in both neighbourhoods, and engagement from various stakeholders! I was also fortunate to have support from my two talented colleagues Asya Kudlenko & Aijan Sharshenova - indebted to them! I also thank the leadership team - Andrea Gawrich & Fabian Schöppner - for their unwavering determination in the face of so many challenges this project has had, and all my fellow researchers who made this project enjoyable and worthwhile!
As part of WP2 we are expecting a series of outputs, in addition to our reports. These among others, will include our article 'From the communities of practice' to the 'Community of Relations: lessons learned from Ukraine & Belarus' in Contemporary Politics SI, and a book chapter in a joint monograph. My own OUP book 'Complexity & Community in IR: nurturing resilience in Central Eurasia's (out on November 2025) will reference the project and our fieldwork too! Thank you all, especially the European Commission & University of Warwick for the financial & logistical support!!

27-30 September: Prof. Korosteleva participates in the 18th Pan-European EISA conference in Bologna

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Professor Elena Korosteleva joined the 18th Pan-European EISA conference on International Relations 'International Relations/Politics for a Broken World', at the University of Bologna on 27-30/08/25. She presented two papers there as part of her ongoing two projects and joined a roundtable:

- SHAPEDEM-EU project: The panel was titled 'Rethinking EU Democracy Support in the EU's Neighbourhood: a dialogic encounter between practice- and learning- theoretical perspectives'. On behalf of her co-authors, Drs Anastassiia Kudlenko and Aijan Sharshenova, Professor Korosteleva presented their paper 'From the Communities of Practices to the Community of Relations in Democracy Nurturance: What can we learn from Ukraine and Belarus?'. The panel also had papers from Prof. Daniela Huber (Roma Tre University) and Prof. Nora Fisher-Onar (University of San Francisco), chaired and discussed by Prof. Federica Bicchi, LSE.

- AGMOW project: Prof. Korosteleva acted both as chair and paper presenter at the panel 'Narratives of Orders: Resilience and Governance in the Multi-Order World', with the following participants: Prof. Chiara De Franco (SDU), Li Xing, Trine Flockhart (EUI) and Liv Nielsen (SDU/EUI). She also joined a well attended roundtable on the last day of the conference, with Ole Waever (Copenhagen), Simon Rushton (Sheffield), Liv Nielson (SDU/EUI), Ingvild Bode (SDU), and Li Xing, masterfully chaired by Prof. Trine Flockhart.

4-5 June: EUTOPIA Network Studio - a great success!

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 09:50:00 GMT

Warwick hosted the Sustainability Network Studio on 3-5 June, an international event to facilitate the formation of interdisciplinary research collaborations in and around the area of Sustainability between researchers at three universities: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) from Belgium; Technische Universitat Dresden (TUD) from Germany and the University of Warwick.

The event was organised as part of the EUTOPIA activities and under the aegis of the Sustainability Spotlight. It was led Prof. Elena Korosteleva in her capacity as Chair of the Sustainability Spotlight, and in partnership with the Sustainability Spotlight leadership team. The event was held over the three days, involving members of the Sustainability Spotlight networks. It was based around pitch presentations from each of the 23 researchers attending and consortium-building for European research funding. The event was facilitated by research support staff from each of the three institutions and is expected to lead to new research collaborations in and around the sustainability area in disciplines ranging from chemistry and engineering to political science, business and economics. From the Warwick team, it included Prof. Stuart Coles (WMG), Prof. Stefan Bon (Chemistry), Dr Fred Dahlmann (WBS), Dr Soroush Abolfani (Engineering), Dr Madeleine Fagan (PAIS), Dr Lory Barile (Economics), Dr Feng Mao (IGSD) and Dr Adela Glyn-Davies (Design).

Strategic Publication of the Key Concepts for the Future of the EU, published 3 March 2025

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:15:00 GMT

Professor Korosteleva was invited to contribute a piece on resilience to the strategic volume of Key Concepts for the Future of the EU, published by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS), 3 March 2025. The volume came together at the request of policy-makers, and covers key themes that the EU and global leadership will work with in 2025+, including geopolitics, resilience, security, democracy etc. It offers innovative and creative perspectives, to ensure that the challenges posited by complex geopolitics and the Anthropocene, are adequately considered, going forward. It is available for a free download.

SHAPEDEM-EU Research Fellow participates in the launch of MORDOR report

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:04:57 GMT

Dr Aijan Sharshenova, SHAPEDEM-EU Research Fellow, discussed the launch of a report on harnessing the democratising potential of the EU foreign policy agenda with one of the report's authors Dr Nathan Vandeputte.

MORDOR is an Erasmus+ project, co-funded by the European Union focusing on improving general education on authoritarianism and to prepare recommendations for EU foreign policy stakeholders regarding democracy support.

SHAPEDEM-EU holds its 2nd Annual Progress Meeting

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:44:00 GMT

Professor Elena Korosteleva and Dr Aijan Sharshenova, SHAPEDEM-EU team at the University of Warwick, participated in the 2nd Annual Progress Meeting of the SHAPEDEM-EU Consortium. Professor Korosteleva reported on the progress of the deliverables under the Working Package 2 "Democratic practices and democracy support in the Eastern Neighbourhood and discussed prospects of future collaborations with the consortium members.

SHAPEDEM-EU is a consortium of 12 research, policy and civil society institutions set out to rethink, reshape, and review the EU’s democracy promotion policies, while elaborating and pilot testing a novel model of a Democracy Learning Loop. The project is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe funding framework.

SHAPEDEM-EU Fellow participates in a democracy dinner in Brussels

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 09:28:00 GMT

Dr. Aijan Sharshenova, research fellow at the SHAPEDEM-EU Horizon-funded project, participated in a closed dinner discussion of the policy brief "The EU support to democracy: Recognising the democratising potential of the EU's foreign policy agenda" published by Mapping and Organizing Research on Dictatorships EU-funded project. The discussion was organised by the European Partnership for Democracy and included EU officials, civil society and academia.