The proposal establishes a Network - "Crisis, Conflict and Critical Diplomacy: EU Perceptions in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine" (C3EU) - focused on EU images in key issue areas of economy, politics, foreign policy, energy, climate change, RS&I, civil society and culture/education.The EU aims to engage more effectively with 3rd country publics and stakeholders. Ukraine and Israel/Palestine are currently embroiled in conflicts set in differing contexts which threaten the EU’s eastern and southern edges. C3EU diagnoses and studies EU perceptions in these volatile strategic neighbours and tracks expectations.Under new leadership, the EEAS has prioritized coherent public diplomacy as a foreign policy instrument. Intense conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine make EU public diplomacy more critical than in non-conflict situations. C3EU provides empirical information to revise public diplomacy based on an assessment of EU perceptions. This will allow for the EU to reconceptualise policy outreach and re-launch its image.C3EU involves established and early-career experts from leading EU perceptions studies and employs an internationally tested methodology to assess which EU messages resonate within divided societies and which target audiences are the most influenced by the EU. Drawing on multidisciplinary expertise in EU external perceptions, CFSP, ENP, governance, IR, communication and cognitive linguistics studies, C3EU examines official policy discourses, EU media framing, EU perceptions among policy-makers and youth, and makes policy recommendations. Policy- and solution-oriented, C3EU traces external views on the EU’s: exit from its crisis; new leadership; response to the conflicts; attraction as a destination for migration, investment, business and education; appeal as a Normative Power; structural support and civil society outreach; critical diplomacy; role as a legitimate and credible partner.