Supporting academics and policymakers in sharing evidence-based research and ideas on the major social, cultural and economic challenges facing society regionally, nationally and beyond. Our over-arching vision is to share the University’s independent expertise with policymakers so they can make informed decisions about the most effective and sustainable ways to tackle these challenges, now and in the future.


Dr Alex Titov looks at Russia’s reaction to North Korea’s latest missile test and questions Putin’s long-term game plan for the two Koreas.

Of all the EU’s policies, CAP has always received the worst press in the UK. Dr Viviane Gravey points out that although this EU farming policy may be hated, what comes next may be even worse.

Dr Gladys Ganiel from the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice reports on a recent event which looked at radicalisation and religious freedom on campus and in the community.

We all know there are national stereotypes when it comes to humour, but is humour actually driven by culture to any meaningful extent? Dr Gary McKeown asks is there really such a things as a national sense of humour?

Dr Marie Coleman looks at the controversy in Dublin over the ownership of the proposed new maternity hospital and asks why the Irish state is reluctant to assume responsibility for providing healthcare for its citizens.

Dr Marie Coleman looks at the history of the Sinn Féin policy of abstentionism and asks if it’s now time for the party to abandon the policy and to take their seats at Westminster.

Dr Julie Norman busts some of the myths surrounding the current hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Catch up on last night’s lecture on Donald Trump with Niall Stanage.

As the UK seeks to negotiate its way out of the EU, one particularly thorny problem will be the nature of the border the UK will have with the EU, and specifically how this will affect Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The discovery of a minor planet orbiting the sun beyond Neptune shows there might not be a ‘Planet Nine’ after all, according to Dr Michele Banister.