Founded in 1994, the Business Research Unit (BRU-Iscte; UNIDE-Iscte in Portuguese) is a multidisciplinary research centre of Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, whose scope spans various Business areas.
BRU-Iscte is accredited by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the Portuguese national research agency, having ranked Excellent in the latest evaluation. Our research is funded by FCT core funding, by international and national competitive research grants, as well as by other research contracts with public and private entities.
BRU-Iscte’s main goal is to promote research at the highest international standards based on our four core pillars:
- Boost a Multidisciplinary International Research Environment
- Advance Cutting-edge Research & Innovation
- Nurture Top-Quality Business Researchers
- Ensure Societal Impact and Ethical Practices
BRU-Iscte currently hosts a total of 177 members of 18 different nationalities.
The Unit counts with 144 PhD holders, 95 integrated members and 49 associate members, of whom approximately half completed their PhD or Post-doctoral training in renowned international universities. BRU-Iscte has 27 research assistants and is supported by 6 administrative staff members.
BRU-Iscte is organised in 7 Research Groups:
At present, BRU-Iscte runs 4 accredited doctoral programmes, totally taught in English, in which around 80 students of several nationalities enrol every year:
- Economics
- Finance
- Management (with 7 specialisations):
- Accounting
- Data Science
- Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour
- Marketing
- Operations Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Management
- Quantitative Methods applied to Management
- Strategy and Entrepreneurship
- Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), partly in collaboration with Chinese Universities
Multi and interdisciplinary research is encouraged within BRU-Iscte as a key strength that builds in-house knowledge across several disciplines and leverages the academic programmes, as well as corporate and industry relations. The Unit believes its strength lies in its diversity, with the common goal of improving managerial and policy-level decision-making.
BRU is part of Iscte CI (Iscte Knowledge and Innovation Association), an umbrella structure within Iscte that houses 8 Research Units, 9 Labs, and 8 Observatories, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and collaborative workspaces. Here, a shared Data Center is available to provide our research community their required computing and data storage needs, making this a fully functioning and secure technology and knowledge transfer hub.
A joint science communication group operates across different knowledge domains and provides a varied range of solutions to reach audiences outside the research community. Iscte CI also has a Research Support Office with a highly skilled team that helps valorise ideas and projects from beginning to end. It adopts a Data Stewardship & Open Science approach, providing support and access to several platforms and networks for the research community to thrive.
Within Iscte CI, BRU has been involved in over 20 funded multidisciplinary projects with other Iscte Units and over 140 non-academic partners, having had the opportunity to showcase its work to Government, media, and other stakeholders. Together with other research units at Iscte, BRU is a founding member of the SocioDigital Lab for Public Policy (SDLab), an accredited FCT Associate Lab. BRU-Iscte’s integrated members actively contribute to the Lab’s activities, oriented to inform, design and evaluate public policies. Recently, BRU researchers were involved in the SDLab annual conferences: “Digital Transformation in Times of Crisis” in 2022, and “Inclusive Territories for the Green and Digital Transition” in 2023. The debates generated by these conferences have resulted in high-level policy briefs.
