Details

Postdoc Maciej Grodzicki Receives Coveted DAAD Funding

Maciej Grodzicki from the University of Bremen is to receive a coveted research grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The grant is awarded in the frame of a program titled “Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience” (P.R.I.M.E.). It goes to excellent postdocs who embed their research projects at a university in Germany but work in close association with a cooperating research institution abroad.

The P.R.I.M.E. program was introduced by the DAAD in 2014 as a means of promoting outstanding early-career researchers. Each year, the DAAD selects a small group of excellent young researchers from the large number of applications it receives from all disciplines. “P.R.I.M.E.” is jointly financed by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the EU program COFUND (Marie-Curie-Maßnahmen). From the 179 applications it received this year, the DAAD awarded the stipend to just 29 postdocs – and one of them is Maciej Grodzicki from the University of Bremen.

As of December 1, 2016, Maciej Grodzicki will be working for 18 months together with his colleagues in the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics and his cooperating research institution, the University of Sussex in Great Britain. Maciej Grodzicki studied Sociology (Bachelor) and Economics (Master) at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. In June 2016, he obtained his doctorate in Economics at Cracow University for a thesis dealing with the economic issues of European integration. In his DAAD-funded research project, he is carrying out analysis of international value-added chains and their impact on the economic development of European economies.

Highly differentiated value-added chains

There is a growing world-wide trend for the production of goods to take place along increasingly differentiated value-added chains, often involving many different locations in different countries. In trade jargon, this is known as “fragmented production”. It brings with it both advantages as well as disadvantages for the respective locations where production takes place. In the whole world, Europe has become the region with the most pronounced geographical cross-linking of production. At the same time, the European economies exhibit very different levels of economic development. The European Union’s structural development programs are intended to change this situation. In the context of fragmented production, European economies assume different supplier functions. It is possible to measure the impact of these functions over time in the value-added chain and conclude whether and to what extent they subsequently impact on the economic development of individual economies.

The results of this analysis is especially interesting and relevant for the emerging economies of central East European countries, but also important for the economic policies of southern Europe. Have the peripheral regions of Europe benefited from being integrated in the value-added chains over past years? What role is played by technological progress and the internationalization of research and innovation in the wake of fragmented production? Can lessons be learned for the future design of regional and structural policy? Maciej Grodzicki and his colleagues at the University of Bremen and University of Sussex will be attempting to answer questions like these, at the same time strengthening the areas of structural and economics of innovation research in the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics at the University of Bremen.

If you would like to have more information, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
Prof.Dr. Jutta Günther
email: jutta.guentherprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Phone: +49 421 218-66630

Porträt eines lächelnden Mannes
Maciej Grodzicki erhält begehrte DAAD-Förderung