May 13, 2014
BBI Chairman Blanck Addresses International Conference on “Disability Policy Entrepreneurship”
BBI Chairman Peter Blanck addressed an international conference on “Disability Policy Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century.” The June 2014 conference, in Ireland, linked research with future disability reform agendas and was sponsored by the EU Marie Curie Network DREAM (Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets) at the National University of Ireland (Galway).
The final conference of the EU Marie Curie Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets (DREAM) project took place in June 2014. Minister Kathleen Lynch opened the event and EU Research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and US Senator Tom Harkin presented via video link. The conference marks the final stage of this €3.7m project. Photographs of the event can be found on Flickr.
Other speakers include U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, Minister Kathleen Lynch, EU Research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Diane Richler (former President, Inclusion International), and Maurice Manning (Chancellor, National University of Ireland & former President of the Irish Human Rights Commission).
The Dream Network major conference on ’Disability Policy Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century – Toward New Scholarship Supporting Change’ took place on June 23, 24, 25 at the Centre for Disability, Law & Policy in the National University of Ireland, Galway.
This event brought together major agents of change in the disability policy field around the world and will focus in particular on how to translate the generalities of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into practicable reform strategies. It will build on the work of a European-wide PhD network (the DREAM network) which has laboured over the past three years and which focused on how to give practical effect to the UN Convention in areas such as (1) fundamental rights (e.g. the right to community living), (2) expanding economic and market opportunities for persons with disabilities and (3) sustaining change with appropriate and effective institutional mechanisms at regional and national level. This PhD network was among the first in the world with a focus on the UN disability convention and was funded by the European Union as a Marie Curie Initial Training Network.
The DREAM network includes the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), University of Leeds, Maastricht University, University of Iceland, NOVA Norwegian Social Research, Fundosa Technosite S.A. and Swiss Paraplegic Research (SPF).