17 January 2011: The UN University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) has signed an agreement with the European Commission (EC) to participate in Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN), a four-year research project – part of EC Framework Programme 7 – beginning in March 2011. GR:EEN will study environmental governance among other aspects of global governance.

The GR:EEN project aims to increase participants’ understanding about potential directions of emerging global governance structures, as well as the current and future role of the European Union (EU) in the fields of human rights and security, energy, resources and environment, trade and finance.

The project will have five components, including: conceptual analyses of an emerging multi-polar world and the theory and practice of international organization and networks; evolving EU policy and practice; the effects of regional leadership from Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas; implementation of projects about the EU and multi-polarity in topics of relevance; and a foresight study detailing scenarios for EU policy.

GR:EEN is undertaken by UNU-CRIS in consortium with eight European partner institutions (from Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the UK), with an estimated investment of EUR 10 million. In addition, research institutions from several countries outside Europe (Argentina, Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and the US) will play a “hub-and-spokes” role for their regions. GR:EEN is hosted by the Univeristy of Warwick in the UK. It will run through February 2015. [UNU-CRIS Press Release] [GR:EEN Information]