• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: Simon Hix

Informed policymakers need to be able to grasp the nuances of public opinion, navigate power dynamics and electoral processes, anticipate political consequences and the impact of policies on society. In this vein, this module presents the most recent and relevant theories and applications of political science and its implications for contemporary policymaking. The participants will gain a greater understanding of the drivers behind political behaviour such as public opinion, voting behaviour, party behaviour, and pressure from interest groups, as well as of the impact of political institutions such as electoral or party systems on policymaking and policy outcomes. Finally, the module will investigate critical questions of contemporary politics, such as populism, polarization, and erosion of trust in institutions, and how these impact the policymaking process.

• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: George Papaconstantinou

The aim of this module is to acquaint policy professionals with the main dimensions of economic policy thinking and analysis and provide them with the tools for understanding, designing and/or implementing effective decision making. It covers issues at the heart of policymaking: options for allocating public budgets, dilemmas about how to source public revenues, concerns about the levels of public deficits and debts, understanding how fiscal and monetary policy combine in a complex global economy to achieve economic goals, structural reforms for productivity, competitiveness and long-term growth. It also discusses how best to ground economic policy on solid fundamentals while understanding its limits, and how to use data to examine the nature, impact, and effectiveness of economic policymaking decisions.

• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Winter Term 
• Lead faculty: Kristin Fabbe

To produce effective and efficient public policies, public managers increasingly need to understand the relationship between businesses and governments, both domestically and internationally. This course explores how businesses and governments can work together to resolve significant social and political challenges in a globalized world, such as delivering growth, addressing food security, managing environmental crises, and creating more inclusive societies. Using historical and contemporary case studies from diverse contexts, the course explores the varieties of capitalism, the operation of firms in the new global setting, different development strategies, and the role of governments in market economies. Students will assess how novel types of engagement between business and government have yielded varying degrees of success in addressing domestic and global challenges.

• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Winter Term 
• Lead faculty: Tommaso Nannicini

Big data are everywhere, from big firms to big government. Private companies have found innovative ways to gather and use data created by the behaviour of their users or customers. But what about the public sector? Policy leaders must know the use (and misuse) of big data, either to regulate them or to use them to design welfare-enhancing policies. Moreover, they must be aware that the enormous predictive power of big data may sometimes mislead sound policy making. That’s why policy leaders must also know smart data, that is, design-based data analysis meant to distinguish spurious correlations from causal relationships. This course will discuss these topics through both theory and case studies and equip students with the essential skills and the basics of data science so as to navigate the data-driven landscape of governance. and design big data-driven policies within ethical and regulatory norms.

• Delivery mode: Residential (in Florence)
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: Kristin Fabbe

This module aims to set a trajectory of leadership development for the participants, by putting it in the context of our ability to manage change in an environment that is constantly evolving. Starting with an introduction to the contemporary landscape of changes our societies are going through and a discussion on how equipped we are to deal with them, participants present their leadership and impact plans on the basis of a template prepared by the instructors and tools for thinking strategically about change management. The module ends with two case studies by high-level policymakers who had to manage change, manifested through transnational crises.

• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: Jakov Bojovic

Effective communication about and of public policy is critical in today’s information environment. Without clear communication of policy objectives and instruments, the citizens, media, and other stakeholders may misinterpret it, opening the door to both compliance gaps and disinformation, which impact the results of the policy itself. This professional development module will equip the participants with skills needed to make their policy communication clear, evidence-based, story-driven, and strategic – and not just an after-thought of policymaking or research. From topics such as audience analysis, crisis communication, and the role of narratives in policy communication to key outputs such as policy briefs, position papers, op-eds, and videos, this module asks critical questions about effective policy communication in the era of polarisation, disinformation, and radical uncertainty.

• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Spring Term
• Lead faculty: Christopher Hurst

The effective management of projects is a key skill for professional managers. This module will cover the range of issues raised by complex projects that interact with multiple stakeholders. In this context, project is broadly defined to range from physical infrastructure, the introduction of new management system, to institutional reform. The module will introduce the basic tools of project management to ensure projects are delivered on-time and on-budget. Moreover, it will focus on the broader question of good project design including the identification and understanding of stakeholders. This includes issues of general economic interest, environmental and social impacts as well as procurement. It will discuss how to manage conflicts and the ethical issues relating to project design and implementation. The module will take lessons from real-life cases, and participants will have an assignment to prepare a management brief on a (real or hypothetical) project of interest to them or their organisation.

• Delivery mode: Residential (in Florence)
• Time period: Academic Year 1, Spring Term 
• Lead faculty: Alain Lempereur

In this professional development module we emphasise the pursuit of both more effective and more responsible negotiations. In contrast to generic negotiation training, we aim to reinforce your capacity to understand yourself and others in negotiation contexts, as well as to shape your negotiating environment and its outcomes in transnational settings. Our training methods will make you more reflective than instinctive, more proactive than reactive, more participative than directive, even as you face partners who might be stubborn in the face of change, passive when challenged, or aggressive when feeling threatened. Responsible negotiation is about enabling you with strategic, analytic and interpersonal intelligence that help you, as a leader, to accurately diagnose problems and craft creative solutions, build winning coalitions, sustain strong partnerships, and structure processes that yield robust agreements and timely implementation.

• Delivery mode: Residential (in Florence) 
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: Johanna Mair and Christian Seelos

This masterclass examines how innovation can be mobilized to tackle complex societal challenges and advance public purpose across different organizational and institutional settings. Participants engage with social innovation not as a buzzword, but as a set of concrete practices for organizing, scaling, and governing interventions that seek to generate durable social impact. Drawing on comparative case studies, diagnostic tools, and participants’ own experience, the module unpacks how organizations design business models, measure impact, and navigate “innovation pathologies” that can make well‑intended efforts unproductive.

Throughout the two days, participants work with analytical frameworks developed in research and practice to map innovation journeys, assess different scaling pathways, and interrogate the role of funders, intermediaries, and public institutions in creating “healthy” contexts for innovation. The final session briefly introduces open and political innovation as emerging perspectives on the future of social innovation for public purpose, connecting these ideas to participants’ leadership challenges and contexts.

• Delivery mode: Residential (in Florence)
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Autumn Term 
• Lead faculty: Roeland Scholtalbers

The Masterclass in Media Relations equips policy professionals with the essential skills to master the art of public engagement, by delving into the world of media relations, camera interviews, and public image management. Through practical exercises and real-world case studies, participants learn to navigate the fast-paced, ever-evolving (social) media landscape, mastering techniques to convey policy ideas with precision and impact. The module empowers professionals to harness the power of the camera, perfect their message, and confidently handle interviews. Participants will leave with the confidence and expertise to amplify their policy narratives and engage effectively with the media, ensuring their messages resonate, influence, and drive change.

• Delivery mode: Residential (in Brussels)
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Winter Term
• Lead faculty: Andrea Renda

Over the past two decades, and even more after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, governments have realized the need to develop new tools to identify, avoid or mitigate emerging risks, from health to climate disruptions to technological evolution, geo-political shocks and hybrid threats. Agility and resilience have become buzzwords that need to be coupled with new methods, such as horizon scanning, strategic foresight and the stress-testing of legislation for resilience. This course explores this blossoming domain of public policy, with examples, case-studies and interactive foresight workshops. During the module, the participants also get to meet and network with EU officials who work on strategic foresight.

• Specialisation track: Geopolitics and security (GEOS)
• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Autumn Term
• Lead faculty: Trine Flockhart

The world is undergoing a significant strategic and geopolitical transformation that is permeating policy and politics from the global to the local level. The transformation raises questions about order and how to manage it under new and shifting geopolitical conditions. The course investigates the geopolitical outlook of important global actors such as the United States, China and Russia and their effects on global and regional governance institutions. Additionally, the course probes the geopolitical impacts of contestation of existing norms and values and shifting perceptions of order and justice in domestic populations and in states and non-state actors that do not have the traditional geopolitical trappings of power.

This GEM elective can also be attended as a stand-alone open-call course.

• Specialisation track: Economy and finance (ECOF)
• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Autumn Term
• Lead Faculty: George Papaconstantinou

Is the world deglobalizing? Is the rules-based multilateral system that has underpinned global economic interdependence dead? How are economic policies in the different regional blocs evolving in an era of intense rivalry? Is economic nationalism and industrial policy the new protectionism? How should economic policies respond to rising global fragmentation and increased inequality.

This executive course tackles these questions head-on, focusing on the policy issues and dilemmas dominating international economic debates in a world where interdependence and fragmentation now coexist. It addresses three broad topics: how globalisation is changing and what remains of the multilateral system and its governance; how the US, China, the EU and middle powers such as India as well as Africa are recalibrating their economic policies amid growing rivalry; and the wider trends around inequality and the issues fuelling populism across Europe and the world.

The sessions are taught by academics with deep expertise in these topics and practitioners with a granular policy experience in the US White House, the European Commission, international organisations, think tanks and governments.

• Specialisation tracks: Economy and finance (ECOF) and Geopolitics and security (GEOS)
• Delivery mode: Blended
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Autumn Term
• Lead faculty: Maria Demertzis and Arancha Gonzalez

Over the last fifteen years, the international economic order designed in the aftermath of World War II has been fundamentally challenged. A series of shocks – from the 2008 financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and heightened China-US rivalry – have raised geopolitical tensions and led to a weaponization of trade. International trade patterns are increasingly determined by national and economic security considerations as well as by non-economic policy objectives, ranging from combatting climate change to protecting workers and promoting social values. Digitalization is also transforming international trade. This module will equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate today’s intricate world of trade policy and diplomacy. Participants will learn from leading experts, explore case studies and engage in interactive discussions to develop a profound understanding of the international trade system.

• Specialisation tracks: Geopolitics and security (GEOS) and Energy and climate (ENEC)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Winter Term
• Lead faculty: Diane Stone

Both the scholar of world affairs and the practitioner of public policy have assumed an insulated sovereign domain within which to make policy. What happened beyond these borders was the stuff of foreign policy and diplomacy. These assumptions are no longer tenable. Structural influences from beyond the boundaries of the state now, to greater or lesser extent, constrain, mitigate, shape or determine the policy process in many key issue areas.

As a result, public servants have seen some of their work responsibilities internationalized or that they have become globally networked. Traditional intergovernmental organizations like the World Bank and OECD are now complemented by a diverse range of so-called informal international organizations, multi-stakeholder initiatives and global public-private partnerships. Additionally, non-state actors from business and civil society contribute to the international spread of ‘soft’ law and international standards, engage in policy transfer and participate in the delivery of global and regional policy.

• Specialisation tracks: Energy and climate (ENEC) and Geopolitics and security (GEOS)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Winter Term
• Lead faculty: Burcin Unel and Nicoló Rossetto

European energy markets are the largest globally, resulting from the gradual harmonization and integration of national energy markets across borders. This evolution has required substantial investments in cross-border network infrastructure, enabling the exchange of significant energy volumes between countries. Regulation plays a pivotal role in these markets, leading to the establishment of numerous regulatory institutions over time.

This module focuses on the crucial role of regulation in European electricity and gas markets while also drawing comparisons with energy market experiences from around the world. It explores emerging consumer-side innovations, the formation of energy communities, the integration of decentralized flexibility into energy markets, as well as sector coupling, the role of hydrogen and other “clean molecules”, the obstacles to closer gas market integration and the most recent initiatives in energy security.

• Specialisation track: Technology and governance (TEGO)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Winter Term
• Lead faculty: Marco Botta and Pier Luigi Parcu

Regulatory toolkits aimed at curbing Big Tech's market power are proliferating worldwide, marking a shift from ex post competition enforcement toward hybrid, ex ante, sector-specific regulation. Two years into the EU's Digital Markets Act, the European Commission has launched multiple investigations against gatekeepers including Google, Apple, and Meta, while the UK, Germany, China, and Brazil advance comparable legislative initiatives. This regulatory momentum stems from core features of the platform economy - scale economies, network effects, zero-price models, and control over data - that enable "ultra-dominant" platforms to set the rules for entire ecosystems, challenging traditional competition law frameworks. This course offers an in-depth, multidisciplinary analysis of digital platforms' economic foundations, business models, and market dynamics, examining key regulatory and anticompetitive concerns and the coordination challenges between competition policy and platform-specific regulation across the EU and comparable global frameworks.

• Specialisation tracks: Energy and climate (ENEC) and Economy and finance (ECOF)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Spring Term
• Lead faculty: Pierre Schlosser and Jos Delbeke

Sustainable finance and climate risk are reshaping risk management, market valuation, and corporate reporting worldwide. Central banks are integrating climate scenarios into stress testing; financial supervisors are embedding sustainability into prudential toolkits; and investors are reassessing asset values.

In this context, professionals need a broad set of skills at the intersection of finance, law, climate science, and strategy. This is what the course offers: the practical knowledge and capability to understand climate-related risks and key sustainable finance issues.

Led by a faculty of academics, policymakers, and practitioners from central banks and the private sector, participants will explore the foundations of climate risk analysis, the regulatory architecture in Europe and beyond, and the instruments financing the transition, such as green bonds and sustainability-linked loans. The course also addresses greenwashing, the design and assessment of transition plans, and the catalytic role of philanthropy in mobilising capital at scale.

• Specialisation tracks: Economy and finance (ECOF) and Technology and governance (TEGO)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Spring Term
• Lead faculty: Nicola Bilotta

This course offers participants a comprehensive and structured understanding of digital finance, examining how technological innovation is transforming financial systems and regulatory frameworks worldwide. Through ten sessions combining live classes, recorded lectures, group work, and interactive exercises, the course explores key technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi), alongside emerging topics including cybersecurity, digital currencies, financial inclusion, and geofinance. Participants will examine digital currencies, from crypto assets to CBDCs, assess the risks and opportunities of financial digitalisation, and explore its geopolitical and strategic dimensions, gaining a broad yet applied understanding of the sector's transformation.

• Specialisation tracks: Technology and governance (TEGO) and Geopolitics and security (GEOS)
• Delivery mode: Online
• Time period: Academic Year 2, Spring Term
• Lead faculty: Andrew Wyckoff

AI is a game-changing innovation with disruptive implications for policymakers, governments, and international organizations. It reveals novel and complex issues influencing the ways that citizens are governed, how governments, industry, and civil society cooperate, and the tools leaders use to navigate geopolitical tensions and diplomacy. For some countries, AI's ascension is a chance to achieve shared prosperity and marshal collective power for social good. For others, it is a potent tool for division, meddling, and possibly an existential threat to humanity. While policy frameworks have emerged across the globe, international agreements remain piecemeal and subject to shifting geopolitics. This course explores the still-unfolding landscape of global AI governance, identifying key topics, institutions, and policies shaping the debate. Participants will gain familiarity with the issues that align and divide countries, assess wide-ranging public policy decisions, and navigate the complex interplay between public and private governance as this technology rapidly evolves.