In 2018, the University of Bergen (UiB) established a Working Group of scholars to reflect on the focus and goal of a potential new programme. Their mandate was to “re-think” the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) to fit the challenges of today, where international poverty research has evolved towards a broader notion of inequality and there are growing demands for research to contribute to global policy processes such as Agenda 2030. The group, led by Professor Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, met on a regular basis between November 2018 and March 2019 and developed a concept note to provide a basis for further discussions at an international scoping workshop in March 2019.
Following the formal establishment of GRIP with the signing of the new agreement between the International Science Council and UiB in October 2019, the Working Group was re-organized as a UiB Programme Committee. Representing various key departments and research environments at UiB, its tasks are to both communicate GRIP initiatives to the wider UiB research environment and, where relevant, to support and participate in GRIP activities.
Current members of the UiB Programme Committee, in alphabetical order: