LCII
The Liege Competition and Innovation Institute (LCII) is a research centre of the University of Liege (ULiege) created in 2013. It seeks to explore the complex relationship between competition and innovation in society, from both an economic and legal standpoint.
The LCII seeks to steer fundamental research on those issues in new directions, and possibly to influence the crafting of competition and innovation policies across Europe. To this end, the LCII focus its research activities on several, selected research axes.
Research method
The LCII embraces the idea that cutting-edge research must be interdisciplinary in nature. Whether public or private, decision making is a multifaceted process, involving multidisciplinary considerations. Hence, the Institute promotes the coordination of complementary-but-diverse research capacities (law, economics, marketing …) in order to analyse industrial policy issues with which private undertakings and public authorities often struggle.
To this end, the LCII pools academics from HEC Management school and from the ULiege law school.
ULiege School of Law HEC Liege - Management School
The LCII also benefits from the intellectual support of the network of experts active in the context of the LL.M in Competition Law and Intellectual Property of the ULiege. It also relies on a larger network of competition and innovation professional, built through the organization of regular academic activities in the past years, notably in the context of the Brussels School of Competition.
The LCII applies innovative research methods (empirical studies, experiments, creation of databases, etc.) in order to confront the intuitive reasoning usually relied upon by the legislature and the judiciary with the mathematical and statistical analysis brought by economics.
Dissemination – Community pledge
The ultimate aim of research in social sciences is to help bring societal improvements. To this end, the results of research must be popularized and each piece of work must be optimally disseminated through society while the results.
The LCII’s academic production is widely spread through internationally renowned scientific publications and popularized through mainstream medias (news press and websites).
To disseminate its work product, the LCII relies on the present website and a quarterly newsletter addressed to a mailing list of competition and innovation policy experts. The LCII also develops a “policy brief’” strategy, which consists in systematically publishing executive summaries of research papers on its website.
The LCII also coordinates a bilingual (French/English) LL.M. in EU Competition and IP law. This top-notch educational programme provides international visibility to the University of Liège. More, the coordination of research and educational activities generates synergies, with research enriching teaching and teaching contributing to the diffusion of the research outcomes.
Partnership with the Brussels School of Competition
The Brussels of Competition (BSC) is the twin institution of the Liege Competition and Innovation Institute (LCII).
The BSC is hosted by the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB). It harbours several courses taught in the framework of the Full-English LL.M. in EU Competition and IP Law.
Multiple events and conference are organized in close cooperation between the LCII and the BSC.
