In the face of stiff international competition, the University of Warwick's Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation has been awarded 5.4 million euro by the European Commission to create an international network of over 250 scholars to provide crucial research to help politicians and policy makers devise global responses to the increasing array of international problems we face today - everything from infectious disease control to terrorism and the environment. World Trade Organization Director-General elect Pascal Lamy will chair the network's International Advisory Board.

The funding from the EU Framework 6 Competition will empower the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation to create and lead a "Network of Excellence on Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation (GARNET)". This network will conduct research into how international governance and regulation needs to change to meet the policy challenges facing national governments seeking to act collectively either in the EU or in other bodies grappling with global governance issues such as handling infectious diseases, trade liberalisation and finance stability, terrorism and security, the environment, development and gender inequality.

GARNET is a major multidisciplinary endeavor that will bring together researchers from the fields of; political science and international relations, economics and political economy, law, sociology, anthropology, history and philosophy.

GARNET will be Directed by Professor Richard Higgott and a team from the ESRC Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick and governed by an Advisory Board chaired by World Trade Organization Director-General elect Pascal Lamy. GARNET will also receive additional fiancial support from the ESRC.

GARNET has 42 institutional partners from 21 countries. In addition to Warwick, major partners include research groups from the LSE, Essex and Exeter, the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Paris); the Universities of Amsterdam, Leiden and the Institute of Social Studies from the Netherlands; the Copenhagen Business School and Aarhus University (Denmark), the University of Oslo (Norway); Free University of Brussels and the United Nations University Centre for Integration Studies (Belgium); the Frei University of Berlin and the Universities of Bielefield, Bremen and Muenster (Germany); the Central European University and Corvinus University (Hungary); Wroclaw University (Poland) Goterborg University (Sweden) University of Florence and La Sapeinza University (Italy) and the University of Lublijana (Slovenia).


For further information please please contact:

Professor Richard Higgot richard.higgott@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: 02476 575344

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager,
University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 523708
or 07767 655860 email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR67 PJD 1st September 2005