UF has become the first American university to receive a grant from the European Union to house a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.
The center will eventually have its own building, said Amie Kreppel, director of the UF Center for European Studies.
The institution will focus on European integration studies related to the EU, according to the program's Web site.
Over the next three years, the EU will give UF about ,205,000 for the program.
"The EU is America's largest trading partner and our most important political ally," Kreppel said in a UF press release. "For Florida, the EU is our biggest foreign direct investor," she also said in the release.
The EU's investments account for more than 145,000 of Florida's jobs, she said in the release.
Each year a visiting scholar will lead an intensive course on an annual topic for up to 25 advanced undergraduate and graduate students, Kreppel said.
The topic for spring 2008 will be "EU and Democratization."
"If some sophomore took some courses on European studies that would be fine," Kreppel said. "There is just no time to start from scratch."
The visiting scholar could be anyone, including professors or EU government officials.
Though the scholar for spring hasn't been chosen, speakers from Serbia, Turkey and the EU commission are being considered, Kreppel said.
Following the course will be a two-day workshop, which anyone can attend.
"We've had people from the colleges of nursing, art history, even architecture," Kreppel said. "Not just the standard political science and history majors, though we love them too."
The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence will be temporarily located in UF's Center for European Studies at Turlington Hall.
The location and date for the building that will eventually house the center is undetermined.
The Jean Monnet center will be more focused than UF's Center for European Studies, Kreppel said.
The new center will only address topics related to the EU, she added.
There are 107 Jean Monnet centers worldwide. Japan and the United States were the only non-European countries to be approved for centers this year, Kreppel said .
Throughout the school year the center will work on other goals including "making everyone study a language" and starting a graduate program in European studies, Kreppel said .
