The Centre for Economic and Social History was established in April 2008 by the Rector of the University of Ostrava at the University’s Faculty of Arts as a centre of research excellence to achieve results of international quality. The Centre was set up on the basis of the favourable evaluation of the project “Economic and Social Factors of the Historical Process of Modernization” by a selection committee appointed by the Rector of the University of Ostrava. A team of internal and several external academic staff members was set up for the handling of this project (for more vide infra), who had, in the past, carried out research related to the main project and had won grant funding from the Czech Science Foundation, the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, or from the resources of the Internal Grant Agency of the University of Ostrava.

The staff of the Centre are mostly researchers and tutors based the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ostrava, and alumni of the Department’s doctoral studies who are now employed at different universities or research institutions. Postgraduates of doctoral studies of Economic and Social History are also systematically engaged in the work of the Centre. The Centre for Economic and Social History therefore builds on the existing research focus of its staff, integrating their specialist research focus into the investigation of current issues which are less extensively explored by Czech researchers but which are of key significance for the understanding of the complicated relations underpinning contemporary society.

The Centre builds organically on the existing focus of individual staff members of the Department of History. Its mission is to provide optimum conditions for high-quality research activity, including the organization of sabbatical semesters, the use of national and especially international libraries and archives (study visits), the publication of research findings (the creation of a series of monographs, or in the future, of specialized periodicals) and last but not least, contacts with institutions abroad whose research focuses on similar areas (internships, participation in scientific conferences and workshops etc.).