The project „The International Political Economy of EU-Asia Relations“ (IPEEAR) aims at promoting excellence in teaching and research in EU studies. It provides an innovative approach to EU studies by focusing on the relationship of the external dimension of European integration and the external dimension of regional cooperation and integration in East Asia and beyond. The project aims at enabling Ruhr-University Bochum and the Faculty of East Asian Studies in particular to explicitly intensify teaching and research activities with regard to the role of the EU in Asian affairs as well as to organize new teaching and research initiatives. So far students do not automatically come into contact with EU studies.The project would enrich undergraduate as well as graduate teaching activities at the Faculty of East Asian Studies in multiple ways. Apart from providing additional funds for the organisation of a lecture series, a conference, and a workshop the Jean Monnet Chair would provide the foundation for excellent EU-focused teaching by promoting research activities, exchange and networking as well as the publication of research results in the form of two edited volumes.IPEEAR will foster international and interdisciplinary exchange between policy makers, scholars and wider civil society by providing information on topics of European Integration, Asian Integration and EU-Asia affairs to a broader public.The lecture series will bring together researchers and practitioners from various sectors of society to speak about and discuss recent developments and challenges to the EU’s role in Asia. The lectures are intended to create public interest in questions of European foreign policy in general and EU-Asia relations in particular and stimulate new and creative ideas and concepts. In addition the proposal fosters the development of existing and new teaching and debating activities by creating "virtual classrooms" and using e- learning tools.