New collaborative research projects within the EUI Widening Europe Programme have been unveiled for the 2026 term.
The EUI selected projects cover a broad range of topics, including democracy and polarisation, feminist constitutionalism, policy convergence, violence and political intimidation, competition law enforcement, climate and energy governance, migration, judicial independence, digital governance, and social inequalities. Together, they reflect the Widening Programme’s commitment to supporting excellent, policy-relevant research, and fostering durable research networks across Europe.
The Widening Europe Programme aims to promote inclusive academic collaboration, strengthen research capacity, and support the integration of scholars and institutions from Widening countries into European and international research networks. Through these projects, EUI scholars will work closely with colleagues from partner institutions to produce high-quality comparative research, contribute to policy debates, and build long-term institutional links.
The projects selected for funding in 2026 are:
- INFOPOLDEM, with Daniele Caramani (Part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre) and Veronika Patkós (Senior Research Fellow - ELTE Centre for Social Sciences) as principal investigators.
- FJP-CEE, led by Professors Silvia Suteu (EUI Department of Law) and Ivana Krstic (University of Belgrade).
- CONVERGE, with Maarten Vink (EUI Professor Robert Schuman Centre), Doreta Pudzianowska (Associate Professor - University of Warsaw), and Szabolcs Pogonyi (Associate Professor - Central European University).
- UNVEIL, and its team of investigators composed by Erik Jones (Director Robert Schuman Centre), Kamila Borsekova (Associate Professor Matej Bel University), Ana Espírito-Santo (Associate Professor University Institute of Lisbon), Elżbieta Korolczuk (Associate Professor University of Warsaw), Lambrini Papadopoulou (Assistant Professor National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), and Maria Zuffova (Research Fellow Robert Schuman Centre).
- COMPO 2.0, the continuation of last year COMPO 1.0 project, supervised by Nicolas Petit (EUI Department of Law) and Jasminka Pecotić Kaufman (EUI’s Robert Schuman Centre).
- EET, with Juan Montero-Pascual (Part-time Professor Robert Schuman Centre) and Nikola Stojadinović (Assistant Professor University of Belgrade) as main investigators.
- Universities under pressure: party, personnel, and dissent in Socialist Slovenia, led by Glenda Sluga (Full-time Professor - Joint Chair EUI Department of History and Robert Schuman Centre) and Tomaž Ivešić (Dean of the Faculty of Slovenian and International Studies - New University).
- PROMPT, with Elda Brogi (Part-time Professor Robert Schuman Centre) and Olena Boryslavska (Professor and Head of the Constitutional Law Department - Ivan Franko National University of Lviv).
- AISOME, coordinated by Deirdre Curtin (EUI Professor Department of Law), and Kozminski University Professors Izabela Grabowska and Aleksandra Przegalińska.
- GRID-AFRICA, with the team investigators consisting of Martina Ferracane (Part-time Assistant Professor Robert Schuman Centre), Dominik Kopiński (Associate Professor University of Wrocław), and Valeria Lauria (Visiting Fellow Robert Schuman Centre).
- TRANSRELIGIOUS, led by Giancarlo Casale (Head of Department and EUI Professor Department of History) and Jorge Flores (Coordinator Researcher Interuniversity Centre for the History of Science and Technology, University of Lisbon).
The EUI Widening Europe Programme, supported by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in targeted Widening countries.