Annual Report 2006-07.

The most important single event during the year was arguably the separation of the Public Policy
program into an independent unit (effective from August 1, 2006) after the first two formative years of
its life in cohabitation with the CPS. After the program became the independent Department of Public
Policy, the two units have remained strongly connected in the form of joint appointments, elective
courses, student supervision and engagement in research. CPS research and advocacy initiatives continue
to help develop and update courses, such as the recently introduced ethics in public policy and the
elective courses on equal opportunity and rural development. Within CEU, the Center for Policy Studies has unique experiences of working in the European Research
Area on projects granted by the European Commission. We have built up expertise in implementing
large-scale research initiatives through participating in two Framework Program cycles, both as
multinational consortia partners as well as coordinators. DIOSCURI, a three-year research project has
recently come to a successful close under CPS leadership. We are still one of the few institutions in
Central – Eastern Europe entrusted with such a role in the social sciences and humanities, and we are so
far still the only ones in the CEU community to assume a leading role in such a framework. While we
carry on exploring a variety of programs and diversifying our funding portfolio, we continue to build on
our Framework Program experience, and intend to design and participate in high quality proposals and
initiatives. Enriching and broadening both the CPS and CEU research agenda is at the forefront of all
initiatives we intend to undertake in the new research and development cycle, in the 7th Framework
Program of the European Commission.
We were proud to have CEU Founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees, George Soros, as a distinguished
guest during the opening of the Summer University course on “Integrity Reform and Strategic Corruption
Control”. Held for the third time this year, the summer course was very successful in bringing together a
critical mass of individuals involved in this topic of high policy and social relevance, and reinforced
strong working ties between the Center for Policy Studies, Tiri, the Revenue Watch Institute, the OSI
Local Government and Service Reform Initiative and the International Budget Project. This flagship
course was launched with a public panel discussion on "Open Societies in Fragile States” where a set of
distinguished guests, among them George Soros and Paul Collier, were able to engage in a challenging
discussion on topics very much on the forefront of CEU's and the Open Society Institute's interest and
mission.