Founded in 1991, the CEGEA - Consulting Unit in Management and Applied Economics provides the community with the resources and capabilities of the Católica Porto Business School. The CEGEA combines research capacity and academic independence with the attention to customer characteristic of a consulting firm.

Areas of activity and customers

The studies carried out by CEGEA spread over the various areas of Economics and Management from Industrial Economics, Competition and Regulation to Marketing, from Rural Economy, Environment and Natural Resources to International Business, or from Social Economy to Human Resources Management. While this does not constitute a limitation to its activities, CEGEA focuses on subjects of particular relevance to the community in which it operates, in particular to the North of Portugal.

With more than 20 years of activity, CEGEA has a long list of costumers. The business world is represented by firms (such as ADIRA, EDP, Metro do Porto, Solverde, SONAE, SPGM, TAP or Unilever Jerónimo Martins), trade associations (such as Associação Empresarial de Portugal and trade associations for such diverse industries as footwear, pharmaceuticals, and moulds) and also “competitiveness poles” (such as PRODUTECH and the Fashion Industry competitiveness pole). CEGEA also works regularly with regulatory agencies (ie., the regulatory agencies for Health, Media, and Road Transports, and also the Competition Authority), government and other administrative bodies (i.e., the Ministries for Economics and Environment, the procurement agency for the Health Ministry, the Portuguese investment and external trade agency, the Coordination and Development Committee for Northern Portugal) and international institutions (such as OECD and the European Commission). But CEGEA’s costumers also include a variety of other institutions such as Associação Comercial do Porto, Porto Derivatives Exchange, the National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions, the National Federation of Dairy Cooperatives, BIAL Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, Prelada Hospital, the Institute of Douro and Porto Wines, the Portuguese Professional Footbal League, the Dentists Bar, among many others.