CES employs research lines combining innovation, internationalization, interculturality and the transforming impact on social reality.

CES major strategic orientations are:

• To foster innovative and participatory epistemologies and methodologies, contributing to the development of critical thinking and to the construction of tools for the critical analysis of society;
• To stimulate a dialogue among knowledges, acknowledging cultural diversity in the world and articulating scientific knowledge with knowledge produced by citizens and social movements;
• To strengthen relations with the Global South, focusing on shared knowledge, mutual recognition and intercultural understanding. Within this strategy, the Portuguese-speaking countries are key to foster North-South and South-South dialogues;
• To stimulate science in society and for society, widening citizens’ engagement with scientific culture and participation in public policies, and revitalizing human rights, bearing social groups under oppression, discrimination and exclusion in mind;
• To foster thematic PhD Programmes and advanced training activities in-line with the most pressing challenges for science;
• To promote culture, the arts and critical considerations of the past as means of advancing new ways of reflection and self-reflection on knowledge and society;
• To support the formulation of public policies by developing applied research across a wide spectrum of areas impacting the well-being of societies;
• To contribute to a mutually enriching exchange of experiences worldwide with a clear focus on mapping and promoting new visions for Europe in a changing world.