October 30th marks the launch of the EU COST ACTION, Rising nationalisms, shifting geopolitics, and the future of European higher education and research openness (OPEN) in Brussels.

Chaired by Katja Brøgger, with Aarhus University as the Grant Holder Institution, the Action will run from October 2023 until October 2027 and includes 38 European COST member countries and cooperating countries. Together, scholars of the Action will explore how the rise of new nationalisms and geopolitical tensions exerts growing pressure on the openness of European higher education and research and examine its implications for the future of Europe. By facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration, the action will strengthen and showcase European scholarship and liaise with stakeholders in the domain of higher education and research to generate ideas for addressing and alleviating the growing threats to the University’s openness and global cooperation capabilities.

The Action is based on four working groups that bring together interdisciplinary researchers to explore the shifting dynamics between the University, the nation-state, and the European integration project:

1. Research Genealogy: bringing together higher education and political science studies,
2. Comparative framework: developing an ethics of context sensitivity,
3. Comparative empirical mapping: analyzing data across different domains of impact,
4. Outreach: cross-fertilization between research and policy,

For further information, please see COST's website.