Receives 12 million to study how companies handle geopolitical risk

'The project will look into how companies navigate and make decisions while many Western countries are implementing new policies to reduce dependency on China,' says researcher Ole Jacob Sending when asked about the project DERISK: How firms navigate de-risking regimes.

On October 17, NUPI received FRIPRO funding from the Research Council of Norway (RCN) for yet another project this fall. The grant amounts to 11,997,000 NOK.

• Read about the other projects NUPI has received NFR support for in this round here.

'Much research has focused on what states do and don't do, while we are going to look at how companies respond to this development,' explains Sending.

He emphasizes that designing the project has largely been a team effort.

'The instigators have been Senior research fellows Lars Gjesvik at NUPI and Ole Willers at CBS (Copenhagen Business School). In addition, Senior research fellow Ida Dokk Smith at NUPI, Professor Leonard Seabrooke at CBS and NUPI and Professor Abe Newman at Georgetown University are part of the team,' says Sending.

The project funding is particularly valuable for NUPI because the institute wants to build expertise in the field of international political economy.

'International political economy is highly relevant today, and we have wanted to build research expertise on this at NUPI for a long time. Therefore, it is of course very important that the Research Council is willing to fund this project,' says Sending.

NUPI Director Kari Osland is also very pleased with the funding:

'I am very proud of Ole Jacob and his team, who have succeeded with yet another NFR application, this time a FRIPRO project. In the times we live in, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between politics and economics, which this project will contribute to. I look forward to following the project as it progresses,' she says.