We are applying for funding to create a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies to exploit the opportunities and resources already put in place over the last six years by two affiliated organizations – CEUCE (Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, until now based at University of Colorado Boulder) and CSEW (Center for the Study of Europe and the World, a partner of CEUCE, based at the University of Denver). We are now amalgamating these two centers in order exploit the many synergies to be derived from their various complementary activities. In doing so we are meeting a manifest demand for a single hub of Europe-focused academic research and community engagement in the western United States. The intention, then, is not to simply build a center (CEUCE at Denver) that only serves its immediate institutional environment (the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and the University of Denver) but one that uses the platform to create and diffuse knowledge of European and Transatlantic affairs to the US West, via partnerships with universities and constructive relations with civil society groups and organizations in the region.