The main aim of this project is to establish, maintain and make sustainable a world class research group with a focus on (foreign and domestic) development policies in post-socialist spaces. Thanks to its wide geographical and disciplinary focus, this IRSES will provide an international and intercultural environment for a team of researchers to connect, reflect, come up with new findings and establish new collaborations in order to help them further their regional specialism and professional development. Experts of this kind are in high demand and this IRSES will help to ensure that Europe is able to meet that demand.This IRSES is based on learning-by-doing, but learning in a highly structured and supported environment. The project, in addition to creating experts in this field, will also contribute a significant body of knowledge in its own right. The research will explore the way development (be this local or national, political or social) in a series of post-socialist states has been conceived, implemented and applied to different political, economic and geopolitical realities across the region and the response that has generated from this implementation.