While globalization, financialization and monopolies increasingly weaken democracies, large companies are having an ever-greater influence on how democracy is enacted in Europe, leading to a ‘market-conforming capitalism’. Firms are eluding regulation, lobbying for their own rather than citizens’ interest, abusing human rights and push the abused to withdraw from democratic processes, fuelling populism. Some economic actors are experimenting with alternative models and demonstrating more interest in sustainability and tentative routes toward an alternative “democracy-conforming capitalism”. In this debate, the application of political-science lenses has black-boxed large companies, while the viewpoint of management scholars has usually considered firms’ economic gains rather than impact on society and democracy. This has left a gap in our understanding of the mutual influence among large companies and democracies. The REBALANCE project will fill this gap by investigating how large companies (1) have contributed to past and present threats to democracy; (2) can promote future democracy-enhancing business models and alternative organizational forms. The project will identify: - the most effective regulatory control of economic actors, which avoids anti-democratic distortions and reveals human rights violators, and what makes large firms accept or resist such control - ways to tackle (self-)exclusion from the democratic participation of victims of business-related human rights infringements and other marginalized categories, relying on empowerment-centered partnerships between firms and other entities (e.g.. NGOs) - whether and how companies respond to populisms, and how alternative organizational forms such as social enterprises might embed and foster democracy. The expected project outcomes are in line with the call for: ‘Theoretically and empirically robust recommendations aiming to instill greater democratic accountability and inclusion in economic processes'.

Wider objective is to enable Ukraine and Moldova to face the challenges of dealing with Human Rights policies in accordance with EU and international standards through capacity and institutional building measures. By developing and introducing new Bologna-compliant case-oriented master and doctoral curricula, intensive capacity building mechanism and establishing Offices of Student Ombudsman supported by Code of Academic Integrity the project will bring the following positive challenges in a short term:1. Improving of academic quality of Human Rights studies in Ukraine and Moldova;2. Society demand on promoting, facilitating and assurance of human rights concept and practices will be satisfied by comprehensive training services;3. Urgent necessity on qualitative legal support of internally displaced persons and refugees from zones of military conflict and occupied territories of Donbass and Crimea (Ukraine) and unrecognized territories of Transnistria (Moldova);4. Professional, language and personal skills of programme graduates allow them successfully extend their career on the preferred public or private law sector.Innovative character of the project:1. The project breaks the current stereotypes in the content of available academic HR curriculum in UA and MD and contributes to the fight against xenophobia and homophobia in society2. Students will be directly engaged in monitoring of human rights in their universities (identifying cases of discrimination, corruption, breach of privacy, etc.)3.) Some of human rights competences (rights of refugees, migrants) were not required by the market of legal services - now the situation has changed dramatically. The aggression of Russia led to the fact that 1.5m people have fled their homes and they have long would need support at different levels. The project provide the direct output for targeted Group - Internally displaced persons and refugees from occupied territories of Donbass and Crimea (Ukraine).

European and Euro-Atlantic integration is the geopolitical choice of the Ukrainian people and of Ukraine as the sovereign state, their desire for good governance, peace, and security; moreover, since 2016 this course, as well as the European identity, have become part of the Ukrainian Constitution as the provisions of its Preamble. This course’s implementation requires the appropriate comprehensive activities on its enforcement, including legal harmonization and huge changes in different spheres of civil and public life. This activity should be focused on the understanding and spreading in Ukraine of the common European values, principles of unity and diversity, and common cultural, historical, and legal heritage. The key role in these processes is played by HEIs, which, based on cooperation, can have a great impact on the civil environment and public system. The exchange of experience is the shortest way to reaching the aim, especially when it comes to the countries that have already passed the path of EU/EA integration like Poland and Lithuania. Their HEIs have huge scientific and educational expertise in the support of the EU/EA integrational process, which will be very useful for the Ukrainian HEIs. This project is aimed at increasing the capacity of Ukrainian law schools in providing students with the knowledge and competencies necessary for the legal support of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine by highly professional teachers and according to modernized syllabi of core legal disciplines, as well as dissemination of impact onto the wider civil and political environment (secondary school teachers and public servants).

The UniCities project is designed to unlock the transformative potential of Ukrainian universities as catalysts and accelerators of systemic change in cities towards sustainability, resilience and climate neutrality. The project is built upon experiences of the impactful multi-stakeholder initiatives Viable Cities (KTH, Sweden) and citiES2030 (UPM, Spain) and expertise of a quadruple-helix partnership in Ukraine consisting of four Ukrainian universities covering complementary areas of education and research, NTUU KPI, CNUT, ISTU and NLUU, as well as societal partners including Association of Ukrainian Cities, CANaction NGO, AESETU – Association of the energy professionals representing major energy companies, and the academic research institute UHMI with focus on climate and environment. The UniCities project delivers along three pillars of transformation: (i) education innovation, where new interdisciplinary and challenge-driven learning activities will foster a culture of collaborative work across disciplines at partner universities; (ii) structural innovation, where university-city collaboration centres will be established at four Ukrainian universities as innovative intermediaries for multi-stakeholder ecosystems that would reinforce systemic innovation, distributed learning and leadership; and (iii) collaborative portfolio by multi-stakeholder partnerships between Ukrainian universities and societal partners of the project to generate impact towards climate mitigation and adaptation. In long-run, the project will provide a point of reference, inspire new university-city collaborations in Ukraine and Europe, and inform discussions across the global higher education sector on the transformative role of universities in transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities.

<< Objectives >>MARMOT aims to empower communities affected by pollution and human rights abuses by providing an accessible, trans-disciplinary educational platform. The platform will enable citizens to independently collect data and leverage it to drive change in their communities. To ensure accessibility and relevance, it will be co-designed and tested by end users. MARMOT will also foster a EU-wide community of practice, bringing together diverse stakeholders to share insights and inspire collective action.<< Implementation >>We will gather citizens' needs and relevant content to ensure the platform is accessible and relevant to end users. Based on these insights, we will develop a beta platform that will be tested in five national pilots. To ensure smooth implementation, the partners’ staff will complete a facilitators’ course. End-user feedback will shape the final MARMOT platform, which will be disseminated through national and international events to help create a EU-wide community of practice.<< Results >>The main outcome will be the MARMOT platform, with educational materials and practical tools on environmental, social, and human rights monitoring, and conflict management. MARMOT will also develop resources for a facilitators’ course and cultivate a EU-wide community of practice. Beyond the project, MARMOT will drive lasting impact by promoting bottom-up initiatives, civic engagement, and the inclusion of citizens’ voices in policymaking.