The study of the European integration and EU, the EU-Ukraine cooperation has always been among the priorities. The 17th conference “Europe of Regions” was held in September 1996 in Odesa under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The Center took part in the TEMPUS/TACIS project “European Integration Studies in Odessa” in 1997 - 2001. Our partners in its realization were Exeter University (Great Britain), Erazmus University (Netherlands) and National and Capodistrian University (Greece).

The Center for Advanced Research and Teaching (CART) in the field of European Studies had been operating in the framework of the Megaproject, which was funded by the International “Renaissance” Foundation in 2001- 2002. The Summer School on European studies has taken place within the Megaproject in Summer of 2001. Another Summer School “Defining European Studies: national experience and regional perspectives” was held in 2002 with the funding provided by the Higher Education Support Program (HESP).

The International “Renaissance” Foundation (IRF) has been an active partner for the Center through these years. The Center’s director Volodymyr Dubovyk has served as a member of the Program Council of the European program of the IRF in 2005-2006. The round-table “Ukraine and EU: from partnership to association” was held by the Center and the IRF’s European Program jointly in June, 2011.

Since 2008 the Center has been engaged in implementation of the project (also funded by the IRF) to monitor the process of issuing Schengen visas in Ukraine. Its partners in this project have been the Center for the peace, conversion and foreign policy of Ukraine, the NGO (public initiative) “Europe without barriers” and other members of a specially established consortium.

The Center has carried out a Jean Monnet Action “Europe in Odessa, Odessa in Europe” project in 2007-2008 with the financial assistance coming from the European Commission. This project has included a number of undertakings in the spheres of research, education and information dissemination, convening a Day or Europe in Odesa being one of them.

Another long-term international project, which was funded by the EuropeAid of the European Commission, has been a “BRIDGE – Fostering mutual understanding and cooperation of the EU with Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine”. The Center has been its Ukrainian partner in the activities of a consortium of institutions representing Belarus, Germany, Italy, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Slovenia. This project has run its course in 2008-2012. The project’s main objective was to increase awareness about the European Neighborhood Policy and Eastern Partnership in the four post-Soviet states and to elaborate some recommendations on the improvement of those policies.

The European Program of the IRF has funded a project designed to facilitate the cooperation between the Center and the Portuguese Institute of International Relations. It has resulted in a number of workshops (including the ones in Lisbon in December of 2007 (co-directed by Sergiy Glebov) and in May of 2010 (co-directed by Volodymyr Dubovyk), mutual visits of the experts and, also, in a joint collective monograph “European integration and processes of internal transformation: Ukrainian prospects and Portuguese experience”, which was praised by, among others, the Ambassador of Ukraine in Portugal O.M. Nykonenko.

The Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET) “European Security and NIS: New Teaching Framework for New Europe” has been carried out in 2005-2008. The Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET) “The EU as an emerging European security actor: exploring theoretical paradigms” has been in action in 2010-2013. Both seminars have been sponsored by the Higher Education Support Program (HESP). They have brought together the leading experts in the field with some dozens of promising junior faculty and researchers from various post-Soviet states. These projects have convened six summer schools in Odesa and many more workshops elsewhere. The project has also produced a special volume of the “Topical problems in international relations” (issue 102, part 2, published by the Kyiv Institute of International Relations) in 2011.

This thematic focus is also reflected in the teaching process. The Center’s Senior Research Fellow Denys Kuzmin teaches a course on history and theory of the European integration.

The Center has devoted ample time to the issues related to the process of Euroatlantic integration and security through a variety of projects and grants, conferences and workshops. Among them it has organized two NATO Academies - for the junior faculty members (“Security challenges and opportunities in the Mediterranean-Black-Caspian Seas: role of NATO and other actors”, 2006) and students (“NATO’s transformation and the security challenges of today”, 2008) from around Ukraine. Some leading experts in the field have taken part in those. Both academies have been funded by the Public Diplomacy Division of NATO. The Center enjoys fruitful cooperative relationship with the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in Kyiv.

The Center has carried out two projects under the framework of realization of the Ukraine-NATO Action Plan in 2007-2008, which was funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. This has included holding various public hearings, information campaign events, workshops, as well as convening a sociological poll of the residents of Odesa region with regard to their attitudes towards the prospects of the Euroatlantic integration.

The research fellows of the Center have authored a collective monograph “Euroatlantic integration of Ukraine: global and regional dimensions” that came out in 2008 and has been a solid contribution to the studies on this subject. In addition to the scholarly format the fellows of the Center have taken part in numerous public information events, appeared on local TV stations speaking of the theme of Ukraine-NATO relations.

The Center (with its director V. Dubovyk being a co-director of this project) has carried out a project on shifting perceptions of NATO in 2010 in collaboration with the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Center for Modern and Contemporary History (Lisbon University Institute). It was funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. The Advanced Research Workshop “Perceptions of NATO: a balance 60 years after” was held in Lisbon in May of 2010. The subsequent collection of chapters “Perceptions of NATO and the new strategic concept” was published in 2011 (co-edited by V. Dubovyk) with the support on NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. V. Dubovyk has contributed with a chapter “NATO: shaping the correct strategy for a safer tomorrow”.