German Ukrainian Researchers Network (GURN)

Think tanks in Ukraine are key civil society actors whose analytical work makes an important contribution to the promotion of democratic processes. Through their direct work on drafting laws, co-designing state policies, monitoring, and control, they are able to accompany the political process and make it more transparent. As part of civil society, they form the bridge between society and political decision-makers, communicate ideas, inform, clarify, and thus contribute decisively to pluralism of opinion and thus strengthen democracy in general. In addition, they act not only nationally, but also transnationally. Through their policy-oriented and up-to-date analyses of political and social developments in their countries, think tanks can contribute to an improved understanding across borders and provide perspectives on international discourses.

Based on these premises, the project “German Ukrainian Researchers Network” (GURN) aims to promote professional exchange between experts from German and Ukrainian think tanks and enabling junior researchers to feed their practice-oriented scientific results into the social and political discourse of both countries.

Goals of the project:

  • Establishing a German Ukrainian think tank network
  • Fostering the skills of Ukrainian junior researchers in policy analysis, policy consulting, and the successful communication of research findings
  • Improving the expertise on Eastern Europe among German junior researchers
  • Transfer of knowledge about sociopolitical processes both from Germany to Ukraine and from Ukraine to Germany
  • Targeted support of (bilateral) research projects about current developments in Ukraine

Target groups:

The project targets junior and senior researchers at German and Ukrainian think tanks and universities, who wish to strengthen their professional expertise in practice-oriented research and want to implement (joint) research projects with a thematic focus on Ukraine.

Activities:

  • „Ukraine Breakfast Debates“: Expert talks with Ukrainian speakers in Berlin
  • „Germany Breakfast Debates“: Expert talks with German speakers in Kyiv
  • Network and expert conferences in Kyiv and Berlin
  • Workshops in policy analysis for representatives of Ukrainian think tanks
  • Study Trips for Ukrainian and German junior researchers
  • Promotion and Professional support of research projects of German and Ukrainian junior researchers
  • Online platform to facilitate the visibility and access to network members and organisations

The „German Ukrainian Researchers Network“ (GURN) is a project of the Institut für Europäische Politik e.V. and builds upon the previous project „Platform for Analytics and Intercultural Communication“ (PAIC, 2017–2019). The project is implemented in cooperation with the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF, Kyiv), New Europe Center (NEC, Kyiv) and the think tank Initiative think twice UA (Kyiv), with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Project timeline:

August 2019 – December 2020