The Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra is an Associate Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) since 2002, being devoted to research and advanced training in the area of the social sciences and humanities. Headed since its foundation (1978) by Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos, CES currently has 129 researchers, 79 post-doctoral researchers and 54 juniorresearcher. Many of these researchers work on a full time basis at the Centre, combining research with lecturing (the vast majority at the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science and Technology) or with other professional activities. The team of CES researchers includes sociologists, economists, lawyers, anthropologists, historians, psychologists, experts in the fields of education, literature, culture and international relations, geologists, architects, engineers, and biologists.

Over the past years, CES has seen its scientific activity expand to a significant degree due. This can be noted in its increased number of researchers, in its academic progression, in the multiplication of research projects involving CES researchers, in the widening of international cooperation networks, in activities carried out in cooperation with the outside sphere and in the vitality of its main instruments for scientific dissemination, as in the case of publications or scientific dissemination activities.

The research projects and international scientific networks in which its researchers have participated over the past decade confirm the dynamics of the Centre for Social Studies, which, in 1997 and in 1999, and more recently in 2005 and 2010, received recognition of its scientific merit when it was evaluated as Excellent by an international panel, within the Evaluation Process for Research Units of the Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education. In February 2002, CES was awarded the status of Associate Laboratory by the Ministry of Science, which was renewed for 10 more years in 2011, based on the following strategic guidelines: promoting new epistemologies and stimulating cultural interaction of ideas and innovative research; enhanced participation in national and international networks, with special focus on cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries in North-South relations and in Europe; supporting the development of progressive human rights concessions and the deepening of democracy; deepening the knowledge of Portuguese society in a comparative perspective, promoter of the debate; support for the formulation of public policies and the reform of the administration of Justice; and promoting the postgraduate studies and advanced training activities.

The Centre for Social Studies is a member of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Coimbra and, since 2009, has a branch in Lisbon, CES-Lisboa which provides ample space for dissemination, training and intervention activities.

Source: CES's website