The Centre's Last Chance? Lessons from the 2025 German Elections

Dr Uta Staiger

Executive Director at UCL European Institute

Uta Staiger is Associate Professor of European Studies and Director of the UCL European Institute, a European Commission designated Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. Since 2010, she has led the Institute in its mission to develop and support UCL research and teaching activities on Europe across faculties, advise UCL leadership on European matters, and maximise the reach and impact of UCL expertise beyond the university.

In 2017, she was appointed as Pro-Vice-Provost (Europe), a strategic position shaping UCL’s engagement with European higher education partners and policy. In this role, she contributed to UCL's Brexit mitigation planning and co-convened the university's steering group on the research-based response to Brexit. She also worked on UCL’s institutional responses to the Russia-Ukraine war. Uta is now UCL’s Global Strategic Academic Advisor on Europe, working with the Vice-Provost for Research, Innovation and Global Engagement.

Educated at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Girona and Konstanz, Uta is fluent in five languages and currently teaches across three faculties. She is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. She sat on the Russell Group EU Advisory Group and the board of the Scottish Council of Foreign Relations.

Dr Roland Kappe

Lecturer in Political Economy at UCL Department of Political Science

Dr Roland Kappe is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Political Science, as well as in the UCL Department of European Social and Political Studies. Before joining UCL, he obtained his PhD in political science at Stony Brook University, New York. A native of Paderborn, Germany, he studied Politics and Administration at the University of Konstanz and the University of Pavia, Italy, and previously worked for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.