WHO THEY ARE

Founded in Milan (Italy) in 1980, the Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL) is an independent research and consulting company specialised in applied economic research, evaluation of public investment projects, infrastructure project appraisal, support to development programmes and policies, market analysis and SMEs economics. Since its origin, CSIL has been established as a centre of excellence concentrating on the diagnosis and design of sector strategies both for the public and private sectors, and the analysis of factors of competitiveness at regional, national and global levels.

WHAT THEY DO

The research activities at CSIL are structured around two distinct but interrelated business areas:

• Industry Studies and Market Research
• Development and Evaluation Studies
• CSIL's specialisation in two business areas is reflected in the existence of two working groups, one involving experts with specialisation and professional experience in industry studies and market research, and one with expertise in development and evaluation studies. Nevertheless, the two groups constantly collaborate and interact each other, with the creation of specific ad-hoc working groups, when projects require the involvement of knowledge and skills from both the research groups.

Consistency and complementarity within the research objectives and methodological tools are ensured by:

• A common statistical office providing its services to both the business areas, thus putting at disposal the same set of data and offering the same devices, software and methods for data collection (e.g. e-survey) and elaboration;
• A scientific committee providing the quality control over the methodological approach, ensuring that all the final outputs are of good quality and consistent, and advising on the distribution of tasks and responsibilities.

THEIR VISION

CSIL boasts an empirical and experimental perspective, based on the direct and detailed observation of evidence, attentive to differences and similarities, with a concrete and versatile approach.

CSIL research and consulting activities are driven by the search of hard facts that tell stories that are relevant to their clients. CSIL experts pursue their work with intellectual integrity and a genuine passion for understanding growth and innovation processes.