The Institute for European Studies (IES) at Cornell, in partnership with Syracuse University's Center for European Studies, has received an award of almost $218,600 from the U.S. Department of Education's National Resource Centers (NRC) Program.

The prestigious grant is awarded to a select number of European studies programs at top American universities and recognizes the institute's position as one of the country's premier centers for teaching and research on Europe. Under the program, IES will maintain its status as a designated National Resource Center through 2010.

The award will enable IES to continue to promote and coordinate multidisciplinary curricula, research projects, initiatives and cultural events centering on Europe that seek both to broaden the Cornell community's view of Europe and to make the study of European languages, culture and society an integral part of undergraduate and graduate education on campus.

The collaboration with Syracuse significantly widens the range of activities and interactions among European studies scholars in New York state and strengthens the resources available to researchers, students and teachers in the region.

In the spring, the U.S. Department of Education also granted the Cornell-Syracuse consortium $324,000 in foreign language and area studies fellowship funding. Together with the NRC funding, the fellowship program supports students interested in acquiring a high level of competence in European languages critical to national needs of the United States and a fuller understanding of the areas, regions or countries in which that language is used.