UvA Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

ongoing

The European Union (EU) faces perilous challenges, both geopolitical and internal. To confront these challenges, we propose a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (COE) at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). UvA-ACES pursues three objectives: (1) facilitate interdisciplinary research relevant to Europe’s challenges; (2) foster education and training of early-career students, melding academic and policy-relevant skills; and (3) promote outreach/dialogue with stakeholders in new corners of academia, civil society, and practitioners on Europe’s challenges. To pursue these objectives, UvA ACES COE shall build on ACES, UvA’s centre for EU research, education, and public debate that convenes outstanding researchers from four faculties: Law, Humanities, Economics-and-Business, and Social and Behavioural Sciences. UvA-ACES shall organize its activities in five focus areas: 'Contested Economic Challenges' on Europe’s economic conditions and policies; 'Tech, Power, and Policy' on Europe’s navigation of technological change; 'Environmental Dissensus' on Europe’s environmental conditions and policies; 'Future of European Democracy' on Europe’s democratic governance; and 'Global Europe' on Europe’s geopolitical security and solidarity. Working through these areas, UvA ACES COE shall launch activities fostering dialogue between researchers and society, and generating insights to support EU policymaking. The activities include interdisciplinary Summer Schools teaching masters and PhD students; Practitioner Series linking practitioners to academic and lay publics; Annual Conferences deepening interdisciplinarity on EU’s priorities; Public Lectures, inspiring new, diverse extra-university publics; and Dissemination of innovative interventions (spoken, written, video) for varying audiences. Altogether, UvA ACES COE promises to inform and inspire publics, policymakers and practitioners to better address Europe's fraught moment.