The Innovative Training Network (ITN) "MARKETS: Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets - Informal Barriers, Business Environments and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia" is supported by an MSCA grant of the European Union, within the framework of the Horizon 2020 initiative. The project is coordinated by Dublin City University, in cooperation with the University of Bremen, University College London (United Kingdom), Universiteit Maastricht (Netherlands), University of Helsinki (Finland), Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (Latvia), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Tallinna Tehnikaulikool (Estonia), and the Centre for Social Sciences (Georgia).

At the University of Bremen, the project is jointly coordinated by Michael Rochlitz (Faculty of Business Studies and Economics) and Heiko Pleines (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa). Two PhD students financed by the ITN network, Ekaterina Vorobeva and Michael Richter, work at the research group of institutional economics and the Research Centre for East European Studies, to examine how informal institutions affect economic outcomes in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia. The project comprises 15 PhD students in 9 countries, and is supported by a grant of 3 925 791 euro from the EU.