GovInn’s director Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti and junior researcher Kirsty Agnew participated in a three day workshop in Brussels as part of an ongoing project on the external perceptions of the European Union (EU). The project is funded by the EU as part of their expanding public diplomacy initiatives. The project is coordinated by the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) at the University of Canterbury, the NFG Research Group from the Freie Universitat Berlin and the Public Policy Management Institute (PPMI) located in Lithuania. Research is also being conducted by nine other research groups located in the EU’s strategic partner nations around the world. Prof. Fioramonti and Kirsty are conducting research into South Africa’s perception of the EU with an aim to provide innovative growth to the relationship between EU governance structures and South Africa. The workshop in Brussels was to present data from the first stage of the research process.