The University of Colorado at Boulder has won a $450,000 grant to establish the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, which will study and teach the relations between the EU and the United States.
The university-based centers of excellence strive to raise awareness of the EU and build the "transatlantic relationship among academic, business, government and other communities" in Colorado.
CU-Boulder is one of only 11 U.S. universities to win a three-year grant from the European Union.
Joseph Jupille, associate professor of political science, will direct the newly formed Colorado center. David Ferris, professor of comparative literature and humanities, will be co-director.
"CU's selection to host a European Union Center of Excellence speaks to the increasingly important ties linking Colorado and the Mountain West," Jupille said. "We look forward to enhancing those connections."
"The CEUCE will provide a context in which existing research and teaching of the political and social issues shared by the European Union and United States can be truly internationalized," Ferris added. "The establishment of the center represents an important step toward more comprehensive research and teaching on European issues at the Boulder campus."
Besides fostering international research and teaching, the CEUCE will be central in a network of EU- and transatlantic-oriented constituencies in greater Denver, Colorado and the Mountain West. It will draw on existing resources such as the EU consular community in the region, Jupille said.
Among many planned initiatives, the CEUCE may host EU Consuls-General, academics, students and the public for an annual May 9 celebration of "Europe Day." It also will conduct educational outreach to public schools and area colleges and universities. And it will feature consular and other officials in seminars, workshops and conferences that advance CEUCE's mission.
Ambassador John Bruton, head of the EU's delegation to the United States, praised EU Centers of Excellence, saying that they take "a leading role in the future of the transatlantic relationship." He added, "These centers will also continue to produce high-quality scholarly research that informs the policy community."
This year, two institutions won their first EUCE grants, which have been awarded in three-year cycles since 1998. Along with CU, the University of Texas at Austin won its first grant for an EU Center of Excellence.
Nine institutions or consortiums won renewed grants. They are the University of California, Berkeley, Florida International University and the University of Miami, Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Washington at Seattle, the University of Wisconsin and a consortium of universities in Washington, D.C._
The EU also supports centers of excellence in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. For future information visit the Web at .