Founded in 1994, the Business Research Unit (BRU-Iscte or UNIDE-Iscte in its Portuguese designation) is a multidisciplinary research center of the Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa whose scope spans various Business areas. Researchers are mainly faculty from the Iscte Business School (IBS), accredited by AMBA and AACSB, and ranked in the Financial Times European Business Schools ranking, as well as in the Times Higher Education ranking.

BRU-Iscte is accredited by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the National Research Agency, having been ranked as Excellent in the last FCT Evaluation. 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.

The main goal of BRU-Iscte is to promote research at the highest international standards, namely via our 3 interweaving pillars:

  • Engaging with Society
    By developing solutions for specific for corporate and societal challenges.
  • Excellence in Research
    By improving sound research in core Business areas that further advances the international scientific literature.
  • World-class Doctoral Programs
    Able to attract promising national and international students.

BRU-Iscte currently has a total of 173 members of 11 different nationalities. The Unit counts with 159 PhD holders, 98 integrated members and 51 associate members, of which approximately one third completed their PhD or Post-doctoral training in renowned international universities. BRU-Iscte has 24 research assistants, and is supported by 5 administrative staff members.

BRU is organised in 7 Research Groups:

At present, BRU-Iscte runs 4 accredited doctoral programmes, totally taught in English, enrolling 80 students annually of several nationalities:

Multidisciplinary 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 relies on its diversity, united by the common goal of improving managerial and policy-level decision-making.