UF becomes first university in U.S. to establish EU-funded Jean Monnet Centre
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida has become the first American institution to receive funding from the European Union to establish a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on campus.
The center, named after one of the most influential supporters of European integration throughout most of the 20th century, will be entirely dedicated to EU topics and will support an annual visiting scholar program, additional special topic classes and a yearly workshop. It will be housed within the UF Center for European Studies.
The visiting scholars, who will spend a minimum of two weeks in Gainesville working with UF faculty and teaching a special two-week intensive course, can be either academics from European Union universities or current practitioners in the field of European integration, such as EU government officials.
There are currently 107 such centers at universities worldwide, and the vast majority are in EU member or candidate countries. This year, Japan was the only other non-European country to receive a grant from the EU to create a new center, said Amie Kreppel, director of the UF Center for European Studies.
The grant will provide the university with approximately $205,000 over three years and present the possibility of future grants and center renewals.
The Jean Monnet center is proof of the increasing international recognition of the strength of UF’s European studies programs, Kreppel said. Growing student interest, the efforts of the Center for European Studies and the strength of other Europe-focused groups such as the France-Florida Research Institute and the Center for Greek Studies are the driving forces behind the rapid growth of EU scholarship at the university, she said.
The center’s mission of educating non-Europeans about the EU is vital for Americans and Floridians in today’s world, Kreppel said.
“The EU is America’s largest trading partner and our most important political ally,” she said. “And for Florida, the EU is our biggest foreign direct investor. Their investments account for more than 145,000 jobs.”
UF’s successful bid to start a Jean Monnet center has a significance that reaches far beyond Gainesville, Kreppel said.
“For America, it encourages other universities to continue to apply for them,” she said. “I think that a lot of people assume that just because it’s never happened before, Jean Monnet centers are not for America.”
Thanks to UF, that is no longer the case.
Credits
- Source
- Amie Kreppel, kreppel@ces.ufl.edu, 352-392-8902, ext. 210
- Writer
- Jay Goodwin