A number of Social Economic History faculty is working on projects in the framework of Contract Research. Among other things, they carry out research into the history of companies at the behest of third parties. The most expansive study in this respect is Bedrijfsleven in Nederland in de 20e eeuw [Business in the Netherlands in the 20th century] (BINT – http://www.bintproject.nl/). Its objective is a series of seven books which shed light on the development of Dutch business during the 20th century in all its facets and its mutual cohesion. Within BINT, the Utrecht research group Socio-Economic History works together with scholars from several other universities and institutions.

The second accent within the research group is the modernisation of the Dutch society and economy in the centuries before the industrial revolution. Recent research focuses on the development of markets in Holland in the late Middle Ages, the organisation of international trade in the Low Countries and the political economy of the Republic, among other things. The research group supports the cooperation between Dutch and Flemish researchers working on the pre-industrial economy and society of the Low Countries, in the framework of the Low Countries research programme of the Posthumus Instituut (national research school for economic and social history).

Since 2001, the research group has held seminars at which Dutch and foreign researchers present their work. At least twelve seminars are organised annually.

Members of the research group participate in Utrecht University's research focus area Origins and Impacts of Institutions and in the Centre for Global Economic History. Moreover, the group Social Economic History is connected to the national research school Posthumus Instituut.