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The Sussex European Institute (SEI) has beaten off tough competition from other universities to run a prestigious fellowship programme funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

SEI has been hosting the Chevening Fellowships in European Political Economy, which are named after the official country residence of the British Foreign Secretary, since 2006. Nearly 50 fellows have completed the 12-week programme during the last four years, and next year the group size will go up from 12 to 14.

The programme is designed to give mid-career professionals from new members of the European Union (EU) and some of the 'candidate' countries an opportunity to study and engage British and other European policy makers and practitioners on the economic agenda facing the EU.

The 2009 Chevening fellows at SEI came from Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

During their stay from January-March, the fellows attend courses and events organised by the SEI and visit think tanks, departments of state, parliaments (Westminster, Scottish and European) and the European Commission, as well as hearing from academics at SEI and elsewhere.

Among the highlights is a major annual policy conference, which is attended by academics, officials and programme alumni as well as current fellows.

In its feedback on SEI's re-tender bid, the FCO recognised the Institute's extensive experience of providing training for mid- career and senior professionals, and its "excellent experience of leading training and research with high quality outcomes", particularly for programmes involving international participants.

It praised the range of expertise of "the very capable team" assembled by SEI to deliver the programme, the "extremely well elaborated and very impressive" mechanisms for encouraging engagement with the UK, and the schedule of study visits - described as "well planned and well thought through with a clear rationale".

Professor Jim Rollo, Co-Director of SEI, has been organising the course for the last four years and put together the successful re-tender bid. He said: "We are delighted to have secured this programme once again.

"It is testament to the excellent SEI team that have been running it successfully and, more generally, to SEI's outstanding reputation as a centre of excellence in research and postgraduate training focused on practitioners.

"The arrival of this group of high flyers always represents one of the highlights of our year at SEI and we are once again looking forward to the lively exchanges that the fellows initiate."

If all goes well, SEI will continue to run the programme for a further two or three years after 2010.