South-East European Research Centre

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The South East Europe Research Centre Greece

The South East European Research Centre (SEERC) is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit research centre based in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was established jointly by the University of Sheffield (UK) and CITY College, International Faculty of the University (Greece) in 2003, as a truly international research institute with the mission to support the stable and peaceful development of South-East Europe by conducting pure and applied research in, and for the region.

Research at SEERC is organised along three research tracks:

1. Enterprise, Innovation and Development.
2. Information and Communication Technologies.
3. Society and Human Development: Psychology, Politics, Sociology and Education.

Within each of these areas, SEERC has developed multiple research groups focusing their expertise on specific sets of questions. In line with the international vision established for the centre, each research group is composed at its base of researchers from the University of Sheffield and from CITY College, and is open to additional members coming from universities, research centres, and think tanks throughout Europe. The centre currently employs 12 researchers, trains 40 PhD students and uses an extensive network of affiliated researchers.

The past 5 years SEERC has successfully participated in several Lifelong Learning projects focusing on higher and vocational education and e-learning and maintains close links with social partners in the fields of social inclusion, special education and youth empowerment. Being sited in Greece the research centre has been central to studying social change during the economic crisis, working with unemployed women and with women employed in the informal economy. SEERC has long-standing working relationships with local VET, third sector and regional government that will be crucial to the success of the project and will allow for effective dissemination and valorisation of HELPcare.