Education Economics Network

Project Information

EdEN

Grant agreement ID: 691676

DOI

10.3030/691676

Project closed

EC signature date 22 December 2015

Start date 1 January 2016

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 681 437,50

EU contribution

€ 681 437,50

Coordinated by

HUN-REN KOZGAZDASAG- ES REGIONALIS TUDOMANYI KUTATOKOZPONT
Hungary

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EdEN (Education Economics Network)

Reporting period: 2017-04-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EdEN marks the start of an enhanced cooperation in the field of education economics between three top-ranked economics of education research groups in EU-15 countries and a promising group in the Widening Countries. The main objective of the project has been to boost the publication record of the cooperating institutions in general, and the leading institution in particular. The increasing cooperation between the participants helped to increase the international embeddedness and eventually international recognition of the leading institution, while also strengthening the network of education economists in the participating institutions. Besides these main objectives EdEN also explicitly aimed at strengthening the weak ties between young social scientists dealing with education-related questions within the economics discipline.
The specific goals of the twinning project included training for the leading institution, staff exchange, and joint organization of workshops and summer schools. This ultimately resulted in 14 policy-relevant, empirically focused papers, most of which has already been published in or submitted to peer-reviewed journals within the economics of education field. The ongoing collaborations promoted deeper mutual understanding of the different systems and fostered learning from each other.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The second period of the EdEN project was about exploiting and building on the network of scientists that was established during the first period. As proposed in the project, while the first period was about building the network, the second was reaping its fruits. Building on the trainings, summer schools and workshops organized jointly by the four participating institutions, the goal was to publish high quality scientific papers within the education economics discipline. The main objectives of the project have been to boost the publication record, and to increase the international embeddedness and eventually international recognition of the leading institution, as well as to strengthen the weak ties between young social scientists dealing with education-related questions within the economics discipline.
By the end of the project over 14 working papers have been published on the project website (http://www.edenproject.eu/publications/). This is already four more than the proposed 10 papers in the original project proposal (40% more than promised), and there is still a potential for further publications from the project. Of the 10 initially proposed paper-deliverables one has already been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, two of them are in a revise and resubmit phase in two highly ranked economics outlets, and five more are submitted or being submitted. In line with the project proposal, these papers have been presented at various highly ranked international conferences in Europe as well as in the US.
To increase the international embeddedness and to strengthen the weak ties between young social scientists six workshops and two trainings organized for the EdEN project members, and two summer schools and a final conference was organized for the non-EdEN members of the scientific community, as proposed. The final conference of the EdEN project was a highly successful event, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Besides the keynotes, 45 different papers were presented during the three days from various institutions from all over Europe. Moreover, besides these initially proposed events, the EdEN project has actively contributed to the organization of three more workshops which also fostered the international recognition of the CERSHAS and informed the scientific community of the EdEN project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By the end of the EdEN project it is obvious that the cooperation between the four partners has been a success: more than two dozens of researchers and assistants are affiliated with the project contributing to scientific papers or receiving essential training for future research. By the end of the project, but far from the end of the cooperation, researchers from at least two sides have been working on fourteen scientific papers, which is four more than originally proposed, improving the research performance of the coordinating institution greatly. Over a dozen researchers and assistants from Hungary have participated in training at internationally recognized partners; while the jointly organized scientific workshops have offered a critical mass of researchers pointing towards future collaborations. The final conference, as well as the other international conferences, provided the essential venue for CERSHAS being recognized within the international education-economics community.
As a direct spin-off of the EdEN network, the partners have been and are still planning to submit several additional project proposals and to establish a larger network of education economists. We have submitted a new Twinning proposal with a new Widening Country lead-partner, and also proposed a new, more focused research project aiming at testing an intervention in financial literacy.
From the start onwards, we aimed for a long term collaboration between the institutions. Thanks to the various initiatives organised within the network, thanks to the research visits to and from Hungary and thanks to the organisation of conferences in Hungary, we have reached this target.

Institutional coordinators of the EdEN project at the end

Training in Milan at PoliMi

Institutional coordinators of the EdEN project at the beginning

The kick-off meeting

Training in Maastricht at TIER