About the Academy

Posted July 23, 2010  

 

The Transatlantic Academy is a research institution devoted to creating common approaches to the long-term challenges facing Europe and North America. The Academy does this by each year bringing together scholars, policy experts, and authors from both sides of the Atlantic and from different disciplinary perspectives to research and analyze a distinct policy theme of transatlantic interest. Working together from a collaborative and interdisciplinary perspective, Academy fellows bridge the Atlantic academic and policy communities, and use research, publications, and seminars to develop policy-relevant contributions to critical debates in North America and Europe.

The Transatlantic Academy was created in 2007 as a partnership between the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius. The Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation joined as full partners beginning in 2008, and the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung joined as a full partner in 2011. The Compagnia di San Paolo joined in providing additional support in May 2009, as did the Joachim Herz Stiftung and the Volkswagen Stifung in 2011, and the Aurea Foundation in 2013. In addition, the Academy received startup funding from the Transatlantic Program of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through funds of the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Goals

The Transatlantic Academy intends to strengthen the transatlantic partnership by:

  • Supporting intensive research and discussion on one major topic per year;
  • Incorporating an interdisciplinary view, with fellows from different generations from both sides of the Atlantic;
  • Sustaining research over a period of nine to ten months and organizing discussions with political, economic, and academic leaders;
  • Disseminating the results of research systematically to policy-planning staffs, U.S. legislators, and European Union officials through targeted media and public outreach on both sides of the Atlantic;
  • Hosting workshops, seminars, and lecture series on issues related to the research theme;
  • Featuring the Transatlantic Academy website as a resource for research, relevant data, and discussion.

Each year the Academy hosts six full-time scholars, including four senior and two junior fellows. The Academy also welcomes a number of short-term public policy fellows during the course of the year. Fellows are in residence at GMF's Washington office for up to nine months, and actively participate in a collaborative environment, sharing and discussing their work with each other and Academy guests. Each spring, the Transatlantic Academy issues a call for applications for the following year’s research theme, and invites scholars from North America and Europe to apply to become residential fellows.

In its first four years the Academy examined the themes: Immigration and Integration (2008-2009), Turkey and its Neighborhood (2009-2010), Global Shift – The Transatlantic Community and the New Geopolitics (2010-2011), and Natural Resources: The New Geopolitical Great Game? (2011-2012). This year the Academy will address: The Future of the Western Liberal Order (2012-2013).
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