Through the activities of the proposed Chair we intend to reach the widest possible audience, as has been the tradition of PEE activities since 2002. Furthermore, we will include secondary school students because as of today these topics are not incorporated in their school programs. In this way, we will contribute to their education by expanding their course offering. The PEE elective courses, online diploma, seminars, TV programs, book, etc, will be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective incorporating legal, historical, political, economic, commercial, environmental, and human rights aspects (among others). Moreover, current issues for debate in Europe and LA will be incorporated, such as regional integration, immigration, terrorism, populism, environmental pollution, economic protectionism, pandemic, etc.Special places will be reserved for students of degree programs who are not familiar with European studies such as Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, Literature, Journalism, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography, among others. In order for this to be an attractive course for these students, the topics to be discussed will be adapted to their knowledge and interests, placing special emphasis on debates that will be observed through the media and their implications in LA reality. These activities will cover issues such as the European elections, Brexit referendum and its impact, relations between EU and Latin America, United States, the debate on immigration and refugee crisis, impact of terrorism in State politics, different forms of government in Europe, the real progress of Euroscepticism, Europe amid tensions between the US, NATO and Russia, among other subjects.

"For this Chair, the European Studies Program (PEE) planned the next activities: •2 Diploma programs per year, they would be instructed by the chair’s staff and guests. This program will be open to civil society (30 hours by Dr. Astroza/80 hours per year by PEE Staff and guest professors). The PEE Diploma programs have a multidisciplinary perspective, incorporating legal, historical, political, economic, commercial, environmental, and human rights aspects (among others). Moreover, current issues being debated in Europe and Latin America were incorporated, such as regional integration, immigration, terrorism, populism, environmental pollution, economic protectionism, etc•A 46-hour program per year about European politics, with Dr. Astroza in charge, aimed at students from different disciplines with no familiarity in European studies;•39-hours of lectures per year offered by Dr. Astroza in the Politics and Government Master program and the Public Law master program;•A book publishing with contributions from staff and guest in the last year of the Chair;•PEE website updating (www.peeudec.cl)•3 thesis directions in European studies by staff in their schools •A conference will open and close each Diploma program lead by guests (4 conferences each year, 8 hours per year).•Europe’s day celebration.•Dr. Astroza will participate analyzing European news at least twice per year on Chilean television programs, blog and another medias in Chile;•Dr. Astroza will carry out activities related to ""Relations between the EU and Latin America"" in the framework of Jean Monnet program professors Dr. Susana Sanz (Cardenal Herrera University, CEU, Valencia, Spain), Dr. Giuliana Laschi University of Bologna, Forli, Italy) and Professor Nicolas Raptopoulos (University of Piraeus, Department of International and European Studies, Laboratory of Turkish and Eurasian Studies, Greece) and participation in the Jean Monnet Annual Conference (Brussels, organized by AECEA). (5 hours per year)•PEE Facebook and Twitter pages updating (https://www.facebook.com/peeudec/?fref=ts) (https://twitter.com/peeUdeC) The main objective sought in this activities are educational, allowing undergraduate and graduate students and the community in general to acquire an up-to-date, global, multidisciplinary vision of Europe and the EU. A secondary expected impact sought is the strengthening of PEE activities in the collaboration with distinguished national and international scholars and with institutios such as ECSA Chile, ECSA América Latina, Chilean Foreing Affairs Ministery, Chilean Diplomatic Academy, Jean Monnet academic staff, EU delegations in Chile, among others.This chair wanted to reactivate PEE activities giving the community the chance to learn and study about Europe, from a multidisplinary perspective that does not exist in Chile (In Chile there is no Jean Monnet chair). It allowed Dr. Astroza to give a 45-hour course on topics of European current political affairs, which is necessary for understanding the world and for an integral formation of future professionals, which is an important added value to their education."

“Impact, risks and opportunities of populism in Europe and Latin America” has two principal aims:1. Cross-fertilization: - Consolidate the creation of an inter-regional research team made up of academics from Europe (Germany, Spain, Italy and United Kingdom) and Latin America (Chile, Mexico, Brasil and Bolivia); - Boost the existing knowledge and enhance the dynamics between academics in Europe and Latin America, and especially between the Jean Monnet Chair of the professor Dr. Paulina Astroza in Concepción, Chile, Dr. Jaime Baeza (Santiago, Chile) and the work of Dr. Susanne Gratius in Barcelona and Dr. Ignacio Molina and Dr. José Antonio Sanahuja in Madrid, Spain.- Deepen comparative research methods in cross-regional studies on populism (by combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, case studies and thematic approaches), particularly on the political and social causes, consequences and outcomes of Populist Governments and oppositional political parties in Latin America and EU member states. - Develop an innovative research frame that allows to compare populism not by presenting individual cases but by a thematical quantitative cross-regional focus that allows to obtain scientific results beyond country studies, in order to advance the broad research agenda on populism.- Contrast risks and opportunities of populism from the left and right as a discourse, an ideology, a movement or a regime on liberal democracy and integration in Latin America and Europe and their inter-regional agenda. Which effects does populism have on the EU-LAC agenda on democracy and integration? 2. Knowledge dissemination with non-academic actors: - Share and disseminate this project’s research results (information and knowledge) to a broad academic and non-academic audience, including but not limited to students, alumni, professors, civil servants, private sector and civil society.

We propose to carry out a project which will produce a decisive step towards improving the accuracy of the Hubble constant as determined from the Cepheid-SN Ia method to 1%, by using 28 extremely rare eclipsing binary systems in the LMC which offer the potential to determine their distances to 1%. To achieve this accuracy we will reduce the main error in the binary method by interferometric angular diameter measurements of a sample of red clump stars which resemble the stars in our binary systems. We will check on our calibration with similar binary systems close enough to determine their orbits from interferometry. We already showed the feasibility of our method which yielded the best-ever distance determination to the LMC of 2.2% from 8 such binary systems. With 28 systems and the improved angular diameter calibration we will push the LMC distance uncertainty down to 1% which will allow to set the zero point of the Cepheid PL relation with the same accuracy using the large available LMC Cepheid sample. We will determine the metallicity effect on Cepheid luminosities by a) determining a 2% distance to the more metal-poor SMC with our binary method, and by b) measuring the distances to LMC and SMC with an improved Baade-Wesselink (BW) method. We will achieve this improvement by analyzing 9 unique Cepheids in eclipsing binaries in the LMC our group has discovered which allow factor- of-ten improvements in the determination of all basic physical parameters of Cepheids. These studies will also increase our confidence in the Cepheid-based H0 determination. Our project bears strong synergy to the Gaia mission by providing the best checks on possible systematic uncertainties on Gaia parallaxes with 200 binary systems whose distances we will measure to 1-2%. We will provide two unique tools for 1-3 % distance determinations to individual objects in a volume of 1 Mpc, being competitive to Gaia already at a distance of 1 kpc from the Sun.

INCHIPE addresses the needs of third partner countries (Chile and Peru) to foster the internationalisation of its Universities (HEI). Its main objectives are: to increase the capacities of non-European countries (NEC) HEI in international cooperation, to contribute to the improvement of international networking; and increase and exploit the potentials in Teaching, Learning & Research (TLR).The activities within the project foresee the strengthening of strategic, infrastructure and human capacities in the 4 HEI of NPE as a model for the development and modernisation of institutional management of internationalisation in NEC.Specific objectives will be achieved through carefully planned actions at an institutional, national and multi-regional level, including the implementation of training and strategic infrastructure; comparative studies and the development of National Recommendation to boost internationalisation in TLR; the creation of a best practice book for HEI on how to improve International Relations policies and management. These actions will be complemented throughout the project life by dissemination and networking activities, including National Roundtables, seminars, networking conferences and a multi-regional educational fair. The consortium includes 8 institutions, of which 3 are European HEI with a vast experience in internationalisation and 4 are HEI in NEC that face challenges on the development of internationalisation strategies.The Project also foresees a library gateway, the creation of Strategic Development Plans for HEI of NEC and the testing of products through cooperation and a pilot mobility framework. The results will be easily transferrable at a regional, national and international level.