Its objective lies in the promotion of research and postgraduate education in the field of European integration and international cooperation.
The Institute’s activities which are supported in particular by the European Union and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, German Academic Exchange Service), include various research projects, academic conferences and public lectures most of which are published at Nomos, Baden-Baden, in the “Schriftenreihe des Europa-Kollegs Hamburg zur Integrationsforschung” (Publication series of the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg on integration research).
The Europa-Kolleg owns an apartment house which accommodates students as well as academic researchers from all over Europe and the world.
In the beginning, the Europa-Kolleg offered particularly qualified German and foreign students from various academic backgrounds the chance to live and study under one roof.
The graduate school “Integrationsforschung” (integration studies) funded by the Deutsche Foschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) became the centre of the activities in the 1990s.
The interdisciplinary study programme covers the legal, economic and political aspects of European Integration.