Coordination unit

Since the creation of the Coordination Unit in 2004, EMES has a professional staff supporting its project activities. It includes a full time Managing Director, one half-time Administrative Assistant and ad hoc Project & Communication Officers.

The range of initiatives carried out by the coordination unit and the members of EMES covers research, educational initiatives (e.g. FETSE), dissemination activities, and the organization of international events (PhD Summer Schools, Research Conferences…).

The EMES Coordination Unit also benefits from a number of volunteer contributions covering the various spectrum of activities.

In addition to the coordination of research the Coordination Unit has developed an expertise on the dissemination and communication of international projects such as:

Rocío Nogales Muriel

Director

Rocío Nogales Muriel has been the managing director of the EMES International Research Network since 2004. Her responsibilities include coordinating international research projects, organising international research conferences, seminars, and Training Schools, and forging international alliances. She has conducted consultancy and advisory work for international organisations like the OECD and the UNDP on the resource mobilisation of social enterprises, on social enterprises in emerging countries, and on the contribution of social enterprises to employment creation.

Rocío holds a Masters in Art Management at Carnegie Mellon University (US), a Masters in Art History at the University of Pittsburgh (US), and a Masters in Management Science at the University of Liege (Belgium).

She earned her PhD at the University of Barcelona in 2017 on the topic of social innovation in cultural and artistic social enterprises (CASE). In particular, she studied the scaling-up process of the Smart cooperative model. Her research focuses on social change, organizational transformation and the management strategies operating in cultural third sector organizations. Her thesis received the 2020 ENCATC Research Award on Cultural Policy and Management and was published by Routledge in 2023 under the title “Social Innovation, Social Enterprises and the Cultural Economy. Cultural and Artistic Social Enterprises in Practice“.

Prior to EMES, her professional experience includes the cultural non-profit and the academic research sectors. She first managed the CineMuse Network, a social enterprise initiative in a community arts centre in the US.

She was a member of the Experts Group on Social Enterprise of the European Commission (GECES) from 2013 to 2017 and currently represents EMES as Observer member in the UN Inter-Agency Task Force for Social and Solidarity Economy.

She is a member of the Board of Culture Action Europe (CAE) and the Council of the Spanish Smart Ibérica cooperative.

Tamara Bilbija

Project and Communication Officer

Tamara Bilbija is responsible for maintaining EMES projects and track project progress, assisting the research community. She also assists with administrative tasks and creating communications content on behalf of the EMES research network.

She has been working in a multicultural and dynamic environment in the area of Communication, Research and Project Management.

She is a PhD candidate at the University Jaume I on the topic of the Well-being of workers in Work Integration social enterprise. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Master’s degree in Management.

Were also part of the team

Sophie Adam

Communication and Project Manager

Sophie Adam supports the EMES network with the preparation and implementation of international research projects ( e.g. ICSEM), and she assists with Communication tasks. Sophie holds a Master of Interpretation and Master of Translation from the University of Mons-Hainaut. She also has a Specialised Master of Development Management from the University of Liege (Belgium).

She has gained professional experience working as an editor for more than 20 years and recently as a coordination assistant.

Sabine Spada

Project and administration assistant

Sabine Spada assists with the preparation and implementation of international research projects and the organisation of EMES events and activities.

Sabine Spada obtained a diploma as Executive Secretary from the Université du Travail of Charleroi (Belgium) and a degree in accountancy from Brussels’ Belgian Chamber of Accountants (Chambre Belge des Comptables de Bruxelles, Belgium).

She worked as an office manager and project assistant for 15 years for the co-operative sector, first with DIESIS, whose mission is to support the development of the social economy in Europe, and then for the social housing sector, with CECODHAS Housing Europe, the federation of public, cooperative and social housing. She has a wide experience in the administrative coordination of European organisations working in areas of the social economy. She started to collaborate with EMES in 2010; she assists with the preparation and implementation of international research projects and the organisation of EMES events and activities.

Thomas Pongo

Science & Communication Manager

Thomas Pongo supports the network and its members in five main areas of activity: research, teaching, community, governance and communication.

Thomas has worked as a research and teaching assistant (UCL). Within the framework of his PhD, Thomas specialized in Qualitative Social Research, Business Ethics, Organization Studies and Social and Solidarity Economy.

His work focused on empirical research concerning decision making, ethical issues and agro-food militancy. His research insisted on the difficult balance between moral, social and argumentative competencies as well as different distribution systems. It also suggested an EMES-inspired typology for making sense of the diversity of Alternative Food Networks.

Since October 2017, he has also been working as an educational manager at the Centre d’Economie Sociale (Belgium). He has been responsible for re-designing a new Business Ethics curriculum for management students.

Contact information
Skype: thomas.pongo

Michaela Lednova

Michaela Lednova holds a Master of Social Economy from University of Barcelona (Spain), and a Master of Economic Science from University College Dublin (Ireland).

In the course of the past 12 years she has gained experience working in more than 30 countries of South/Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Middle East, covering areas of civil society, social enterprise and social innovations.

She worked for the international organisations (UNDP, EC and EFTA/FMO), non-profit and public sectors. She was a fellow at the EMES CU from October 2016 to July 2017 taking the lead on the development of project proposals and the analysis of EMES sustainability.

Jenny Eschweiler

Project and Communications Officer

Jenny is mainly responsible for the Third Sector Impact website and social media presence and she assists with other communication related tasks for the project.

Jenny Eschweiler graduated from Bonn University in Germany with a MA in Political Science, Sociology and American Literature. She completed her PhD at the University of Kent, UK and the University of Roskilde, Denmark on the topic of deliberative democracy and Muslim civil society organisations in Germany.

She has been a member of the EMES PhD Student Network since 2008 when she participated in the EMES PhD Summer School in Corsica. She joined EMES as a volunteer in 2013 and formally joined the staff in March 2014.

She lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Contact information
Skype: jennyeschweiler