This year’s conference (3-7 November) is co-organised by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), an institutional member of the EMES network, and Utrecht University (UU). Over the past 50 years, RSM has firmly established its reputation as one of Europe’s most international and innovative business schools, with a mission to be a force for positive change in the world. Utrecht University, founded in 1636, is a wide-ranging, international research university of high standing, committed to addressing complex societal challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration.

The 10th EMES Conference review process is currently being finalised, and registration is now open. We look forward to welcoming participants from around the world to this exciting edition of the EMES International Research Conference.

Conference co-chairs
The theme of the conference is ‘Scaling Through Communities: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises in Boosting Societal Transitions’. Below, we explain briefly who the co-chairs are and how they align with the theme.

Tine De Moor (RSM, Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Tine De Moor (PhD; Ghent, Antwerp, and London) is a full professor of Social Enterprises and Institutions for Collective Action at the Department of Business-Society Management at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her work covers topics such as energy and care cooperatives, short-chain food initiatives, platform cooperatives, and mutual insurance for the self-employed. She has developed innovative research methods through various ‘extreme’ citizen science projects.

Tine was president of the International Association for the Study of the Commons, founded the peer-reviewed International Journal of the Commons, and serves as an expert on several national and international boards. Over the past decade, she has been awarded multiple large research grants, including an ERC Starting Grant, NWO-VIDI, and NWO-VICI. Her knowledge exchange platform for citizen collectives, CollectieveKracht, was awarded the EUR Open Science Award (2023) and the Brouwer Vertrouwensprijs (2025).

Niels Bosma (Utrecht University)

Niels Bosma is a full professor of Social Entrepreneurship and Director of Studies with Utrecht University School of Economics, and a member of the Utrecht Centre for Entrepreneurship. He holds a PhD in Economic Geography, obtained at Utrecht University and an MSc degree in Econometrics (University of Groningen). Before moving to Utrecht University, Niels was affiliated to London Business School, EIM Business and Policy Research (now part of the Panteia group), Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Tinbergen Institute.

Niels is particularly interested in individuals’ entrepreneurial and innovative behaviour in regional and social contexts and has several publications in leading academic journals. He is also a cofounder and coordinator of the Utrecht University Social Entrepreneurship Initiative and was a member of GECES, an expert group advising the European Commission on activities related to the Social Business Initiative.

Thomas Bauwens (RSM, Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Thomas Bauwens is an assistant professor researching collective action for sustainability at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He holds a PhD in Economics and Management from HEC Management School, University of Liege, and an MSc in Economics from the Economic School of Louvain, University of Louvain. Before joining RSM, Thomas was affiliated with Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and Oxford University.

Thomas is particularly interested in the organisational and institutional conditions that foster collective solutions to sustainability challenges such as climate change and the circular economy. His research combines insights from institutional economics, sociology, and economic geography, and has contributed to understanding the role of renewable energy communities, circular economy start-ups, and community governance in sustainability transitions. He was awarded a €1.5 million ERC Starting Grant for the five-year project SCENSUS, which explores how community enterprises can drive economic transformation to tackle urgent sustainability challenges.

Karin Geuijen (Utrecht University)

Karin Geuijen’s is an assistant professor researching experimental innovations aimed at making difficult social issues manageable, particularly in the area of forced migration. She focuses on the collaboration between various partners, including social enterprises, commons initiatives, and public organisations. She also teaches, gives workshops, and lectures on public value and on innovations in refugee policy.

Karin co-leads SCENTISS, a collaborative research project on how facilitative ecosystems boost social and community-driven entrepreneurship for the transition to an inclusive and sustainable society. She also co-initiated and implemented the Centre on Scaling (UU) and is a member of the core team of the National Competence Centre on Social Innovation in the Netherlands.

Nicole Göler von Ravensburg (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany)

Nicole Göler von Ravensburg is a Tenured Professor of Socio-Economics at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the EMES International Research Network, where she plays an active role in shaping strategic directions and fostering research collaboration within the community. Her recent work explores the development trajectories of social cooperatives in Germany and Europe, with a particular focus on their role in delivering social welfare services.

Nicole chaired the 9th EMES International Research Conference, leading the organisation of one of the most dynamic and interdisciplinary gatherings of scholars and practitioners in the field. Her leadership and commitment to research-based dialogue have been instrumental in advancing EMES’s mission to connect academic knowledge with real-world social innovation.

Local organizers
Besides the co-chairs, there is also a local team working with EMES to arrange the practical side of the conference. You will probably see (and meet!) the following people during the conference.

• René van Weeren (Utrecht University) is the Platform Manager of the Platform Bottom-up Initiatives for Societal Change within the Institutions for Open Societies network. He is also the Office Manager of the N.W. Posthumus Institute, the Research School within the Netherlands and Flanders for Economic and Social History.
• Marianne Groep-Foncke (RSM, Erasmus University Rotterdam) is the Research Officer of the research group Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action. She takes up many coordinating tasks and does postdoctoral research at historical institutions for collective action and the application of machine-learning techniques in historical studies.
• Arjan van Dorsselaer (Utrecht University) is a doctoral researcher at the Utrecht University School of Economics (USE) and the School of Governance (USG). He studies the development of social entrepreneurial ecosystems and how these influence and are influenced by the various scaling strategies of social enterprises.
• Tessa Moolenaar (RSM, Erasmus University Rotterdam) is the Communications Advisor of the research group Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action. Her main activity is to strengthen the reach, impact and brand awareness of CollectieveKracht, a knowledge exchange platform for citizen collectives.