HERTIE SCHOOL GEMMEINNUTZIGE GMBH

Their core work

Hertie School is a Berlin-based graduate university specializing in governance, public policy, and European integration. Their research focuses on how EU institutions function, adapt, and respond to crises — from migration and refugee protection to democratic accountability and energy transitions. They produce policy-relevant scholarship that bridges political science, law, and public administration, making them a go-to partner for projects requiring deep understanding of European governance mechanisms and their real-world effects.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 participation (2015–2018), Hertie School focused on fiscal transparency, open government, and EU economic governance accountability — largely inward-looking EU institutional questions. From 2019 onward, their work shifted outward toward the EU's global role (ENGAGE's "Global Europe"), energy transition governance (SENTINEL), and continued but deepened migration research (MIRO). The recent period also shows growing interest in multilevel governance frameworks and cross-institutional research strategy through CIVICA RESEARCH.

Hertie School is expanding from internal EU governance analysis toward global governance challenges and climate/energy policy — expect future projects at the intersection of European institutions and global crisis response.

How they like to work

Hertie School operates as both a project coordinator (3 of 10 projects) and an active consortium partner, showing flexibility in their role. With 81 unique partners across 27 countries, they maintain a broad and diverse network rather than relying on a small circle of repeat collaborators. Their coordination tends to be on focused, ERC-funded research (LEVIATHAN, REF-MIG, MIRO), while they join larger consortia as specialized contributors on governance and policy dimensions.

Hertie School has built a wide pan-European network of 81 partners across 27 countries, reflecting the inherently cross-border nature of EU governance research. Their partnerships span universities, policy institutes, and research centers across virtually all EU member states.

What sets them apart

Hertie School occupies a distinctive niche as a governance-focused graduate school that combines legal, political, and policy analysis of EU institutions — not just studying them academically but producing actionable insights on how they function and fail. Their dual strength in migration/refugee policy and EU institutional design makes them especially valuable for projects that need to connect policy analysis with real-world governance challenges. As a dedicated public policy school (rather than a department within a larger university), their entire institutional identity is built around governance research.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LEVIATHAN
  Their largest funded project (EUR 1.18M) as coordinator, an ERC Starting Grant examining legal and political accountability in post-crisis EU economic governance.
• REF-MIG
  ERC-funded coordination of a 6-year project challenging the refugee/migrant distinction in international law — their longest-running and most thematically distinctive project.
• SENTINEL
  Signals a strategic expansion into energy and climate policy, contributing open energy modelling expertise to sustainable transition research — unusual for a governance school.