CEU Research Centers
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Through its research centers, CEU promotes an environment where high-quality research can take place, where readiness for intellectual risk-taking and for radical rethinking of foundations is strongly encouraged, and where values of open society, democracy and critical, reflective thinking are cultivated.
CEU Research Centers complement research and teaching activities in CEU Departments, enhancing interdisciplinary connections among different academic areas and interfacing academic and policy-relevant activities. The Centers support CEU’s mission by raising the university’s international visibility and deepening its regional embeddedness. Building international partnerships with research institutes, corporations, NGOs and governmental agencies, CEU Research Centers operate large-scale research projects, organize outstanding public events, workshops and conferences, as well as offer fellowships in their respective Research Areas.
Directory of CEU Research Centers
| Center for the Study of Imperfections in Democracies (DISC) |
Recent developments suggest that democracies of all ages are facing serious challenges. In response to a widespread suspicion that the quality of democracy in recently re(emerged) and established democracies is increasingly low, the Center for the Study of Imperfections in Democracy (DISC), a research center at Central European University, was established in 2007 to develop and encourage research that reaches across traditional academic and geographic boundaries that exist in the study of democracy by connecting researchers from distinct world regions and from various fields and perspectives. |
| Center for Arts and Culture (CAC) |
The Center for Arts and Culture (CAC) stimulates research and curricula development in the field of arts and culture and cultural policy, initiates culture-related debate within the university, and provides the CEU community with innovative artistic programs aimed at bringing together students from all disciplines, as well as academic staff and the Budapest public. |
| Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy (3CSEP) |
The Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy (3CSEP) is an interdisciplinary research and educational center whose mission is to foster solutions to climate change and sustainable energy challenges, while advancing the implementation of development agendas. The center conducts its research at both the global and the regional/local levels, using selected regions and localities as case studies. |
| Center for Environment and Security (CENSE) |
The mission of the CEU Center for Environment and Security is to generate knowledge and provide policy, management and capacity strengthening solutions to problems of human vulnerability, caused by environmental degradation and scarcity of natural resources. CENSE takes a multi-disciplinary approach to studying the nexus of social and environmental risk in partnership with academic institutions, governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and civil society. In order to implement its mission, CENSE conducts research projects, organizes training courses, supports curriculum development at CEU and beyond, and organizes public meetings and other outreach events. |
| Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine (CELAB) |
The Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine (CELAB) was established in 2005. Ethics and law of biotechnology have obtained increasingly global dimensions. Responding to emerging data protection and intellectual property issues in biomedical law and working towards a better international coordination of regulatory policies in these fields have been two most important issues that CELAB has focused its activities on. The idea behind establishing this Center was based on the recognition of a new and increasingly developing interdisciplinary field: the ethical, legal and social implications of biotechnology. The main pillars of the work done by the Center are the ethics and policy oriented research in the academic field of biotechnology and biomedical law. The Center runs an online biolaw-database, organizes and participates in several international research and policy networks. In the academic year of 2009–10 CELAB is involved in five EU founded projects. In various research projects the Center explores social, cultural, ethical and legal aspects of biobank, stem cell research, genetics, human reproduction, nanotechnology, organ transplantation, regenerative medicine. |
| Center for EU Enlargement Studies (CENS) |
The CENTER FOR EUROPEAN ENLARGEMENT STUDIES (CENS), an independent Center of the Central European University, was founded in 2005 as an institution of advanced research into the EU enlargement process. Our overall goal is to promote a dialogue between member states and partners in Eastern- and Southern-Europe, academics and decision makers in the EU and in national governments so that they may have a more informed understanding of factors that influence Europe’s common future. |
| Center for Hellenic Traditions (CHT) |
The Center for Hellenic Traditions (CHT) promotes Hellenic Studies at Central European University (CEU), in Budapest, the region and beyond. The CHT defines “Hellenic” in inclusive terms encouraging interdisciplinary and transcultural approaches to research and teaching. With a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region, Central Asia, India and North Africa from classical to modern times – placing special emphasis on the Hellenistic empires, the “Byzantine Commonwealth,” and their respective successor cultures and states including the Ottoman empire –, it traces elements of Hellenic culture far beyond a Europe-centric approach. |
| Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) |
CMCS is a member institution in an international project, aiming to address the challenges facing media and communication studies. These are framed both as a wider approach in relevant disciplines like political science, sociology or legal studies, and as a novel theoretical attempt for a better understanding of problems of innovation, meaning, sovereignty, cultural processes, etc. |
| Center for Network Science (CNS) |
The Center for Network Science provides an organizational framework to research in a field that evolved to be arguably the most interdisciplinary over the last fifteen years. With origins in anthropology, and deep roots in sociology, network approaches were recently re-invigorated by a massive interest in the natural sciences. This is an area where ideas from physics (such as phase transition dynamics) is applied to social phenomena (such as social movement mobilization). |
| Center for Policy Studies (CPS) |
The Center for Policy Studies (CPS) is dedicated to improving the quality of governance in the region by providing of independent public policy analysis and advice. The center is committed to strengthening local capacity for critical policy analysis, and pursues research and publication that is interdisciplinary and carried out with partners in the global policy community, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. |
| Cognitive Development Center (CDC) |
The CEU Cognitive Development Center (CDC) was established in September 2008 by Gergely Csibra and Gyorgy Gergely (both faculty members in the Department of Philosophy). The mission of CDC is centered around scientific research on the cognitive development of babies and children. The research work of the center addresses questions related to the ontogenesis of human cognitive capacities, especially action interpretation, emotional development, social cognition and basic cultural learning mechanisms. CDC also plays an active role in the PhD program of the Department of Philosophy. |
| Open Century Project |
The Open Century Project aims to influence political debate through its fellowship program and to lead - together with Remarque Institute at New York University and the Center for Contemporary Studies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore - a research initiative to critically re-think the conceptual framework in which society and its elected politicians think about the world today. |
| Open Society Archives |
The Open Society Archives at CEU (OSA), established in 1995, saves, processes and makes publicly available the materials of the Research Institute of the legendary “enemy” radios: Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. OSA’s collection has since expanded to become one of the largest archives on communism and the Cold War, with one of the most significant human rights materials collection in the region. |
| Pasts Inc., Center for Historical Studies |