Ceris, Istituto di Ricerca sull'Impresa e lo Sviluppo (Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth) is the main centre of CNR (National Research Council) which specialises in applied industrial and managerial economics. Ceris was established in 1964 as a spin-off of the former Centro di Ricerca e Documentazione per l'Industria (Centre for Research and Documentation on Industry), founded in 1956 by Professor F.M. Pacces. It can now boast considerable experience in economic research on company behaviour and industry structure as well as connections with issues of industrial policy. Its research staff has long standing relationships with Universities, Ministries, Governmental Institutions, Authorities and private research centres. Ceris is directed by Secondo Rolfo, and its external referee within the CNR is the Scientific Committee for Economics, Statistics and Sociology.

In the first months of 2003, following the dissolution of ISPRI-CNR, two research units have been created in Rome (Institutions and Policies for Science and Technology) and Milan (Dynamics of Economic Systems). This way Ceris enlarges its research competencies towards the economic development issues and the science policies.

Contractual agreements and research partnerships can be signed with both private and public institutions willing to finance in full or in part research programmes and related publications. In recent years Ceris has intensified its international liasons by joining European Community programmes as well as collaborative international projects with research groups at The University of East Anglia (Great Britain); Wissenschaft Zentrum Berlin (Germany); Erasmus Universiteit (Netherland); Katolieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium); Université de Savoie (France);  Audencia-Nantes (France); MIT, Massachusset Institute of Technology (USA); Boston College (USA), Lest-CNRS (France), Max Planck Institute of Economics (Germany). Ceris has also joined the european network PRIME and Gate 2 Growth.

 The main fields of the on-going research activity are:

  • Firm strategy and industrial structure: studies on the impact of the institutional context (financial markets, corporate governance, Single Market Program) on companies' real and financial decisions;

  • Studies on the industrial organisation within the European Union (especially on the hi-tech industries);

  • Analysis of the local growth problems (industrial districts, clusters);

  • Comparative survey of public policies in European countries (industrial, social, innovation, local growth policies);

  • Analysis of technological innovation and competitiveness. Studies on the production, use and diffusion of new products and services;

  • Studies on the research system, the technological transfer and the related evaluation methods.