This proposal involves three research programs, or work packages, which organize around the theme Strengthening Transatlantic Trust. The first package involves building trust in food standards and negotiations surrounding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The second package studies the need for trust in financial practices and the consequences when this trust is broken. The final package investigates immigration and the trust required to maintain free movement of people across the Atlantic and properly integrate immigrant populations.Our project will fund various activities that strengthen existing EU Studies efforts at the University of Illinois in teaching, public debate, and research activities. Significant aspects include developing an on-line European politics class that will reach new constituencies among professionals, teachers, and those in the non-profit sector; the promotion of the book Language and Minorities in Europe: An Introduction; four conferences focusing on the proposal’s work packages, and a number of publications that expand the field of EU Studies in multi-disciplinary ways.As proposed, this project adds value in multiple ways. As globalization pushes countries closer together, inquiry is needed into how this interconnectivity manifests itself. The project evaluates the transatlantic relationship in terms of studying of the movement of goods, capital, and people. In addition to its practical applications, our project adds value by evaluating an understudied linchpin of integration, trust creation and enhancement. Our project will promote EU studies in the US by illuminating the ties that bind the US with the EU. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of our EU Center, the three modules of our proposal positively impacts EU Studies by reaching new constituencies and broadly disseminating our research (through both traditional and extensive digital and social media channels).