Centre d'Economie Sociale (CES)

The Centre d'Economie Sociale (CES) was founded in 1992, and its activities form part of a longstanding University of Liège tradition of research in co-operative economics, which was enlarged to cover the whole "third sector", including the non-profit, around the end of the 80s. The Centre d'Economie Sociale, installed alongside a rich documentation centres in the field, constitutes with this latter one a major pole of attraction in Europe for numerous scholars, researchers, and students.

The Centre d'Economie Sociale conducts research on various facets of the "third sector". Although most of its work so far has focused so far on the economic analysis of social economy issues, it now has another disciplinary pole, namely the Cera Chair on "Social Entrepreneurship" whose titulaire and coordinator is Sybille Mertens.

The Centre also takes part in many international research projects - like the Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project - and acts as a coordinator of several of them.

The Centre is a founding member and hosts the co-ordination unit of the EMES European Research Network. It has participated in the Third Sector, EMES, ELEXIES and PERSE projects.