Research Units

Sciences Po’s researchers are affiliated with the department of their discipline and develop their work in research centres and crosscutting programs. 

One department for each discipline

Each of the five major disciplines at Sciences Po is organized into a department.  In addition to being responsible for matters linked to teaching and educational offerings, each department serves as a forum for exchanging ideas on the development of each discipline and on its specific operating principles.

Visit Departments websites

• Economics 

• History (in French) 

• Law 

• Political Science 

• Sociology

Ten Research Centres

Disciplinary affiliation aside, each researcher works with a Research Centre (whose scope may exactly match that of a department if the centre is monodisciplinary).  There are ten CNRS research centres, including six jointly run with Sciences Po.  Adding to these ten research units is the OFCE, which serves as both a research centre and an economic forecasting organization.

Visit research Centres websites

• The Center for Socio-Political Data (CDSP) 

• The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE)  

• The Center for International Studies (CERI)

• The CEVIPOF - The Centre de Recherches Politiques

• The Centre for History (CHSP) 

• The Centre for Studies in Social Change (OSC)

• The Centre for the Sociology of Organisations (CSO) 

• The Department of economics 

• The Law School 

• The médialab

• The Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE)

Three crosscutting programs

Researchers from our various research units lead these programs, which develop crosscutting and multidisciplinary issues.  The LIEPP and DIME-SHS have been awarded highly competitive grants from the “Investments for the Future” program, and MaxPo has a contractual partnership with the prestigious Max Planck Society.

Visit crosscutting programs websites

• The Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP)

• The Données Infrastructures et Méthodes d'Enquête en Sciences Humaines et Sociales (DIME-SHS, in French) 

• The Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)

A Doctoral School

The Doctoral School provides research training through research to Masters and PhD students in law, economics, history, political science and sociology.

Visit the Doctoral School website