The project consists of two courses respectively delivered at the B.A. level and master/doctoral level, and a series of events and publications as well. Its concrete aims and objectives are four-pronged: To provide excellent teaching on European integration: To give students a good idea of EU’s trade policy-making (actors, institutions, instruments and process) and the EU-China trade relations, and help them understand how politics and economics, domestic and international factors interact in the EU policy and decision-making through innovative teaching methodology featuring multiple stakeholders’ participation and a multi-disciplinary approach.To foster students’ ability in making public presentations. The course at master level is organized in a seminar form, requiring students to give public presentations in the second phase of the course. The teaching staff gives comments and guide through each session.To improve research on a specific EU theme – common commercial policy (CCP). This project aims at deepening the understanding of the EU’s CCP by Chinese scholars, officials, diplomats and students through systemic research on the CCP subject and the publication of the relevant book and policy paper on the CCP-related subject, and the EU-China trade relations as well. To disseminate EU knowledge in a region, which is insufficiently covered by the Jean Monnet Program. This project will fill the vacuum of international political economy teaching on EU trade policy in central China, a region with the biggest development potentials in the coming five to ten years in China, and with the tremendous capacity of trading with EU member states.

Bacterial infections in hospital patients can lead to sepsis, in which an overwhelming infection of the bloodstream by toxin-producing bacteria becomes life-threatening. Very few new antibiotics are being developed, and so the established antibiotic gentamicin, discovered over 40 years ago, is likely to remain a vital mainstay in efforts to combat sepsis. Unfortunately there are real dangers associated with its use: a large percentage of patients treated with gentamicin, or related antibiotics, develop acute kidney failure (nephrotoxicity). The drug can also cause irreversible hearing loss (ototoxicity). Treatment is very costly because patients have to be closely monitored to minimise these severe side-effects. Sustained efforts are being made to research ways of minimising the side-effects of gentamicin, by altering the dosing strategy for example; and to understand the biochemical mechanisms by which the kidney and the inner ear are damaged. Unfortunately all the gentamicin used clinically is a mixture of compounds and different batches of commercial gentamicin have different amounts of each component. The individual components can be separated on a small scale but it has not been commercially viable to do this on the scale needed. It was believed that all components were equally effective and equally toxic, but in 2006 researchers in the USA re-tested each of the main components (known as C1, C1a, C2, and C2a) and showed that, surprisingly, purified component C2 is fully effective as an antibiotic but not nephrotoxic at all (at least in rats). The aim of this project is to build on the success of our previous MRC-supported research aimed at deciphering all of the individual steps in the late stages of gentamicin biosynthesis. We now think that the best prospect for obtaining C2 by fermentation is to use as a feedstock the widely commercially available precursor called G418. However, we still need to deconvolute the role of key individual enzymes in this part of the pathway. The ready availability of such monocomponent gentamicins would encourage potentially safer formulations of the antibiotic to be tested. Since gentamicins and related aminoglycosides are also promising agents for the correction of certain human genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and the muscle-wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy, there could be wider medical benefits too.

Increasing interdependence between the European Union (EU) and the Asia Pacific region provides crucial opportunities and critical challenges that demand an in-depth understanding and specialized knowledge of current interregional affairs. The proposed Jean Monnet network on “EU-Asia Pacific dialogue: promoting European integration and mutual knowledge across continents” (EUNAP) aims to provide a thematic platform on EU-Asia Pacific relations by establishing a multidisciplinary academic network of experts and researchers. The specific objectives of the project are the following:-To enhance EU’s visibility and understanding across Asia Pacific region through close academic cooperation between High Education institutions.-To reinforce mutual knowledge by stimulating multidisciplinary analysis and joint research that will involve, not only academics, but also civil society and policy makers in both regions.-To provide an intellectual platform for disseminating major scientific outputs on EU-Asia Pacific dialogue across academic communities in participating institutions and across the world.The expected outputs include:-Publication of papers by PhD candidates in 3 special issues of scientific journals (CED, ANZJES and APJ of EU Studies).-Research stays for PhD students in universities within the network.-Four workshops and one international conference.-Research stays for post-doctoral researchers within the network.-Joint publications (research briefings, working papers, joint panel papers).-Submission of joint panels to EUSA-AP conferences.-Updated online tools.As major outcomes, the project envisages:-Promotion of EU knowledge across Asia Pacific. -Reinforced synergies between High Education institutions from both regions.-Involvement of PhD students and young researchers in scientific activities and outputs.-Enhanced awareness of EU's political significance and its international role by civil society and policy makers in both regions.