International Summer Research Workshop

Duke University – Venice International University (VIU)
Announcement of a Joint Initiative

Overview

Duke University’s Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC), together with Venice International University’s Center for Studies on Technologies in Distributed Intelligence Systems (TeDIS) have expanded their ongoing collaboration by developing a new International Summer Research Workshop.  Building on ten years of international teaching in which Duke and other VIU consortium members have offered students and faculty a unique academic experience in a global setting, this workshop series is held annually since 2008, alternately in Venice and in Durham, NC.  The series will tap the partner institutions’ complementary research foci: CGGC’s global value chain approach and the TeDIS empirical research of Italian industrial districts.
The purpose of these international workshops is two-fold:

1. To develop an international set of serious, early-stage researchers—Ph.D. students, post-docs, junior faculty, and selected other researchers with country-level experience—who are capable of doing global value chains (GVC) analysis and using it to better understand the links between local systems and the global economy
2. To connect these scholars into an active international network with a common research agenda focused on critical emerging topics in coming years
   

Participants will be engaged in global-level research, with opportunities to gain in-depth, first-hand knowledge of local firms and systems in North Carolina in the United States and the Veneto Region in Italy.  In the interest of furthering their global research agenda, Duke and VIU are currently developing additional links with key research institutions elsewhere in Europe and in China.  These links will offer interested institutions an important opportunity to engage in a global initiative with world-class research partners.

Goals
The workshop will emphasize individual learning for the participants, expanding the capability of Ph.D. students and other promising young researchers to apply global value chains analysis to critical topics.  The four-year framework will offer opportunities to researchers to tap synergies and develop common research agendas that will go far beyond the workshops, creating a network of highly capable researchers that will build on the knowledge base in subsequent years.

Workshop Themes
The workshops will offer training related to key theories such as global value chains, industrial districts, and local clusters, focusing on participants’ existing research as well as new projects that will emerge.

Main 2009 Workshop Theme: Economic, Social and Environmental Restructuring in Global Value Chains

The 2009 workshop edition will focus on the following key themes:

1. Economic and social upgrading
   
2. Environment and sustainable development
   
3. Global services and the knowledge economy
   

Within each of the above areas, the research will seek to produce information useful to decision-makers who confront the questions of:

• What enables a given activity to become and stay competitive in the global economy?
• What stages are necessary to upgrade effectively in a given industry?  
• Which processes and practices have significant environmental impact or offer important opportunities for environmental improvement?
  

Workshop Format
The workshop will take place during one week in July each summer. In 2009, it will be the week of July 5-10 in Durham, and alternating with Venice each year thereafter:

• 2008    Workshop I    Venice (July 13-18, 2008)
  
• 2009    Workshop II    Durham (July 5-10, 2009)
  
• 2010    Workshop III    Venice 
• 2011    Workshop IV    Durham
  

Participants will receive instruction to expand their knowledge of the theories and methods of the global value chain and industrial districts approaches, accompanied by case studies relevant to the workshop themes.  Speakers from three geographic areas (United States, Europe, and China) will be invited as specialists in the selected themes.  Researchers from collaborating institutions will make presentations and lead field trips to local sites, for instance, Italian industrial districts in Workshop I, and North Carolina industry sites in Workshop II.  Participants will have ample opportunities to share research activities and interests and to build collaborations for future research. The workshop, travel, accommodation, and meals are free of charge for all accepted candidates.

Participants
The workshop will include 35 to 40 participants, made up of faculty, guest speakers and 20-25 students from different countries and universities, along with auditors from partnering institutions and local economic and public organizations. 

The selection process will seek participants with the following characteristics:

• Proficiency in English
• Early career stage (Ph.D.s, post-docs, junior faculty, master’s students)
• Disciplines: social sciences; economics and management; engineering 
• Current, active work in global value chain analysis and in identified workshop themes
• High scholarly achievement, as reflected in curriculum vitae, working papers, publications, conference presentations 
• A clear rationale for how they will build upon the research skills and experiences developed during the workshop program.
  

Duke-VIU application schedule
Call for applications	March 25, 2009
Application deadline	April 20, 2009
List of accepted candidates published	April 24, 2009
Enrollment deadline	April 29, 2009

Contact information: researchworkshop@univiu.org