The overall aim of the NEAR-EU project is to broaden the field of European integration studies by incorporating the domain of higher education in the research and activities of European Study Centers. The project will develop an inter-regional, collaborative academic space to enhance the study of European higher education policy and academic internationalization. The project intends to establish Bologna Resource Centers (BRC), for the study and research of European HE, within and outside Europe and to create a nexus among them. These BRCs will evolve into a network of prominent academic units in the field of European Studies to further deepen the academic discourse on European HE policy and the EHEA. This globally spaced network will include the non-EU partners- Israel, Singapore, Canada and New Zealand and the EU members- Germany, Slovenia and Greece. The project's methodology is divided with respect to three spheres of action: 1) Adding the HE domain to the field of the European Studies 2) creation of an epistemic community by the organization of an international network 3) capitalizing on the activity of leading European study centers for the generation of sustainable research in the field of European HE policy. Network meetings will be devoted to two main professional areas: first, methodological sessions that will develop research tools for the academic field, and second, mutual learning sessions from each national/regional case-study.The diversified nature of the network's composition, both geographically and professionally (in terms of research interests), will allow multidisciplinary, holistic and multidimensional academic development of the discipline.