The European Institute launches its 2025/26 Annual Report!

We invite you to discover our new 2025/26 Annual Report, covering the past academic year here at the LSE European Institute. In this latest edition, we take a look back at the activities and achievements of our EI community, ranging across our Research, Education, and Public Engagement.

This publication is an opportunity to celebrate our wider EI community, from our students, faculty, and alumni to our supporters and partners. Thank you for being a part of another exciting year at the European Institute.

View image

View image

View image

View image

View image

PreviousNext

Research

Consistent with our interdisciplinary status, our research is focused on cross-cutting themes. The work of the European Institute's faculty, research staff, and our highly active doctoral community focuses on our four key research themes: Political Economy, Politics & Policy, Culture & Society, and Migration.

In our latest Annual Report, we reflect on the conclusion of two flagship research projects, Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics (SOLID) (page 27) and Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding (JUSTINT) (page 28), featuring an exclusive interview with Professor Denisa Kostovicova, but also the launch of Global Perspectives on Europe (GLOPE) (page 26) at the start of this academic year, a Jean Monnet Chair project led by Dr Mareike Kleine at the European Institute .

We also hear from the latest activities of our research affiliates, Contemporary Turkish Studies (page 32) and the LSE Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus (page 34), and give you an update on our research initiatives in the department.

Education

This year, we welcomed a cohort of more than 280 master’s and doctoral students representing over 45 nationalities, reaffirming our status as a leading global centre for the study of contemporary Europe. Moreover, we welcomed our first AKO scholars (see page 46), the recipients of our new AKO European Institute Master's Scholarship launched in 2025 through the generous support of the AKO Foundation.

It has also been an exciting year of alumni engagement as you can discover in our report, reflected in our interview with our LSE-Fudan alumni Sacha Courtial and Jonathan Schwestka (page 42) who returned to the EI to deliver a new EU450 Professional Skills Workshop on think tanks for our students; a visit from our alumna and Kosovar Minister Fitore Pacolli Dalipi (page 51); as well as a spotlight on our mentorship pair Zeynep Aydemir Koyuncu and Rio Fuseya (page 52)!

Public Engagement

Our commitment to connecting with the wider community is exemplified by our extensive public events programme. We were honoured to host another exciting lineup of public lectures this past year, featuring Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer (page 56), Sir John Major, former UK Prime Minister (page 58), and Alexander Stubb, President of the Republic of Finland (page 59).

In 2026, the European Institute also hosted a series of public events addressing the economic, financial, and political dimensions of the green transition (page 60). These events brought together leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners to examine key challenges related to decarbonisation, sustainable finance, and the transformation of economic systems.

Finally, we were also proud to continue delivering our Beyond Eurocentrism Programme (page 62), featuring three events which contributed to our strategic commitment of studying European within a wider global context, while critically interrogating the enduring assumptions of Eurocentric thought.

We hope you enjoy reading our latest annual report and always welcome your feedback at ei.comms@lse.ac.uk.