Summary: Launch Event of SNIS Funded Projects 2010 and Award Ceremonies

Post Date:

23.11.2010

On 30 September 2010, the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) presented the research projects that qualified for funding within the 2010 call for projects. The assembled project coordinators presented their research plan highlighting their inter- and plurisdisciplinary methods as well as the potential policy relevance and applicability of their inquiries. The audience consisted of academics, practitioners form International Organizations and NGOs and the diplomatic corps. This diversified public not only took note of the many promising projects that are about to begin but also cherished the work of young academics that have qualified themselves by delivering solid academic work in international studies that is also highly practically relevant.

Keynote at SNIS 2010 project launch event

Collaboration with International Organizations

Carsten Fink, Chief Economist at the Economic Studies, Statistics and Analysis Division, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), delivered a keynote speech on how to optimize collaboration between academia and international organizations. Against a sharp analysis of the existing incentive systems for collaboration he made concrete suggestions for both academics and international practitioners, highlighting the complementarty of these two actor groups:

Your can donwload his full speech

Carsten Fink, chief econmist, WIPO

“From my experience, working at an international perspective gives you unique insights into what are the really interesting questions that policymakers care about, but you usually don’t have the time to answer them”

Academics, by contrast, are good at answering questions, but they often don’t have a clue about what the most relevant questions are

Carsten Fink, chief economist, WIPO

Evaluating Projects in International Studies

Speaking on behalf of the Scientific Committee, Prof. Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, introduced the individual project presentations by talking about the difficult task to evaluate and select interdisciplinary projects in international studies. The Scientific Committee brings together experts coming from different disciplines. Members had to examine projects dealing with anthropology, economics, natural sciences, medicine, and many more.

Prof. Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, UniGE and SNIS Scientific Committee

"Work in the SNIS scientific committee is a collective decision-making processess. We all have to agree so that the project can be accepted. [thus] all the projects have been admitted by concensus”

Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, President of the SNIS Scientific Committee

Panel discussion on Academic Excellence, Policy Relevance – from Conception to Implementation

The project presentation was followed by a panel discussion on policy relevance of research projects. Charles Gore, Special Coordinator for Cross-sectoral Issues at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) underscored a most important factor: timely delivery of research. "International Organizations have to give quick answers to global issues and research is only applicable when timely accurate".

Pierre Sauvé, Charles Gore and Boris Richard, the distinguished panel speakers

Boris Richard (First Secretary, Mission of Switzerland to the UNOG) took up the subject of implementation of academic excellence and the role of the State. Switzerland has always been keen of giving incentives to academic excellency in creating favourable framework conditions. This commitment is particularly reflected when it comes to financing. Research needs funding. The Swiss confederation and cantons are very much conscious of that. While many States face cut downs in public expenses and budgets are going down, there is a real political consensus in Switzerland to keep increasing the public money for research. “I'm very pleased today to see researchers from Zurich, Neuchâtel, not just from Geneva, discussing together with representatives of IOs”, he remarked.

The SNIS is seen by the Swiss Confederation as a win-win solution since it features a unique platform that allows to bring together International organizations in Geneva with academics all around Switzerland.

Boris Richard, First Secretary, Mission of Switzerland to the UNOG

“The SNIS strikes me as quintessentially Swiss”, declared Prof. Pierre Sauvé (World Trade Institute, University of Berne), “It’s pragmatic. It tries to build dialog where that dialog perhaps does not exist.” He highlighted the comparative advantage of Switzerland in general and Geneva in particular, that is endowed with a fertile environment to promote the kind of dialogue that the Swiss promote between academia, the policy world and International Organizations. As a member of the Scientific Committee he mentioned the main objectives that it had in mind when evaluating the submitted projects: Research work should be applied to a noble public purpose, that serves the world community, academic excellency that requires rigor in conceptual thinking and the plurisdisciplinary dimension of the work. As a further challenge he mentioned that the SNIS should encourage researchers not only from IO’s but also from NGO’s that possess enormous expertise, creditability in the field, and therefore are important potential partners for the SNIS’ future work. Throughout these numerous NGO’s the SNIS could reach out more to civil society actors.

Young Researchers Celebrated

The event closed with the festive award ceremonies. Four awards were attributed in two categories:

The SNIS award for the best PhD thesis in International Studies in the current year (1 award, prize 5000.- CHF)
The International Geneva Awards for the three most compelling papers in international studies that are particulalry policy relevant (3 awards, 5000.- CHF each)

The SNIS Award

The SNIS award went to Dr. Gabriele Ruoff (CIS, Zürich) whose PhD thesis entitled "Growing rich and clean up later? Joint effects of International Integration and Democracy on Environmental Quality in Developing Countries" convinced the jury through its high quality scientific work dealing with a theme of great concrete relevance in today's debate between economic performance and environmental responsibility. The jury particularly lauded Dr. Ruoff's aptness to tackle the complex question with the appropriate academic quantitative tools while still translating the ensuing results into common language so that policy makers and the broader public can benefit from the insights generated.

The three International Geneva Awards

Dr Olivia Keiser and Prof. Manfred Elsig, both winners of the SNIS International Geneva Award

Dr. Olivia Keiser was awarded the Award for her outstanding research work on HIV. Maurizio Bona, Advisor to the Director-General, in charge of relations with International Organizations at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and member of the Award Jury, congratulated the awardee on the scientifc quality and the high relevance of her paper that deals antiretrovival therapy in resource-limited contexts. The conclusions are not only scientifically but also practically extremely useful, i.e. for the World Health Organization (WHO). In her speech, Dr. Keiser’s thanked all the people that contributed to this research and especially the persons that helped collecting the data in addition to their clinical work. Her awarded article: "Switching to second-line antiretrovival therapy in resource-limited settings: comparison of programmes with and without viral load monitoring" is published in AIDS/ 23, no. 14 (9, 2009): 1867-1874.

Prof. Manfred Elsig (Assistant Professor, World Trade Institute, Bern) won one of the three awards with his article entitled "Principal-agent theory and the World Trade Organization”. His article conceptualizes International Organizations within the framework of principal-agent theory and thus helps understanding the design, role and function of IO’s. Bernard Kuiten, Head of WTO’s External Relations, congratulated Dr Elsig for his work and his talent of matching theory and practice. Dr Elsig expressed this thanks to the Jury who selected his paper and to his family for the support. He will take this prize as an encouragement to do further research on IO’s. “There are empirical stories on IO’s that need to be told”, he remarked.

Dr Didier Ruedin (University of Neuchâtel) won his award with a comprehensive comparison of ethnic groups in national parliaments in 96 democracies. In her laudatio Charlotte Warakaulle, Chief of the Political Affairs, External Relations and Inter-Agency Affairs Section of the United Nation’s Office at Geneva mentioned that the concrete conclusions and recommendations were immediately applicable and useful for both policy makers and International Organizations. The United Nations are providing electoral assistance to States that are in transition to democracy and ethnic components have to be considered also in the context of conflict resolution and stability. Charlotte Warakaulle concluded that Dr Ruedin’s paper was the perfect illustration that academic excelleny can also be highly policy relevant. The article "Ethnic Group Representation in a Cross-National Comparison" is published in the The Journal of Legislative Studies / 15, no. 4 (n.d.): 335 – 354,

Documents:

FinkSNIS talk.pdf