Cristina Blanco Sío-López is a Researcher in European Integration Studies and Project Manager at the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) in Luxembourg. She obtained her PhD and her Master of Research Degree (MRes.) in History and Civilization — specialising in History of European Integration — at the European University Institute, Florence (EUI), where she analysed the strategic instilment of a zero hour time perception in the political communication concerning the EU’s eastward enlargement and examined the implications of post-Cold War identity frontiers. She holds an MA in European History and Politics from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and a BA in History from the University of Salamanca (Spain). She has also conducted studies at a wide range of universities including the University of Heidelberg, the Freie Universität Berlin, the George Washington University (GWU), the Berlin College of Comparative European History and San Andrés University, La Paz (Bolivia), and has completed the Space Exploration Studies and Astronaut Training programme at NASA’s US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville (Alabama, USA). She is also a recipient of the European Research and Mobility Grant for European Studies ‘Charles V European Award 2007–Helmut Kohl’, awarded by the European Academy of Yuste Foundation. Dr Blanco Sío-López has worked at the DG Enlargement of the European Commission in Brussels and at the US Congress (Capitol Hill — US House of Representatives) in Washington, DC, and has taught European Studies at Georgetown University. She has also worked as a Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) in Florence and for the European Parliament project ‘50 Years of the European Parliament’. She is currently a Member of the Steering Committee of the History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS) and coordinates the research project ‘Spain and the European integration process’ at the CVCE.