1. Introduction
The research identity of DIIPER is defined by the effort to undertake basic, applied and policy relevant research on development problems, challenges and possibilities by putting the issues in the context of both innovation studies and international political economy and international relations.

DIIPER has four specific research areas/clusters. Each core researcher in DIIPER is expected to mobilise support from outside research groups in the university and elsewhere to attain sustainable external funding by a judicious combination of internal strength with affiliated departmental, university and external support.

We intend to develop systematically the following:

• a) Fund well designed projects both thematically and /or especially those anchored in any one of the four clusters
• b) Create autonomy and competition amongst the clusters
• c) Create opportunities for externally funded PhD scholars
• d) Create opportunities to employ post-doctoral research scholars
• e) Develop network applications that can fund workshops, conferences and seminar series for 5-10 years for each of the research areas.
• f) Build electronic and other policy briefs to do outreach and public service activities as part of fulfilling the third mission of the university.

We would like to support, strengthen and stimulate Development, Innovation and IPE research and training in Aalborg University with the ambition to make DIIPER become possibly one of the centres of excellence in the university!

There are four research clusters. Both the research we undertake individually and collectively and the training tracks supporting research will inform the research practice and identity of DIIPER. The objective is to integrate knowledge creation with practice by inspiring training with research and the vice versa. The training should feed on research, and the research should stimulate the training. When the training track attracts sufficient cohort and research strength, each cluster can develop a master's programme with generic combined offers of courses on methodology and other thematically related topics.

2. Research areas or Clusters

Cluster I: Globalization, Regionalization, Integration and Development
1.   Conceptualising the evolution of regional and global systemic factors and agencies in the context of uni-polar and multi-polar rivalries in the world economy.

1. Interactions between IR and IPE and the socio-political forces at the global, regional and local levels.
2. Development of different types of integrations including global- and region-based institutions (the WTO, EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, AU  etc. ) and other regional groupings.
3. Rethinking world order, disorder and reorder with the US unilateralism, war on global terror and the rise of China

CLUSTER II -NGOs, State-Civil Society Relations and the Aid System
A major aspect of this research area will be to understand the influence of the international aid system, NGOs as major actors in development and international relations and the changing state-society relations as a powerful trend in the reinvention of the global public sphere... To this effect, and in collaboration with the Comparative Research Programme on NGOs at the university of Bergen, the research area will seek to further elaborate and test a framework-DOSTANGO--that analytically integrates the aid system into theoretical schemas that explain the development, roles and impact of NGOs and civil society organisations in development, international political economy and international relations.  

Cluster III:  Development Theory and International Relations: Development Economics, Human Development, International Economics, Welfare Economics, Ecological Economics, and Comparative social-economic Systems  
The cluster will work with global theories on socio-economic development involving a multiplicity of approaches in terms of economic theories in the context of international relations, the persistence of poverty, crises of justice, social inequalities and the current alarming crises of nature. A critical approach to global development involves first and foremost challenging mainstream economics on growth and development. Neo-classical economic paradigm still dominates the conceptual framework, the interest articulations and policy recommendations from supra-national institutions like for instance the OECD, WTO, IMF and the World Bank. Alternatives to neo-classical economics from Keynesian economics, evolutionary economics, and ecological economics, and gender economics, institutional and other alternative approaches to development analysis require multi-disciplinary research that can bring fresh and new insights, argument, innovations and synthesis... The intention is to create an open and lively pluralistic research environment identifying problems and potentials related to the policy prescriptions, socio-economic analysis and impact assessment analysis rooted in mainstream notions dominating the agenda for the last 30 - 40 years.

Cluster IV: Resources, Environment, Technology, Innovation and Development
This cluster will embrace and integrate research on the (i) environment and development, (ii) environmental social movements, (iii) science, technology and development, and (iv) innovation and development. The instrumental and critical approaches that inform much of the environmental, natural resource management, water management and development field, as well as the science and technology field will be included. The idea is to generate researchable projects, issues and problems that can foster this research area with in situ debates between the different perspectives with openness and engagement.