Publications

Why do governments create semi-autonomous public organizations, called ‘agencies’? How do agency types and their prevalence differ across countries and time? How are agencies controlled and held accountable? How autonomous are they? How have (post)-New Public Management ideas affected agencification policies in Europe and beyond? How do governments attempt to restore transparency and coordination in a fragmented agency landscape? And what can practitioners and policy makers learn from international experiences?

This volume describes and compare how semi-autonomous agencies are created and governed in 29 countries and the EU. It leads practitioners and researchers through the crowded world of agencies, describing the agency landscape, history and drivers, autonomy and control, as well as recent developments. It offers a rich empirical overview for researchers interested in comparing agencies in different countries, and for practitioners interested in agency practices and experiences. Evidence-based lessons and recommendations are formulated to improve agencification policies in post-NPM times. This is the first volume to cover all aspects of agencies and the phenomenon of agencification and will be an essential reference tool for policy makers and researchers.

Green care is the utilization of agricultural farms – the animals, the plants, the garden, the forest, and the landscape – as a base for promoting human mental and physical health, as well as quality of life, for a variety of client groups. The main objective of the Action is to increase the scientific knowledge on the best practices for implementing green care in agriculture with the aim of improving human mental and physical health and the quality of life. A multidisciplinary scientific effort is essential to develop green services as part of a multifunctional agriculture, as well as providing documentation of its effects on client groups to increase confidence in the health, social and educational sectors. The first conference of the COST Action 866 Green Care in Agriculture hosted in Vienna, 20-22 June 2008, focused on aspects for health, economics and policies in Green Care.

Early Stage Researcher Conference. April 19-20, 2012, Zagreb, Croatia.

This

special issue of Nanoscale Research Letters

contains articles based on talks given at the

Final Meeting of COST Action MP0805

, Novel Gain Materials and Devices Based on III-V-N/Bi Compounds, held in Istanbul, Türkiye during 24-26 September 2013.