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This paper is programmatic: it defines the concept of "phantom borders" and describes its heuristic potential. The proposed approach positions itself between structuralist methodologies that postulate stable social and cultural regional structures and deconstructive viewpoints that reject the former, while focusing on the discursive dimension of regions. The paper takes this tension as its point of departure. Viewed from a situational perspective, phantom borders are neither to be understood as immutable structures nor as purely discursive constructions, but rather as an outcome of the interaction between three interwoven levels, which are simultaneously: 1) imagined in mental maps and discourses, 2) experienced and perceived by the respective actors, and 3) shaped by everyday practices and continuously updated and implemented. Phantom borders are context sensitive. We argue that the topic of phantom borders is not only relevant for research on eastern Europe, but also for research in "new area studies" in general.

The year 2012 was the 20th anniversary of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, more familiarly known as the "Earth Summit." During this year world leaders from governments, business and civil society met once again in Rio de Janeiro (the UN Conference on Sustainable Development or "Rio+20") to reflect on progress with regard to past and current commitments to the aims of sustainable development articulated in 1992. Given the general acknowledgement of an "implementation gap" amid "worsening trends" despite improvements in eco-efficiency and public awareness, the need to better understand and promote sustainable production and consumption systems as well as the obstacles to this transition becomes increasingly urgent. The Global Research Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption (GRF) is a new initiative bringing together organizations and individuals from various regions of the world engaged in research and its applications in the transition to sustainable production/ consumption (SPC) systems. This past June 2012, during this historic occasion, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and other partner organizations helped mount the official launch of the Global Research Forum in Rio de Janeiro. The launch involved several events, most notably a three-day workshop featuring about 80 researchers and practitioners from various regions of the world, as well as additional side events and activities linked with the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The workshop was divided between a focus on the research on sustainable consumption and production research and its communication and application in practice. The workshop was held at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), Rua de Rosaria 90, Rio de Janeiro. The GRF initiative builds on a 20+ year SPC research tradition involving numerous researchers, institutes, and networks around the world, and on the many efforts and experiences applying research findings into policy, civil society, and business. The workshop was followed by a side event at the UN Rio+20 conference, sharing some of the key outcomes of the GRF workshop with a wider audience and discussing post-Rio options. Workshop outcomes and plans were also discussed in a number of public panels in conjunction with Rio+20 activities, including the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development (International Council for Science), and the Brazilian Ministry Dialogue on Sustainable Consumption and Production. A selection of the research papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production.

In this paper a number of recent investigations are used as the basis of some views on the trend of urban and regional research in Western Europe. The paper deals with research policy, research topics and research organisation and concludes that the character of urban and regional research in Western Europe may well change to become a more or less 'political' assembly-work activity. If this change occurs it will call for a considerable adaptation of organisation, research institutions, career opportunities and ethics.

This document summarises insights from a global database of city climate change mitigation and adaptation actions drawn from a random sample of cities committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) by region. Actions in the database were extracted from publicly available climate action strategy documents published in English between 2016 and mid-2020. The database assesses the content and comprehensiveness of proposed city climate actions aggregated by region, including how research and innovation is integrated in the strategies and common focus areas. The data is not intended to be statistically representative of city climate actions in the respective regions. The research was conducted by the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne for GCoM, in partnership with Ironbark Sustainability.

This document summarises insights from a global database of city climate change mitigation and adaptation actions drawn from a random sample of cities committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) by region. Actions in the database were extracted from publicly available climate action strategy documents published in English between 2016 and mid-2020. The database assesses the content and comprehensiveness of proposed city climate actions aggregated by region, including how research and innovation is integrated in the strategies and common focus areas. The data is not intended to be statistically representative of city climate actions in the respective regions. The research was conducted by the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne for GCoM, in partnership with Ironbark Sustainability.

A network of organizations works together to support multi-regional health research across Canada. The network comprises 13+ provincial/territorial and pan-Canadian data centres, which collectively hold 500+ data assets. Although the network actively pursues new administrative or clinical data assets, linking to external research data is also a growing need in the contemporary research landscape.
Data from the network's centres can be linked to external data sources such as that from: researchers' trials or studies; disease or population-based registries; and data sources from other organizations or custodians. Consultations held with data centers clarified their processes for linking to external data, by identifying and mapping local linkage features to a general linkage model.
Local processes for data linkage, including necessary agreements and approval steps are now modelled and documented, and available to researchers and the data centres as a resource. This information helps streamline data access and linkages to data assets across the network and externally. Operationally, the network is currently working on 11 data access requests involving linkage to external data, of which three are expected to deliver final data to researchers by spring 2024.
Collaboration with data centres, affiliated organizations, and researchers are foundational in the development of linkage models across the network. These models play a critical role in making linkages across data sources within Canada more efficient and standardized. Data linkages across data assets support the utility of data and health innovation.