Research and teaching in Pan-European Institute

Background of the project

• Global trade has witnessed a multitude of changes at an increasing pace – more than ever before.
• Digitalization and platform economy have changed value creation mechanisms and value chains, enabling the emergence of new business models.
• The developing markets have strengthened their positions as part of the global economy at the same time as the role of developed economies has been decreasing, thus fluctuating the traditional trade positions in global markets.
• Open market economy and free trade have been challenged in multiple locations all around the world.

Future business managers will need the ability to understand wide-ranging changes in their business environment. This will heighten the importance of managers’ capabilities to estimate the consequences of these changes in their businesses, as well as to identify and create business opportunities. Both business students as well as business practitioners need to understand the meaning of changing trade policy. Thus, we offer them the means and networks to be able to react to and prepare for the developments induced by changes in global or regional trade relations. 

Key objectives:

1. Establishing a new Master’s level course
2. Organizing a seminar for companies
3. Producing a trade policy focused article collection
4. Establishing trade policy focused research projects and initiatives

KAPPAS project is a three year initiative (November 2019 – October 2022) funded by The Union of Industries and Employers Foundation (Teollisuuden ja Työnantajain Keskusliiton -säätiö, TT).

Contact
Research Manager
Anna Karhu

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The Pan-European Institute is coordinating a €4M international maritime industry digitalisation project.

ECOPRODIGI project funded by the European Union from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme involves shipyards, shipping companies and other key actors around the Baltic Sea region. The duration of the project is 2017-2020.

The aim of the ambitious research and development project of the maritime industry is to increase eco-efficiency of the maritime industry in the Baltic Sea region with digitalisation. Over 20 research institutes, companies and stakeholder groups from around the Baltic Sea region are involved.​

Please find the full description of the project on the official website.

Contact
Project Manager
Milla Harju

Project Researcher
Elisa Aro

Clean Shipping Project Platform, CSHIPP, brings together projects and organisations focused on enhancing clean shipping in the Baltic Sea region. The objective of CSHIPP is to increase the impact of and connect the dots between the several projects working for clean shipping. As the projects involved in the platform look at the shared topic of clean shipping from different angles, CSHIPP synthesises the projects’ results to provide a more holistic perspective in a concise and easily comprehensible format.

The activities of CSHIPP revolve around two key themes: the environmental effects of shipping in the BSR and the business potential of clean shipping in the BSR. By discussing these themes both separately and simultaneously, CSHIPP emphasises that environmentally friendly shipping and profitable business support rather than exclude one another.

Projects involved in CSHIPP
EnviSuM
SHEBA
EGOPRODIGI
GoLNG
BalticLines
BSR Electric
Smartup Accelerator

The duration of the project is 2018-2020. Read more about CSHIPP on the official website.

Contact
Project Manager
Riitta Pöntynen

Project Researcher
Teemu Itälinna

DigiPro – Internationally scalable business from digitalization – project examined anticipatory project controlling solutions and how they can be exploited in creating profitable business operations.

The partners of the project were Turku School of Economics in University of Turku and School of Business and Management in Lappeenranta University of Technology as well as four Finnish SMEs. The main financier of the project was Business Finland and the duration of the project was 2017-2018.

Read more about the project on DigiPro blog (in Finnish).
DigiPro final report (in English).

Contact

Project Researcher
Elisa Aro

MNEmerge project explored the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in addressing global development challenges by mirroring the impacts of the operations of MNEs against the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The project included field research in three developing countries, Brazil, Ghana and India.

The four objectives of the project were the following:

1. Developing a comprehensive framework to analyse the impacts of MNEs towards socio-economic development;
2. Developing a model that describes the relationships between MNEs, FDI and the economy;
3. Performing case studies and quantitative analysis to verify the developed model;
4. Analysing the role of public policies in supporting responsible business practices and the Millennium Development Goals.

MNEmerge also provided recommendations regarding modes of MNE collaboration with societal stakeholders. Thus, the project aimed at supporting business sustainability while simultaneously ensuring sustainable development of a society.

MNEmerge was a three-year (2014–2016) international research project.

The partners of the project were:

• Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland (Lead Partner)
• King’s College London, UK
• Brunel University, UK
• University of Oxford, UK
• University of Turku/Pan-European Institute, Finland
• United Nations University, Netherlands
• Public Health Foundation of India, India
• Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, Ghana
• INESC P&D Brazil, Brazil

Please find the full description of the project on the official website.

Contact
Project Researcher
Hanna Mäkinen

Russia's final energy frontier – Sustainability challenges of the Russian Far North.

The two-year (2014–2016) research project, co-funded by the Academy of Finland and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, analysed the role of internal factors, foreign businesses and international Arctic politics in the formation of energy policy in the Russian Far North, towards which the centre of gravity of Russia’s hydrocarbon production is shifting. The project also examined how this policy affects socioeconomic development and the environmental situation in the area.

Sub-themes of the project were the following:

1. What are the budgetary relations between the federal centre and the Russian Far Northern areas? How is energy wealth divided between the centre and the Northern regions? 
2. How do energy developments affect demographic trends in the Russian Far North?
3. How does the hydrocarbon sector carry out its social and environmental responsibility in the Russian Far North? How do the rights of indigenous people play out in these policy practices?
4. What is the future role of foreign companies in the development of the Russian Far North? How do they enter the markets and engage in the complex networks in the Russian Far North? How do they cooperate with other actors?
5. What is the role of international politics in the Arctic, including Arctic environ-mental policy, in the formation of Russia’s energy policy in the Far North? How do politicization and securitization relate to energy policy formation?
6. How does energy policy affect the future use of the Northern Sea Route? 
    

The duration of the project was 2012-2013. Please find the full description of the project on the official website.

Contact
Project Researcher
Eini Haaja

Project Researcher
Hanna Mäkinen

Wider Europe – Regional Security Report

During 2010-2011, the Pan-European Institute published a biannual review Wider Europe – Regional Security Report, which focused on the security development of the Western CIS (Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus), the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan).

The report was a part of the research project Security and Development Research within the Wider Europe Initiative Security Cluster; Pan European Institute (2010–2011), which was funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs within the development cooperation.

Reports

Regional Security Report 2/2011 – Special edition on energy security was published on June 22, 2011.

Regional Security Report 1/2011 - Special edition on socio-economic development

Отчет о региональной безопасности (Regional Security report 2/2011 (RUS))