About the Robert Schuman Centre

The Schuman Centre is a natural way of connecting brilliant academics who do cutting edge research to people in the public and private sectors who need to make forward looking decisions or solve those complex problems

Erik Jones

Director of the Robert Schuman Centre

The Robert Schuman Centre

The Robert Schuman Centre - which takes its name from Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Communities - is an inter-disciplinary research centre at the heart of the European University Institute (EUI). It was established in 1993 to complement the four EUI disciplinary departments of Economics, History and Civilizations, Law, and Social and Political Science, with the goal of developing cutting-edge, academic research and using that research to engage with a wide variety of stakeholders in the public and private sector. In 2023 the Centre celebrated its 30th anniversary with a series of memories shared by Alumni and staff, culminating in Joint Sessions of Workshops in June 2024.

The results of the Centre’s research often become policy output in the form of publications and public events, where academics, policy-makers, members of civil society, and representatives of business exchange knowledge and build solutions to face the challenges of our time. In doing so, the Centre provides opportunities for younger scholars and established researchers to participate in a sustained dialogue with the world of practice.

This problem-centred research agenda is necessarily thematic and interdisciplinary. It also extends beyond the traditional domain of the four disciplinary departments in ways that connect with other centres of excellence in Europe and globally. Currently, the Robert Schuman Centre is home to nine research programmes: the Global Governance Programme, the European Governance and Politics Programme, the Migration Policy Centre, the Florence School of Regulation, the Middle East Directions Programme, the Florence School of Banking and Finance, the Centre for a Digital Society, the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and the Centre for Judicial Cooperation. The Robert Schuman Centre hosts nearly 70 funded research projects, including four funded by the European Research Council, that span a wide range of topics.

The Centre draws its income from a variety of sources, with around two thirds from externally funded grants. The Centre competes actively for prestigious research grants such as European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska–Curie, and co-ordinates or participates in many Horizon Europe projects. The Centre also draws on generous contributions from private foundations, corporations, and individuals. In doing so, the Robert Schuman Centre is careful to maintain its impartiality and intellectual independence.