FUNDACIÓ CIREM:
FOUNDATION CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN INITIATIVES AND RESEARCH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
The CIREM Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation specialising in applied research and consulting in the field of social sciences.
The CIREM Foundation forms part of the CIREM Group, together with the Innovation for Social Action Foundation (FIAS) and the PROXIMS employment agency, specialising in local services for people.
Since 1989, when it first started operating, CIREM has defined itself as an independent centre.
The CIREM Foundation is overseen by a board of trustees comprising leading figures in education, business, unions and the professional field in Catalonia and elsewhere. The centre is independently financed through its own projects, and is managed by a general management and administrative department.
It was created with a markedly Mediterranean focus in order to promote greater knowledge of the specific characteristics of Mediterranean societies within Europe as a whole.
The CIREM Foundation has four Centres: the Barcelona Centre, International Centre and Documentation Centre, all based in Barcelona, and the Madrid Centre, based in Madrid.
The CIREM Foundation's work focuses on four basic areas:
BARCELONA CENTRE
The Barcelona Centre's research and advisory activity consists of projects covering all the usual fields of our scientific work, with a considerable number of European projects.
Basically, the Barcelona Centre conducts studies and performs tasks in the following fields:
The centre places considerably emphasis on work capacity and interdisciplinarity, thus reinforcing a key factor in the centre's role and services: scientific rigour and commitment to results with the institutions, organisations and companies that entrust the centre with their future concerns and projects.
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
The International Centre is a unit specialising in technical assistance and cooperation projects in third-world countries. It promotes and provides consulting, applied research and intervention in the geographical areas and countries considered priority targets by the European Union in terms of cooperation and association:
The areas of intervention are the same as those of the Foundation as a whole, developing projects on the following issues: employment services; occupational safety and health; active employment policies; human-resources development; reform of vocational training and university education; development of social services; strategic municipal plans; regional development; and public administration reform and/or modernisation.
MADRID CENTRE
The Madrid Centre's main activity is continuous training aimed at preparing methodologies and tools to improve employee and company qualifications.
Projects are also carried out in other research areas, related to the labour market and local development.
One of the tasks performed by the centre consists of researching and preparing proposals for cross-sector intervention with groups of unskilled people, by pooling diagnoses and methodologies for action by employment experts, and assessment of, and prospects for improvement in, the conditions of training contracts.
DOCUMENTATION CENTRE
The CIREM Foundation has a document collection - of over thirteen thousand records - specialising in subjects relevant to researchers' work: the labour market, local development, professional and vocational training, social policy, economics, etc. The collection includes a wide variety of documents: monographs, statistics, documents not available for purchase, periodicals, legislation, European documentation, etc.
This significant amount of unpublished information enables us to offer searches for selected information, provide specific responses to document requests, and disseminate studies.
The Documentation Centre is open to every individual and institution interested in consulting the document collection - library, periodicals, archives - although certain materials have some pre-established restrictions. In order to access the Centre, and for us to provide an appropriate standard of service, a prior appointment must be arranged by phone, fax or e-mail.
WHAT DOES THE CIREM FOUNDATION DO?
Studies and applied research
The CIREM Foundation's basic tasks are applied research and the preparation of studies.
The work carried out provides the basis for the Foundation's usual four lines of basic academic research and consulting:
We work at local, national and international levels. Our clients range from public (local, regional and national) administrations to union organisations, employers' associations and private enterprises. The CIREM Foundation is also a regular collaborator with the European Commission on studies and technical-assistance tasks carried out both in the EU and third-world countries.
Organisation of training activities
The issue of training has been developed by the CIREM Foundation from various angles and has traditionally formed part of one of the Foundation's fields of specialisation.
Most of the projects developed are related to defining and changing qualifications and professional profiles, training needs and devices to detect them, and analysing the sectoral training supply, preparing continuous training plans and designing training actions for on-the-job learning.
Design of intervention programmes
The CIREM Foundation has designed and set up various local intervention programmes, always attempting to deal fully with economic and social policies. Like the CIREM Group, this aspect is developed mainly by Fundación FIAS.
Evaluation of programmes and activities
The CIREM Foundation specialises in external evaluations of programmes and activities, which are conducted at our clients' request.
The Foundation assesses the achievement of set targets, the monitoring of the methodology used and the resulting impact, and the continuity measures for the projects.
Specialist consulting
Advice is an important aspect of the CIREM Foundation. From the outset, the Foundation has advised enterprises on continuous staff training and the organisation of human resources.
Also very important is advice for administrations on social matters and local development.
Organisation of seminars and lectures
The CIREM Foundation regularly organises seminars and lectures on the Foundation's usual research themes.
The basic aim of these seminars is to share CIREM's experiences with other social-research experts in order to make further progress in this field.
SCOPE OF THE CIREM FOUNDATION'S ACTION
Many of the CIREM Foundation's activities are performed on a European- and Mediterranean-wide level. The CIREM Foundation participates in the following European Union programmes: PHARE, TACIS, LEONARDO DA VINCI and SOCRATES; and in the following EU initiatives: URBAN, LEADER, EQUAL and INTERREG. It collaborates with CEDEFOP (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), ETF (the European Training Foundation), the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), and LEED (Local Economic and Employment Development)
It maintains a close relationship with the European Commission's Directorates-General in the following fields: competency, education and culture, work and social affairs, business, research and regional policy.
OUR PUBLICATIONS
The CIREM Foundation publishes a newsletter every four months,
CIREMinforma.
Subscription is entirely free and those interested in receiving it regularly merely need contact the Foundation by telephone, fax or e-mail.
CIREMinforma covers the Foundation's projects, publications, activities and latest news.
Every year a report on the Foundation's activities is published, which is distributed free of charge to all people or institutions interested in receiving it.
The CIREM Foundation webpage is our most dynamic information and communication tool. This page lists the e-mail addresses of all the people who make up the Foundation, in order to facilitate communication with the outside world. It also lists the publications of the Foundation's own studies, which can be ordered directly via email.
THE EuroNET NETWORK: Work and Education
EuroNET: WORK AND EDUCATION is a very well-established European research network in the field of labour relations, to which the CIREM Foundation has belonged from the outset. The members of this network are leading research institutes in their respective countries and have considerable experience of conducting research in this field. They maintain a very good relationship with the European Union. The social research centres that belong to EuroNET stand for qualified and independent applied research. They specialise in advice on developing human and organisational potential. EuroNET members work wholly or predominantly for the national and international research market.
The following institutes are members of the EuroNET network:
CESO I&D Research Development, Lisbon
CIREM The CIREM Foundation, Spain
DTI Danish Technological Institute, Denmark
FORBA Forschungs und Beratungsstelle Arbeitwelt, Austria
HIVA Higher Institute for Labour Studies, Belgium
IES Institute for Employment Studies, UK
ITB Institut Technik & Bildung, Germany
ITS Institute for Applied Social Sciences, Netherlands
NEXUS Cooperative, Social, Economic & Technology Research, Ireland
REVICE Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy University Business Centre, Netherlands
SFS Social Research Centre, Germany
VFA Valter Fissamber & Associates Ltd., Greece
WRC Work Research Centre, Finland
