Deliverables

This Career Development Plan is developed pursuant to Art.32.1 (k) of Grant agreement no.882055 (CDE4Peace) between the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency and SYNYO GmbH. The Career Development Plan is based on the principles set out in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The plan defines the career objectives and training requirements of the Researcher, taking into account his background, research accomplishments, subsequent career goals, and also the ongoing trends in the European R&D market. The Host organisation supports the implementation of the Career Development Plan during the lifetime of the project through providing relevant training and advice to the Researcher.

The Career Development Plan is set in the wider context of the current developments in the EU’s conflict prevention and peace-building policy. The Plan defines clear, realistic and flexible objectives for the Researcher in the short and the long term. One of the strengths of the Career Development Plan is that the Researcher’s individual career objectives are harmonized with the business development strategy of the Host organisation, especially in terms of expansion on the European R&D market. CDE-based, peace-building products have real added value for the end-users from the European and national institutions involved in EU conflict prevention and peace-building. Hence, the Researcher’s aspiration for applied research career in the area of CDE for EU conflict prevention and peace-building is very relevant to his background, research accomplishments and the current developments in this policy area. The CDE4Peace project fully addresses the Researcher’s needs in terms of ICT training in system requirements for software tools which is essential for his career advancement. Moreover, the highly dynamic project management environment in the Host organisation is conducive to the development of a follow-up R&D project on CDE for EU peacebuilding. In a broader perspective, the CDE4Peace project will enhance the creative potential of the Researcher and strengthen his position on the European market of R&D products and ideas.

The Data Management Plan is drafted pursuant to Art.29.3 of Grant agreement no.882055 (CDE4Peace) signed between the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency and SYNYO GmbH on 24/03/2020. The Plan’s main objective is to provide open access to research data generated in the project through depositing the research data in a research data repository.

The Data Management Plan (DMP) outlines how the research data will be handled during the project and after it is completed. It describes what data will be collected / generated; what methodology and standards are used; whether and how this data will be shared and / or made open; and how it will be curated and preserved. The Plan describes the measures taken to enable third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce, and disseminate (free of charge for any user) the research data. The project’s DMP is based on the template provided in the Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020.

The Working paper presents a review of several prominent strategic concepts and approaches in the area of EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The desk review has been carried out under WP3 (Review) of the CDE4Peace project. The review is focussed on resilience and the integrated approach; ‘conflict sensitivity’ and ‘the whole-of-society’ concept. The Working paper seeks to extract the main features of strategic concepts in EU peacebuilding for a potential application in quantitative research. A method for decomposing strategic concepts into quantifiable variables by means of peace indicators is elaborated.

The Working paper presents a review of the operational concepts of three EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions: EULEX Kosovo, EUTM Mali and EUBAM Libya. The desk review has been carried out under WP3 (Review) of the CDE4Peace project. The missions have been selected to provide diversity of the operational concepts’ review in terms of mission goals, mandates and geographical locations. The Working paper seeks to extract the main features of the EU operational concepts for a potential application in quantitative research. A method for decomposing and converting operational concepts into quantifiable variables by means of peace indicators is elaborated. 

This deliverable presents a catalogue of available and emerging concept development and experimentation (CD&E) tools in the European Union (EU). The catalogue has been prepared under the CDE4Peace Work package 4 (Assess). By combining the ‘technology watch’ method with qualitative interviews the CDE4Peace project has identified on the European market 11 tools which could be used for concept development and experimentation purposes in the EU policy area of conflict prevention and peacebuilding.  The wide variety of CD&E-relevant tools developed in the EU include software tools, simulation systems and platforms, command and control systems, virtual environments, knowledge bases (indexes) and serious games.

The article analyses the Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) approach which has been developed and implemented in NATO over the last 20 years. NATO’s CD&E approach is explained as an organisational innovation and institutional response to external and internal pressures. Within the theoretical framing of institutional isomorphism, the article analyses the adoption of CD&E in the European Union’s (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The research hypothesis is that the EU will adopt and apply NATO’s CD&E approach in the EU’s defence planning and capability development process. The empirical findings from the analysis of the EU policy practice, however, show that CD&E has actually been adopted from NATO and applied by the EU to a very limited extent. The low degree of isomorphism between NATO and the EU with regard to applying CD&E is explained by a complex set of factors. The research results have broader implications, suggesting that under the current institutional settings it is highly unlikely CD&E to be adopted by other international organisations in the field of international security.

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is freely available in Defence Studies, date of publication – 02 Dec 2021, https://www.tandfonline.com/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2021.2008248

This deliverable presents the results from Phase 3 (INNOVATE) of the CDE4Peace project and the respective Work package 5 (Innovate) in which the requirements for a potential new Concept development and experimentation (CDE) tool for European Union (EU) conflict prevention and peace-building have been defined. The innovative CDE tool is designed as a simulation tool for training and experimentation of EU peace-building missions and operations. This applied research work contributes to the project’s innovation objective and marks the attainment of milestone no.4.

This deliverable presents actionable policy recommendations for integrating the Concept development and experimentation (CD&E) methodology in the EU policy decision-making cycle. It has been developed under WP6 Recommend of the CDE4Peace project. Drawing on the project’s research findings an analytical framework is outlined and five key policy recommendations are proposed for operationalizing CD&E as a policy tool in EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

The final plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results is based on the draft plan set out in Grant agreement no.882055 (CDE4Peace) between the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency and SYNYO GmbH which was signed on 24/03/2020. The final plan takes into account lessons learned from SYNYO’s experience in exploitation and dissemination of project results from related previous and on-going projects, such as the Peacetraining.eu project. The plan is also adapted to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has strongly affected the dissemination activities of EU research projects, including Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). Therefore, the plan is designed to raise public awareness of the project’s objectives and to ensure impact on policy despite the unfavourable conditions of the COVID-19 outbreak.

This document presents the transcripts of 25 qualitative interviews conducted under the CDE4Peace project in the period March – November 2021.

In line with the project’s Data Management Plan the anonymised interviews are deposited on the Zenodo platform for open access and are available here.