Directors’ message: Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence
Greetings all! As Co-Directors of the Centre for Britain, Alia and I delighted to announce that the Centre for Britain and Europe (CBE) has been named a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.
Entitled “Open Doors and Building Bridges”, our funding package entails a 3-year programme of teaching, research, analysis and engagement designed to “keep the conversation going” across the university community in Guildford, Surrey and the UK itself. This prestigious award recognises the expert knowledge contained in the Centre and creates key connections between us and other Centres of Excellence.
Five key themes, designed to ensure our outputs reach as wide an audience as possible, will allow the CBE to draw together its cutting-edge research on Europe and Britain, as well as building on the strong track record of the Department of Politics in engaging with key EU-UK politics:
- Gender and identity
- Electoral behaviour
- European and British security and defence
- De-Europeanisation/re-Europeanisation
- Coss-thematic outputs.
Why did we choose to apply for funding of this sort? Against a volatile political backdrop in Britain and Europe, the CBE has worked visibly and viably to establish itself as a forum for high-quality teaching and objective analysis, routinely drawn upon by local and national policy-makers and the media, as well as hosting regular outreach activities. As a Centre of Excellence, we will be a hub for provably clear-sighted, much-needed teaching, research, analytical and outreach, and the funding will help considerably in this respect. We’ll look forward to you joining us for the November 19 inauguration!
