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Policy Assessment Group
Welcome to the website of the “Policy Assessment Group”.
On the following pages, we present information on our main areas of research, ongoing and completed projects, publications and events as well as our research team.
Thank you very much for your interest!
News
The research group regularly organizes a monthly seminar series entitled "Berlin Sustainability Talk" on current research and policy discussions in the field of environmental policy and sustainable development. To receive invitations to forthcoming events, you may subscribe to our mailing list by clicking on the following link.
The research group also organizes the international “Berlin Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change“.
New Publication: Special Symposium on Nature, Science, and Politics, or: Policy Assessment to Promote Sustainable Development
Editors: Sabine Weiland, Vivien Weiss and John Turnpenny.
Nature+Culture, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2013
This special symposium explores how the construction and utilization of scientific knowledge in policy making and its impact in the policy process itself can be better understood.
News vom: 20.04.2013
Presentation on solar energy industry in China and Germany
News vom: 11.04.2013
LIAISE Innovation Report on "Transdisciplinarity"
The 5th issue of the LIAISE Innovation Report deals with transdisciplinarity. It reflects the fact that knowledge production is increasingly transgressing the (disciplinary) boundaries of science and is becoming more inter- and transdisciplinary.
News date: 03/27/2013
New Project „Development of Recommendations for the Use of Economic Instruments in Order to Icrease Ressource Efficiency in Germany and the EU” (ÖkonRess)
The research group Policy Assessment has started a new project on behalf of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA).
News date: 03/27/2013
Presentation of the LIAISE-Toolbox in Brussels: Workshop on Transport Policies
In the course of a workshop on "Transport and Innovation in Policy Impact Assessment" the LIAISE Toolbox was presented by Klaus Jacob in Brussels on March 6, 2013.
News date: 03/27/2013
Book section on “Sustainable Sectoral Structural Policy” by Holger Bär and Klaus Jacob
News date: 03/27/2013
Presentation at Indian-European Multilevel Climate Governance Research Network
On January 11, 2013, Rainer Quitzow presented an assessment of India's National Solar Mission at the kick-off conference of the Indian-European Multilevel Climate Governance Research Network in Delhi.
News date: 03/13/2013
Workshop on Green Jobs at Fudan University
On November 16, 2012, Rainer Quitzow gave a presentation at a workshop on "Green Jobs in Asia and Germany", sponsored by the Shanghai office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Center for Energy Economics and Strategy Studies, Fudan University.
News date: 03/13/2013
OECD discloses impact assessment studies
The OECD has just disclosed the results of two studies on impact assessments that have been conducted by FFU.
News date: 01/17/2013
New PolRess Discussion Paper
The PolRess project has published its contribution to the European Resources Forum. The discussion paper offers an overview and analysis of current expectations, positions and conflicts of resource policy.
News date: 12/18/2012
Mongolian Government Delegation at the Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU)
A delegation from the Mongolian Government, including Prof. Dr. Lundendorj Nanzaddorj, adviser to the Minister of Justice of Mongolia and director of the Mongolian law institute, as well as some of his employees visited the Environmental Policy Research Centre on November 23rd.
News date: 12/17/2012
New Project: Coherence Check of environmental policy goals and measures for the purpose of environmental reporting
The research group Policy Assessment of the FFU and Öko-Institut started a new project for the German Environment Agency (UBA).
News date: 12/12/2012
LIAISE Toolbox Meeting
A project meeting in the EU Network of Excellence LIAISE (‘Linking Impact Assessment Instruments and Sustainability Expertise’) was held in Berlin on 28th November 2012. The topic was the LIAISE Toolbox which is currently under development.
News date: 12/06/2012
Dr. Klaus Jacob spoke in Israel on “green economy”
Dr. Klaus Jacob participated in the conference “The Future of Green Growth and Green Jobs in Israel - Presenting Research Findings & Discussing Steps towards 2013” in Israel and spoke on “Greening the Economy: Deindustrialization or Prospects for Jobs and Welfare?”.
News date: 11/21/2012
Dr. Klaus Jacob participates in workshop “Linking Policy Impact Assessment and Sustainability Expertise“ in Vigoni, Italy
The workshop was held on October 18-21. LIAISE Network of Excellence - Linking Impact Assessment to Sustainability Expertise, Ecosystem Services Partnership, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission invited distinguished experts with special interest in impact assessment and ecosystem services.
News date: 11/21/2012
Dr. Sabine Weiland at IIASA 40th Anniversary Conference "Worlds within Reach - From Science to Policy"
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) celebrated its 40th Anniversary with the conference “Worlds within Reach – From Science to Policy”, which was held from 24-26 October, 2012 in Vienna and Laxenburg, Austria. In this event, Dr Sabine Weiland presented a poster of the LIAISE Network of Excellence that focused on its networking approach between science and policy.
News vom: 11/11/2012
Rainer Quitzow presents German experience in solar energy at UNEP workshop
At a workshop on Green Investment sponsored by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, Rainer Quitzow delivered a presentation on Germany’s experience in developing the country’s solar energy market.
News date: 11/07/2012
New publication: “Trade and the environment. Frameworks and methods for impact assessment"
Johanna Ferretti, Anna-Lena Guske, Klaus Jacob and Rainer Quitzow published a study on existing frameworks and methods for environmental impact assessment in the context of trade-related development cooperation.
News date: 11/06/2012
2012 Berlin Conference – A great success!
This year´s Berlin Conference on “Evidence for Sustainable Development”, held from 5-6 October, has been a great success. This was the 11th conference in the well established series of European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.
News date: 10/29/2012
Rainer Quitzow presents research on lead markets for environmental innovations in China
During a research visit to China, Rainer Quitzow presented his ongoing work in the BMBF-funded project "Lead Market Strategies: First Mover, Early Follower, Late Follower".
News date: 10/28/2012
Rainer Quitzow on green innovation in China
Rainer Quitzow discusses green innovation in China in the business journal of the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
News date: 10/15/2012
Dr. Sabine Weiland board member of DVPW working group
Dr. Sabine Weiland was elected as a board member of the Working Group Environmental Policy/Global Change (AK Umweltpolitik/Global Change) of the German Political Science Association (DVPW).
News date: 10/08/2012
Berlin Sustainability Talk with Richard Hill
On September 3rd, 4-6 p.m., Dr. Richard Hill (University of Cape Town) will give a talk on "Philosophical ideas and theoretical insights to improve the practice of environmental assessment."
News date:08/27/2012
Programme of the 2012 Berlin Conference online!
The programme of the 2012 Berlin Conference on "Evidence for Sustainable Development" is now online! Keynote speakers include Jacqueline McGlade (European Environment Agency) and Uwe Schneidewind (Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy).
News date: 07/30/2012
Dr. Sabine Weiland at IPSA-Conference
Dr Sabine Weiland presented a paper titled “Beyond the rhetoric of evidence-based policymaking: Policy assessment in practice” at the 2012 Congress of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) which was held from 8-12 July in Madrid, Spain.
News date: 07/25/2012
Current Issue of UVP-Report on “Impact Assessment – Yet Another Assessment Instrument” published, with Johanna Ferretti as Guest Editor
Guest editors of the current issue of UVP-report on the subject “Impact Assessment – Yet Another Assessment Instrument” were Johanna Ferretti (FFU) and Aranka Podhora (Zalf). The issue deals with the situation of impact assessments (IAs) in Germany and the European Union. The articles focus mainly on environmental aspects of IAs.
News date: 06/25/2012
Interview with Dr. Klaus Jacob on Deutschlandfunk
On the occasion of the World Summit for Sustainable Development which is currently taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Klaus Jacob gave an interview for the Deutschlandfunk radio’s programme “Forschung Aktuell” on June 18, 2012. In the interview he made an assessment of Agenda 21, the action plan that has been adopted during the first Earth Summit twenty years ago.
News date: 06/21/2012
Dr. Klaus Jacob spoke about Rio+20 on the vessel “MS Wissenschaft“
Dr. Klaus Jacob participated in the discussion event „Rio +20: Our Last Chance“ that took place on June 4, 2012, as part of the series „Dialogue on Deck”. He spoke about opportunities in the context of the Earth Summit on Sustainable Development which is held in Rio de Janeiro on June 20-22.
News date: 06/21/2012
Presentation by Prof. Chen Schaofeng
On June 14, 2012, Professor Shaofeng Chen from the Insitute of Policy and Management at the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave a presentation at the Environmental Policy Research Centre on “The relationship between environment and economic development and environmental performance evaluation in China”.
News date: 06/19/2012
New Project: Overview and assessment of tools for assessing the impact of trade policy and promotion on the environment in the context of development cooperation
The research group Policy Assessment of the FFU is working on a new Projekt for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
News date: 06/11/2012
JRC – LIAISE Workshop on "Modelling Capacities for Policy Support in Europe"
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the LIAISE Network of Excellence, which is co-coordinated by FFU, jointly organised a workshop on “Modelling Capacities for Policy Support in Europe”. The event is held on 5 June, 2012 in Berlin.
News date: 06/04/2012
Dr. Klaus Jacob presented LIAISE Toolbox at Joint Workshop of JRC and LIAISE on Soil Conservation in Ispra, Italy
Dr. Klaus Jacob has participated in a Workshop on April 24th of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the Network of Excellence - Linking Impact Assessment to Sustainability Expertise (LIAISE) on the topic of “Mainstreaming soil conservation into policy impact assessment – Linking Sustainability Expertise”. Dr. Jacob introduced the LIAISE Toolbox for IA Tools.
News date: 05/02/2012
LIAISE Session on „Does evidence help to promote transparency and accountability?” at the 2012 Earth System Governance Conference
In the context of the LIAISE (‘Linking Impact Assessment Instruments and Sustainability Expertise‘) Network of Excellence Dr. Sabine Weiland organised a panel at this year’s Earth System Governance Conference, which was held from 18-20 April in Lund, Sweden under the heading „Towards a Just and Legitimate Earth System Governance – Addressing Inequalities”.
News date: 04/30/2012
Lecture by Klaus Jacob at the McPlanet-Congress 2012
Dr. Klaus Jacob was giving a lecture on the topic “Green Economy: Expectations, Conflicts and Positions” at the McPlanet-Congress in Berlin, Saturday, the 21st of April, 2012. The lecture was part of a workshop on the topic “Capitalism: Black spot on a Green Economy” that was organized by the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.
News date: 04/26/2012
Publication on “Policy Assessment: the state of the art” by Sabine Weiland
Dr. Sabine Weiland, member of the Policy Assessment Research Group at FFU contributed, together with LIAISE researcher Dr. Camilla Adelle, University of East Anglia, an article on "Policy Assessment: the state of the art" to a special issue of “Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal” on the state of the art of impact assessment.
News date: 04/13/2012
LIAISE Session at 2012 TEEB Conference
At the 2012 TEEB Conference on “Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: Challenges for Science and Implementation”, held on 19-22 March 2012 in Leipzig, Johanna Ferretti and Dr. Sabine Weiland presented a paper on “Mainstreaming biodiversity – Tools for Integrating Ecosystems in Policy Impact Assessment”.
News date: 03/23/2012
3rd Annual LIAISE Meeting in Bilbao, Spain
The LIAISE ('Linking Impact Assessment Instruments and Sustainability Expertise') Network of Excellence, which is co-coordinated by FFU, held its 3rd Annual Meeting from 14-16 March 2012 in Bilbao, Spain. Six researchers from FFU, among others Klaus Jacob, Sabine Weiland and Dirk Wascher attended the meeting, which was hosted by LIAISE partner TECNALIA Labein.
News date: 03/22/2012
2012 Berlin Conference financially supported by DFG
The German Research Foundation will (as in 2010) financially support the organization of the Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. The theme of the 11th Berlin Conference is “Evidence for Sustainable Development”.
News date: 03/20/2012
Regional Forum: Green Jobs in Asia - Potentials and Prospects
From March 5-7, 2012, Dr. Klaus Jacob and Rainer Quitzow attended the regional conference "Green Jobs in Asia - Potentials and Prospects" in Singapur.
News date: 03/08/2012
Contributions of the Research Group to the Leuphana Sustainability Summit
On March 1st, 2012 Dr. Klaus Jacob, Dr. Sabine Weiland and Dirk Wascher participated in the Leuphana Sustainability Summit in Lüneburg with a special LIAISE session on “Policy Assessment – How to Include Scientific Knowledge in Political Decision Making” and a contribution to the LIAISE workshop on “Tools to Support Sustainability Transition in a Rural-urban Context”.
News date: 03/06/2012
Klaus Jacob gives keynote address at EEEN forum in Leuven
On February 9, Klaus Jacob gave a keynote address at the European Environmental Evaluators Network forum in Leuven. His speech was entitled “Enhancing the use of impact assessment tools in policy making: bridging the gap between science and the policy making community”.
News date: 02/23/2012
New publication on the discursive construction of global commons
Stefan Werland, together with Georg Winkel, has published an article on the role of scientific disciplines in the discursive construction of global commons.
News date: 02/23/2012
New Website for the project „Resource policy“ (PolRess)
Since the beginning of the year, the research group Policy Assessment of the FFU leads a consortium in a 3 ½ year´s project on “resource policy”, commissioned by the Federal Environmental Agency. The project's website has been launched recently.
News date: 02/23/2012
New project: "Resource Policy"
The research group Policy Assessment of the FFU leads a consortium in a 3 ½ year´s project on “resource policy”, commissioned by the Federal Environmental Agency.
News date: 02/02/2012
Paper on environmental innovation and competitiveness
In the context of the project "Lead Market Strategies: First Mover, Early Follower, Late Follower" Rainer Quitzow has published the working paper entitled "Towards an integrated approach to promoting environmental innovation and national competitiveness".
News date: 01/02/2012
Presentation on Solar Energy in India
On December 15, 2011 Rainer Quitzow held a presentation on the development of solar energy in India at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. The presentation was part of the second steering committee meeting of a joint research project with ZEW and the Fraunhofer Institute of Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) entitled "Lead Market Strategies: First Mover, Early Follower and Late Follower".
News date: 01/02/2012
News
Presentation at Tsinghua University’s Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) on strategies for the promotion of electric vehicles in China and Germany
On April 17, 2013 Holger Bär gave a presentation at the School of Public Policy & Management’s Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance of Tsinghua University on strategies in China and Germany to foster lead markets for electric vehicles.
New Publication: Special Symposium on Nature, Science, and Politics, or: Policy Assessment to Promote Sustainable Development.
Nature+Culture, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2013
Editors: Sabine Weiland, Vivien Weiss and John Turnpenny
This special symposium explores how the construction and utilization of scientific knowledge in policy making and its impact in the policy process itself can be better understood.
Presentation at Fraunhofer ISE on the evolution of the solar energy industry in China and Germany
Events
Workshop: Green innovation and its implications for economic growth
Berlin Sustainability Talk mit Richard Hill
2012 Berlin Conference:
"Evidence for Sustainable Development."
