In 2005 Karen Donders graduated in communication science at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) on a thesis concerning US trade policy in the WTO and its impact on the audiovisual dossier. After graduating she started working as a scientific researcher at the research center SMIT (Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication), doing research on e-government in Flanders, Canada, Australia and Western European countries. In 2006 she became a researcher for the Institute for European Studies (IES) on a project called: 'Towards i2010: Bargaining for an equitable information society. Analysis of the dialectics between the EU and the WTO as regards state aid in the audiovisual and telecommunications sector'. Her research analyses the impact and width of EU and WTO intervention in EU Member States’ state aid policies. It focuses - in particular - on the margins left for nation states to implement and sustain state aid policies related to public service broadcasting and the digital switch-over. Attention is moreover payed to the process of convergence between broadcasting, telecommunications and IT; the interinstitutional negotiation of the concept market failure in relation to services of general economic interest; and the future sustainability of current national/subnational state aid regimes.

Pauwels (C.), Loisen (J.) & Donders (K.). Actor positions on the audiovisual dossier and the interinstitutional dialectics between WTO and UNESCO. Paper presented at the 4 th International Conference on Communication and Mass Media, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Athens (Greece), 22-24/05/2006.

Donders (K.), Jacobs (A.) Van Audenhove (L.). e-Government in the Information Society: Moving towards multi-channel service delivery? Paper presented at the 4 th International Conference on Communication and Mass Media, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Athens (Greece), 22-24/05/2006.

Loisen (J.), Donders (K.) & Pauwels (C.). ‘Read my lips: no liberalisation’: A dialectical view on the US position towards the liberalisation of audiovisual services. Paper presented at the 4 th International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, EDUCULT Vienna (Austria), 12-16/07/2006.

Pauwels (C.), Loisen (J.) & Donders (K.). Culture Inc. Or Trade Revisited? How interinstitutional dialectics and dynamic actor positions affect the outcome of the debate on cultural trade and diversity. Presentation at the CIRCLE Roundtable ‘“European art and culture between free trade and cultural diversity. A delicate dialogue?”, Helsinki (Finland), 16-17/12/2006.

Pauwels (C.), Loisen (J.) & Donders (K.). Culture Inc. or Trade Revisited? How interinstitutional dialectics and dynamic actor positions affect the outcome of the debate on cultural trade and diversity. In: Obuljen (N.) & Smiers (J.) (eds.). UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural expressions: Making it work, Zagreb, Institute for International Relations, 2006, 125-158.

Donders (K.), Van Rompuy (B.) & Pauwels (C.). Concurrentie in het concurrentiebeleid? Op zoek naar coherentie in het Europese mededingingsbeleid voor de publieke omroep: een perspectief op de posities van de Europese Commissie en het Europese Hof van Justitie. Paper presented at the Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschappen, Antwerpen (Belgium), 8-9/02/2007.

Donders (K.) & Pauwels (C.).Is Public Service Broadcasting a Battlefield? An Analysis of European State aid rules and the Public Service Remit of Public Service Broadcasting in a Digital Age'. Paper presented at the ECREA conference 'Equal Opportunities and Communication Rights: representation, participation and the European democratic deficit' (Brussels), 11-12/10/2007.