Annual Report 2004.

As in previous years, 2004 was characterized by growth and new challenges for the Center.
The following report will review all these developments in detail. I would like to now take this
opportunity to reflect on just a few of the most important initiatives and achievements.
Firstly, September saw the launch of the Master’s Program in Public Policy (MPP). As previous
reports have shown, this event had been in the making for many years and thus it was with great
pleasure and anticipation that Professor Diane Stone, the head of the program, and the rest of us
met the first group of MPP students. The eleven bright young professionals from nine countries
making up the first student body were selected following a competitive admissions process and
continue to show the promise and academic potential that makes the investment of starting up
the program worthwhile. The first academic year has been wrought with difficulties – including
our continuing efforts to raise further scholarships for future students – but we all feel that the
MPP is becoming a success story. We hope our first graduates will take good memories back with
them and spread the word about the program in their home countries.
Secondly, in 2004 we also secured highly competitive external funding for new projects. Two of
these we are especially proud of: the Marie Curie Chair awarded to Diane Stone and CPS as host;
and the DIOSCURI project; both from the European Commission. Diane’s grant is one of the first
Marie Curie Chairs and as such a clear recognition of her distinguished research profile and the
originality of the Knownet project through which she will investigate the trans-nationalization
of knowledge producers through global and regional networks. The DIOSCURI project is the
first multi-partner project within the social sciences supported by the EU’s Sixth Framework
Program for Research and Technological Development (FP6) that is coordinated by an institution
in Hungary and as such one we are often invited to showcase. Through the DIOSCURI project
CPS and our eight partner institutions will focus on current encounters in Europe to predict the
convergence between the twin economic cultures of “East” and “West”.