Andrey Leonov, Assistant Professor at the Department of European and International Law, has received a prestigious “Jean Monnet Module” grant from the European Commission. This grant will support the implementation of the project EUGLOBE (total budget of 36 014, 00 Euros) involving both teaching and research activities in the field of European Union studies for a three-year period (2015-2018).

EUGLOBE (“The European Union as a Global Human Rights Actor”) aims to make a significant contribution to both the development of the academic field of EU studies and the practical use of knowledge on the EU by various non-academic users (civil servants, (sub)National Human Rights Institutions, legal practitioners, civil society) in Russia. Within this mission, a specific objective of this project – and Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod – is capacity-building for successful establishment and delivery of a Master’s degree in European Union and International Law that would promote its teaching and research excellence in EU studies.

The project will reach its objectives by successfully integrating various types of activities, such as delivering a tailor-made in-depth interdisciplinary course on EU global human rights action for MA students and training sessions for practitioners, organizing a research workshop engaging PhD students and early career researchers, public dissemination events.

The project’s main deliverables will include a series of journal articles in leading international and Russian peer-reviewed academic outlets and an edited volume collecting papers from the project’s academic workshop. The teaching component relying on innovative teaching methods will be included in the curriculum of the MA Programme “International Law for Business” launched in September 2015 at the Faculty of Law. By enlarging the scope of its EU-focused teaching and incorporating best international practices in EU-related teaching and research, the project will strengthen Lobachevsky University profile in the field of EU studies and, in particular, EU Law in Russia and internationally.

The interdisciplinary and multi-faceted nature of the project will develop and strengthen collaborations within Lobachevsky University as well as with wider academic community. The project will contribute to development of teaching and research networks on EU Law and Policies in Russia (Kutafin Moscow State Law University, Tomsk State University, Kazan Federal University) and across the European Research Area including Aston University, University of Amsterdam, University of Strasbourg and University of Grenoble.