What does it mean to do “global research”? Global studies is an emerging field that focuses on transboundary, international, and global processes and systems, such as climate change, global social media, and globalization. These issues call for researchers to think beyond conventional state actors or any individual disciplines. Global studies represent a holistic approach that aims to understand contemporary global issues from multi-disciplinary, multi-level, and interactive perspectives.

On 17 May 2023, GTGC participated in the Leiden University symposium on interdisciplinary research together with the eight other interfaculty ‘stimulation programmes’.

The GTGC programme advances interdisciplinary research on how we govern – and could govern – major world-scale changes in contemporary society. These global transformations and governance challenges cover the themes listed here. The distinctions are not rigid, of course, and affiliated researchers often work across several thematic areas, including their interconnections.

To support interdisciplinary research on today's world-scale changes and governing challenges, the GTGC programme has awarded a number of seed grants to scholars at Leiden University collaborating across different faculties and institutes.

On 10 June, GTGC Chair Prof. Jan Aart Scholte, together with Soledad Garcia Ferrari of the University of Edinburgh, spoke at the launch of The Hague Global Futures Hub.

Strategic direction of the GTGC initiative lies with a Steering Group, composed of seven members from four Leiden University faculties. Chaired by Leiden's Professor of Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, the Steering Group addresses questions such as overall vision, staffing, communications, budget, outputs and impact.