Research
Amsterdam Centre for European Studies - ACES
ACES research is organised in five Theme Groups. Through these Theme Groups, ACES affiliates connect, organise events and apply for grants. ACES supports its affiliates with various funding opportunities for conducting research and attending conferences, and welcomes external PhD candidates.
ACES also directly supports interdisciplinary research projects. At this moment, the first batch of such projects are coming to a conclusion, and three new project have been selected. You can find an overview of the Key Publications here.
Research Themes
Tech, Power and Policy
The Tech, Power, and Policy theme group brings together researchers across UvA to explore how Europe navigates the shifting balance between technological innovation, global competition, and strategic autonomy. Against the backdrop of big tech regulation, industrial policy revival, and geopolitical rivalry with China and the US, the group examines how European digital and industrial strategies shape and are shaped by politics, society, law, and the economy. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, public debate, and engagement with policymakers, the group aims to build critical insights into how Europe can secure a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable digital future.
Contested Economic Challenges
The Contested Economic Challenges theme group is a forum for debate and collaboration on the nature, origins, and implications of European economic experience in society, politics, law, history, and governance. The focus of the theme group is on issues of social and political conflict, regulation, and policymaking in Europe, including both public and private governance as well as both subnational and European Union (EU) governance. The group also seeks to be a forum for public outreach and debate, facilitating public events in various settings.
Climate Dissensus in Europe
The Climate Dissensus in Europe theme group researches the distinct and circumscribed issue of how our political, economic, and legal institutions and decision-making processes in the multilayered legal and political landscape of Europe deal with and (fail to) productively integrate dissenting voices in climate governance, and what the policy implications are. The European Union and national, subnational, and regional or international structures interlock and produce rules and norms that reinforce but also challenge each other. The group studies how the different actors, processes, and structures integrate science and expertise and allow for representation of citizens and other stakeholders. It engages in particular with institutions and processes of decision-making in climate governance, broadly construed, covering not only public institutions but also private actors, such as companies.
The Future of European Democracy
The Future of European Democracy theme group examines the challenges and opportunities facing democracy in Europe today. The group focuses on electoral politics, constitutional change, and the European public sphere, with attention to issues such as democratic backsliding, populism, misinformation, and new forms of participation.
Europe in the World
The Europe in the World theme group explores Europe’s past, present, and future connections with the broader world. It accommodates a wide array of research on Europe’s global connectedness, ranging from geopolitical, security, and trade-centered questions to people-to-people solidarities (cultural and other) and civil society networks. It provides a platform for research on Europe's history, its present-day condition, and its possible futures. Such research includes exploration of the colonial underpinnings of its history and institutions, but also of Europe's strategies to navigate the shifting alignments of the contemporary world. The group is an umbrella grouping for those who care about both historical and contemporary questions about how Europe has connected to, shaped, and been shaped by the wider world. It is a suitable home for scholars in various disciplines within the Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, and Economics faculties.