Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini was established in 1971 and for thirty-five years has carried out research and studies into cultural trends and social changes, following a rigorous scientific and interdisciplinary approach. The Foundation’s two main offices, located in Rome and Milan, provide both a cultural presence and links to important centres that allow FGB to take into account changing cultural and scientific trends. FGB’s Management Board consists of prominent figures from the main Italian Universities. During nearly 30 years of activities, FGB has focused in particular on labour issues based around three main areas: employment, equal opportunities, inclusion and social policies, local development, public policies evaluation and history. Today, with an extended network of nearly 230 researchers, FGB co-operates with the European Trade Union Institute and is part of the international research networks, Regional and Local Development of Work and Labour, and co-operates with the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation. FGB participates fully in a wide range of EU collaborative programmes in research, education and training, with a particularly strong engagement in the Framework Programmes and other European R&D programmes.

The Foundation is also part of the ELNEP network of research institutes and experts which provides analyses and forecasts about macroeconomic policies and employment in Europe. Since 2000 FGB has provided technical assistance to the Commission’s DG Employment and Social Affairs regarding the evaluation of the Italian Employment NAP, as the Italian member of the Sysdem network of the European Employment Observatory. FGB has considerable experience of managing projects for the Commission. During the last three years FGB has received funding from the Commission for 24 projects, and between 2002 and 2006 it has taken part as a promoter, scientific co-ordinator or partner in eight EU projects on gender equality, involving public and private partners in Italy, Sweden, Ireland, France, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Poland, Latvia, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria. At present FGB is co-ordinating two networks for the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities:
Network of experts on employment and gender equality issues, and
Network of experts in gender equality, social inclusion, health and long-term care.

In addition to regular and occasional reports and research, FGB publishes two specialized journals in the field of labour economics:
Economia & Lavoro, a quarterly magazine on economic and social policy in Italian, and
Labour, Review of Labour and Industrial Relations in English, edited by Blackwell.
Due to the support from the Italian Ministry of Culture, FGB’s Library is part of the Italian National System Network of Libraries (Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale - SBN).