EMES International Research Network

24/07/2026

...it's time to slow down, recharge and celebrate what makes the EMES community so special!
Before heading into the summer break, we'd love to leave you with one of those stories that reminds us why research networks matter. Not only because they generate knowledge, but because they create lasting collaborations, friendships and new opportunities across borders.
💚 This story is particularly close to our hearts.
It shows how two long-standing members of the EMES community turned years of shared engagement within EMES into a new international collaboration connecting Portugal and Brazil.
Their initiative brought together students and researchers from both institutions to exchange ideas on social innovation, public policy and societal challenges, proving once again that meaningful collaborations often begin within our community and continue far beyond EMES events.
📖 Read the full story on our blog and discover how EMES connections continue to inspire new research, partnerships and impact:
🔗 https://emes.net/news/

☀️ We wish you a wonderful and well-deserved summer, and we look forward to seeing you again soon with new ideas, new projects and renewed energy.

03/07/2026

⚡After an unforgettable week at UCLouvain, the wrapped up yesterday with a tightly knitted community of diverse of social and solidarity economy researchers sharing a common sense of purpose and human connection.

Over the past days, 45 PhD candidates and early-career researchers from all over the world gathered to contribute to lively discussions on social and solidarity economy, and social enterprise. Together they shared their research in group sessions, engaged in multiple workshops, attended several plenary sessions, and exchanged with well-known professors from recognized research centers and institutions.

⭐️This 10th edition marked 18 years of EMES Training Schools: a research network for researchers that has dedicated almost two decades to nurturing the next generation of social economy scholars at the international level, bridging the gap between research and practice.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the co-chairs, faculty body, speakers, partners, and hosts at UCLouvain, as well as the sponsors CIRTES, CES, ESIC, FNRS, LIDAM, and CERA. And, of course, to every participant who brought humanity, curiosity and critical reflection to this shared space of learning.

Have a safe trip back home and see you at the next EMES event!

02/07/2026

🌱 Time flies, and we have already reached the last day! Today started off with an engaging workshop facilitated by Sander Berghmans, Karel Deneckere, Philippe Eiselein, with Sergio Páramo-Ortiz as chair. Through a 4-step framework, participants reflected on the work of researchers as potential social innovators, assessing the current impact of their research and planning potential avenues to further engage the relevant stakeholders.

The final reflective session facilitated by Nogales Muriel, Anaïs Périlleux and Frédéric Dufays, offered a most-fitting conclusion: the transformative power we hold as a community of engaged researchers.

01/07/2026

⚡We set off on the third day at UCLouvain with fruitful academic debates of another set of group sessions in which PhDs and early-career researchers shared their ongoing work, collectively addressing the contribution of social enterprises to more caring and sustainable societies.

🌱 This early start organically built up to the second half of the morning, dedicated to the plenary session by Flor Avelino about sustainability transitions, chaired by Francesca Petrella. During the plenary, we reflected on questions surrounding “power” and relations within sustainability transitions: What is it? Who exercises it and how? Exploring gaps, paradoxes, and epistemological challenges, we engaged in a thoughtful dialogue on challenges and possibilities of transforming power relations towards more just, sustainable and democratic futures.

The day continued at the 10th EMES Training School with a workshop on how to write and disseminate results from engaged research, coordinated by Benjamin Huybrechts and Frédéric Dufays. For the first part of the workshop, we had the opportunity to hear Carolina Carvalho and Judith Jordà i Frias talk about the Coletivo TECER na Academia, which they co-organize at Universidade de Coimbra. A second section consisted of the interventions of Anaïs Perilleaux, Giulia Galera and Juliana Rodrigues, discussing their experiences as researchers writing and disseminating engaged research at different stages of their academic careers. The workshop closed out with a Q&A section on navigating the process of publishing engaged research, with participants being able to interact with Benjamin Huybrechts, Frédéric Dufays, and Sergio Paramo-Ortiz in their roles as editors of relevant journals.

Completing this third day jam-packed with thought-provoking content, the PhDs and early-career researchers enjoyed their last round of parallel-group sessions.

In the evening, participants will come together for a special dinner to continue our human connection beyond the lecture rooms, fundamental for the EMES community.

💡 Tomorrow brings the closing sessions for this 10th EMES Training School. Let’s enjoy everything until the very last moment!

30/06/2026

🚀 The second day at the 10th EMES Training School kicked off with the second installment of the group parallel sessions, where our PhD students and early career researchers got into deep discussions regarding their ongoing research, showcasing the full diversity and strength of the SE community.

🌱 The rest of the morning was completed with the provocative plenary session chaired by Andreia Lemaître, with the participation of Luciane Lucas dos Santos and Fernanda Wanderley discussing the role of Social and Solidarity Economy research in fostering economic justice in Europe. The focus of the session was placed on how perspectives from and dialogue with plural perspectives from the global South (and particularly Latin America) can contribute to an engaged research agenda committed to social, economic, environmental, and epistemic justice.

💡 After lunch, two stimulating workshops focused on the conceptual plurality of the SE Field and engaged research epistemologies.

👉 The first, chaired by Marthe Nyssens and Coralie Helleputte, focused on leveraging the plurality of terminology and approaches surrounding the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE, social enterprise, nonprofit sector, popular economy and others) as a basis for research, reflecting on their historical roots and their institutional context.

👉 The second, chaired by Sybille Mertens, critically reflected on the range of ethical dilemmas that might arise when conducting engaged research. Featuring real challenges from several researchers in our EMES Network, the session provided participants with strategies for navigating them with reflexivity and responsibility. With Coralie Helleputte, Antoine Gavroye, Giulia Galera, and Francesca Petrella

💡 Tomorrow will continue with more group sessions, plenaries, workshops, and, of course, the special dinner!

29/06/2026

🚀 The first day of the 10th EMES Training School continued with 6 parallel group sessions where PhD students and early career researchers presented and discussed their ongoing work. An important feature of these sessions is the time participants are given to engage in an in-depth dialogue on key issues for their research process.

🌱 The afternoon’s highlight: the plenary session chaired by Florence Degavre with the thought-provoking interventions of Zoé Marlier, Matthieu de Nanteuil, and Frank Moulaert addressing plural epistemological basis for engaged research in the SE field. The speakers invited us to rethink how we can move beyond conventional epistemological frameworks towards a more multivocal and plural epistemologies with an intention of “commoning” research.

We rounded out the first day with the meeting of our vibrant PhD Network, sharing the network’s purpose, its main current activities, and thinking on the next steps to keep strengthening the community.

💡 Now the Training School is officially underway, with so much more to come in these next few days! Together we’ll explore how engaged research can move the SE field further to advance knowledge and drive change in times of multidimensional crises.

29/06/2026

⚡The 10th EMES Training School starts off strong!
What an inspiring opening session hearing from researchers long committed to the field. We started the day with the remarks and welcome from Marthe Nyssens (CIRTES, UC Louvain), Sybille Mertens (CES, Uliège), Gonzague Vannoorenberghe (IRES and LIDAM), Georges Hübner (ULiège), Francesca Petrella (EMES & LEST-Aix-Marseille).

What if the introduction rounds already started with reflective reflections? All participants and faculty body introductions were done during a network-building exercise and a reflective research bingo, seeing familiar faces and getting to know new ones, connecting in-person with long-distance virtual friends. The morning was completed with the thought-provoking “moving debate” facilitated by the co-chairs Anaïs Périlleux and Frédéric Dufays.

💡 Now the Training School is officially underway! Over the next four days, we’ll explore how engaged research can empower researchers in the SE field to advance knowledge and drive change in times of multidimensional crises.

29/06/2026

🌱 The day’s finally here! kicks off today.

Over the next days, 45 PhD candidates and early-career researchers from all over the world will gather in Belgium to discuss our theses and ongoing research; engage in reflective workshops, group presentations and plenary sessions; and exchange with well-known professors from recognized research centers. We will be hosted by EMES institutional members Université catholique de Louvain and Université de Liège, with the co-chairs Anaïs Périlleux and Frédéric Dufays.

Throughout the week we will be up to several activities to delve deeper into the main topic of our training school this year on “Advancing Knowledge and Driving Change: What Epistemologies and Methodologies for Engaged Research in the SE Field in Times of Multidimensional Crises”:

👉 Three inspiring plenary sessions by Zoé Marlier (CES, ULiège), Matthieu de Nanteuil (UCLouvain) and Frank Moulaert (KULeuven); Luciane Lucas dos Santos (CES, University of Coimbra) and Fernanda Wanderley (Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo”); and Flor Avelino (Utrecht University).
👉 Three workshops concerning epistemologies and methodologies for engaged research in the SE field.
👉 Two reflective workshops led by our co-chairs to question how we approach our own research practice.
👉 20+ parallel group sessions covering a broad spectrum of SE research themes.

🚀 Looking forward to a week of learning and collaboration!

27/04/2026

📣 EMES PhD Network – Community Update

Spent months on a paper that only a handful of people will read? You're not alone, and there's a way to change that. 🎯
The EMES PhD Student Network brings you another must-attend session: "From Research to Impact: Communicating Social Enterprise and Social Economy Research," co-organized by Maria Samareva and Kardelen Dilara Cazgır

In this session, Francesca Calò and Maciej (Matthias) K. Szulc will share their experiences, challenges, and practical examples of communicating your work to policymakers, practitioners, and the wider public, so your research reaches the people who can actually use it.
🔹 When? April 29
🔹 Time? 15:30 – 16:30 CEST
👉 Register here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=31VGvnOsH0CnrhmMO3LQxooTvi9VGNxIvGrXq_1A8KVUQ1NVMFVLSjRPQ0k5TEVQQ1NBM0g5MFo1OC4u&origin=lprLink&route=shorturl

It’s wonderful to see so many EMES members coming together and contributing to these initiatives — a great reflection of the strength of our community!

14/04/2026

🌍 Call for Contributions Open – Lisbon 2026

We’re happy to share that the Call for Contributions is now open for the 6th International Conference on Social Solidarity and the Commons 🇵🇹

🌍 6th International Conference on Social Solidarity Economy and the Commons

We are pleased to announce that the Call for Contributions for the 6th edition of the SSE Commons conference is now open! Join us at Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon, in Lisbon from November 4 to 6, 2026, to envision and build our shared future.

📍 This year’s theme: “Hacking Our Common Future: Transnational cooperation between community-led initiatives in a fragmented world”

We are seeking contributions from:
🔹 Researchers
🔹 Policy makers
🔹 Artists
🔹 Activists

Registration is free for Iscte students. Submission deadline: May 31, 2026
🔗 More information and submissions: https://ssecommons.cei.iscte-iul.pt/registration/