Research Centres

This is a list of research centres that may be useful for researchers interested in a particular geographic area: Africa, the Ameericas, Asia-Pacific, or Europe . If you think we missed an important centre send us a message, your input is highly appreciated.

Africa Action is a national organization that works for political, economic and social justice in Africa. Through the provision of accessible information and analysis combined with the mobilization of public pressure, we work to change the policies and policy-making processes of U.S. and multinational institutions toward Africa. The work of Africa Action is grounded in the history and purpose of its predecessor organizations, the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), The Africa Fund, and the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), which have fought for freedom and justice in Africa since 1953. Continuing this tradition, Africa Action seeks to re-shape U.S. policy toward African countries.

AfricAvenir is committed to the goals of an African renaissance, that is to root African development on the reality and culture of African peoples and to re-invent and re-construct the African continent according to African priorities and values. Our overall aim is to contribute to the recovery, rehabilitation and imaginative recreation of African civilisation, culture and history in order to devise new ways of thinking, behaving and organising both the African societies and the emerging ‘Global Village.’

The mandate of AERC is threefold: enhancing the capacity of locally based researchers to conduct policy-relevant economic inquiry; promoting retention of such capacity; and encouraging its application in the policy context.

AFRISTAT is acting for the development of statistics in Member states. This covers different area: organisation and administration of statistical systems, national accounts and macroeconomics, prices and household expenditure surveys, informal sector, agricultural statistics, data processing and data dissemination. AFRISTAT also regularly organises regional or sub-regional workshops on relevant topics. AFRISTAT provides expertise in the area of data collection, processing, analysis and on the dissemination of socio-economic data.

CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is headquartered in Dakar Senegal. It was established in 1973 as an independent Pan-African research organisation with a primary focus on the social sciences, broadly defined. It is recognised not only as the pioneer African social research organisation but also as the apex non-governmental centre of social knowledge production on the continent.

The Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) is a non-governmental and non-profit research network that was founded in 1980 in the town of Nazareth, Ethiopia, by a group of social scientists from Eastern Africa. Its constituency is based on membership drawn from social scientists and institutions engaged in teaching and/or research in the social sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The Economic Research Forum (ERF) is a regional network dedicated to promoting high-quality economic research to contribute to sustainable development in the Arab countries, Iran and Turkey

NEPRU is an autonomous Namibian research institute that undertakes applied socio-economic, policy-related research for and on behalf of the Government, domestic and international institutions, as well as the private sector.

The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) is an independent, non-profit think tank. The mission of the Center is to promote economic development in Egypt by conducting and disseminating applied policy research. The aim is to develop viable policy options in light of international experience. The Center’s activities are carried out in the spirit of public interest.

Trade & Industrial Policies Strategies (TIPS) is an independent, non-profit, economic research institution established in 1996 to support economic policy development. TIPS undertakes quantitative and qualitative research, project management, dialogue facilitation, capacity building and knowledge sharing.

Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) is a multilateral financial institution that mobilizes resources from international markets to Latin America, in order to provide multiple banking services to both public and private clients of its shareholder countries. The Institution is committed to sustainable development and regional integration.

The Center for Global Development is an independent, nonprofit policy research organization that is dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality and to making globalization work for the poor. Through a combination of research and strategic outreach, the Center actively engages policymakers and the public to influence the policies of the United States, other rich countries, and such institutions as the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization to improve the economic and social development prospects in poor countries. 

The Regional Coordinator of Economic and Social Research (CRIES) was established in Managua in 1982. It is a network of more than 70 research centres, think tanks, NGOs, foundations, professional associations, experts and academics from Latin America and the Caribbean. Its mandate is to promote economic, political, environmental and social research as well as participation in public debate, empowerment and the impact of civil society on the regional and global agenda.

The Latin American Integration Institute was founded and approved by the National University of La Plata in the year 1970, within the scope of the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences. Its general objective is to develop an academic and scientific space for the treatment of the problems posed by regional integration and socio-economic development in Latin America, trying to facilitate the link between the private and public sector with the findings of specialists, researchers and students of their Postgraduate Articulating, in this way, the development of scientific, academic, transfer and extension activities.

INTAL is a unit of the Inter-American Development Bank. The Institute was founded in the framework of an agreement signed between the IDB and the Government of Argentina, who had offered to be host country. Since its beginnings, INTAL has supported the Bank’s regional integration strategy. Its general objective is to promote and consolidate Latin American and Caribbean integration at the sub-regional, regional, inter-regional, hemispheric and international levels

The French Institute for Andean Studies (IFEA) established in Lima on 14th May 1948, is today an Integrated Unit of the French Institutes Abroad. As a pluridisciplinary institution, the IFEA’s objective is the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge about the Andean world, including its past and present societies, as well as its environment. The Institute receives French, European and Andean researchers and its cooperation activities are carried out in four Andean countries: Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association was founded in July 1992, to encourage greater professional interaction and foster increased dialogue among researchers and practitioners whose work focuses on the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Since its inception, LACEA has grown to an organization with an annual average of 800 active members. To help promote the interaction of young and seasoned economists, as well as social scientists and development practitioners, LACEA also sponsors four research networks: the Network on Inequality and Poverty (NIP); the Political Economy Group (PEG); the Regional Integration Network (RIN); and the Workshop on International Economics and Finance. Since 2000, LACEA has been publishing its own journal Economia.

In 2002, following the Third Summit of the Americas held in Quebec (April 2001), the Center for Inter-American Studies (CEI) was established within the Institut québécois des hautes études internationales (HEI) of the Laval University. Since its creation, the CEI has gradually set up an awareness, training and research program on cooperation and inter-American relations, regional governance and the promotion of democracy in the Americas.

The European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) is a leading Think and Do Tank based in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, focusing on EU-Asia relations since its founding in 1989. As a policy research centre, its aim is to promote understanding between the European Union and Asia. In addition, it aims to strengthen ties between Asia and Europe and to ensure in-depth, comprehensive research and information exchange platform between policymakers, members of academia and think tanks, and civil society.

The Institute for International Trade (IIT) is a leading institution with a global focus and a reputation for providing academically rigorous and practical trade training, policy advice and technical assistance relating to international trade policy and practice. It brings together leading academics, experienced trade practitioners and negotiators to address key challenges faced by businesses and governments seeking to expand trade and investment opportunities globally. The integration of IIT into the University of Adelaide allows it to engage with trade issues in a multidisciplinary setting, and to draw on a large body of economic, legal, business, innovation and trade-related expertise, by bringing together academics, trade practitioners and negotiators from national governments and international organisations.

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies – Yusof Ishak Institute is a regional research centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment.

Founded in 1960, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) is a comprehensive research organization for studies of international politics, economy, security strategy and China's external relations. The SIIS is dedicated to serving for China's modernization drive, and for Shanghai's opening-up and economic development. It mainly studies the United States, Japan, Europe, Russia and the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on relations among major powers and China's periphery environment.

The goal of the Comparative Regionalism Project (CREP) was to identify similarities and differences among Regionalism in three different regions: Europe, the Americas, and East Asia. For this purpose, it analyzed regional arrangements in these regions using the common analytical framework from such perspectives of law, politics and economics. It focused not only on states (national governments) but also on non-state actors such as firms, citizens' groups, and local governments as actors that may enhance the institutionalization of regionalism. Its final goal was to present legal visions that can contribute to the institutionalization of the East Asian regionalism in the future. CREP completed its work on 31 March 2009.

Asia Centre conducts research and organises debates on International Relations issues and on the political and economic transformations of the Asia-Pacific, areas on which it also provides authoritative and independent analyses. The Centre welcomes cooperations and institutional dialogues with partners in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.

AITIC is an intergovernmental organisation (IGO), based in Geneva. Its goal is to assist less-advantaged countries (LACs) to have more effective trade-led growth through personalised assistance and capacity-building programmes. AITIC provides the LACs (i.e. resource-constrained developing countries and economies in transition, with a priority to the least-developed countries) with information and policy advice to help them integrate into the multilateral trading system and the work of the WTO and other international trade-related organisations in Geneva. This assistance contributes to more effective trade policy and to the strengthening of LACs capacity to trade.

French research center in international economics, the CEPII produces studies, researches, databases and analyses on the world economy and its evolution. Founded in 1978, the CEPII is affiliated with the Centre d'analyse stratégique.

The Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) was inaugurated in 1997 and was founded to advance cutting-edge research on the changing nature of global order and the relationship between global and regional levels of analysis. A key focus is on producing high-impact and innovative academic research that challenges the conventional wisdom informs contemporary policy debates and contributes to enhancing public understanding of major global and regional issues.

The Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) was created in 1995 to strengthen economics education and research capabilities in the CIS. Managed by a Moscow-based secretariat, EERC’s Research Network supports original policy-relevant studies, organizes training seminars and research workshops, links academics and policymakers, and invests in the virtual research infrastructure – access to scholarly literature, data and peers. Since 2000, EERC serves as the regional representative of the Global Development Network (GDN) in the CIS.

The German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) is an independent, social science research institute based in Hamburg. It researches political, social and economic developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East as well as global issues. 

The Institute for European Studies is an autonomous department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). It was created in 2001 through an initiative taken by the Flemish Government. It teaches advanced Master programmes, and focuses on interdisciplinary research in European Studies, more specifically on the role of the EU in an international setting. Within this scope, it provides academic services to scholars, policymakers and the general public.

Under the Jean Monnet Project, the European Commission supports university initiatives aimed at creating teaching activities in European integration. Launched in 1990 at the specific request of the academic world, the Jean Monnet Project aims to promote teaching in European integration, in particular in Law, Economics, Political Science and History - the disciplines where European Union developments are becoming an increasingly important part of the subject studied and where student demand is at its greatest. 

Founded in Brussels in 1983, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) serves as a leading forum for debate on EU affairs, but its most distinguishing feature lies in its strong in-house research capacity, complemented by an extensive network of partner institutes throughout the world. 

Established in 1973 as an independent research institute, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) is a non-profit organization [..] The Institute has established a number of databases providing exhaustive statistical data on the countries of Central, East and Southeast Europe.

Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) established in 1974, comprises leading research institutes in the field of European affairs throughout Europe, with an office in Brussels. TEPSA’s aim is to provide high-quality research on European integration based on a ‘Triple-A’ approach: Analysis, Assessment and Advice in order to stimulate discussion on policies and political options for Europe. TEPSA and its member institutes have engaged in a two-fold approach providing expertise on EU policies and politics combined with a vast experience in organising and conducting EU-wide research, training and networks.

The Institut d’Etudes Européennes at the Université libre de Bruxelles (IEE-ULB) is one of the oldest institutes for teaching and research dedicated to European Studies. The IEE-ULB covers mainly four disciplines: European law, political science, economics and history. As an interdisciplinary centre for research and teaching, it trains specialists in European issues.

One of the research projects the institute has been involved in concerns a comparative approach to the finances of regional organisations, which has led to the publication of a comprehensive volume.