The regional headquarters of CALAS in the Andean region is housed by the Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO) Ecuador, a public institution and member of the international network of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, which has a presence in fifteen countries in the region. Within the CALAS network, the management of this regional center is jointly coordinated by FLACSO Ecuador and the University of Kassel (Germany). The Regional Center will rely on the systematic participation of researchers from these institutione and other academic centers in Ecuador and the Andean region.

FLACSO Ecuador was established in 1974 through an agreement between the Ecuadorian State and the FLACSO international system. The institution is part of the Ecuadorian university system and was recognized by the Higher Education Law in the year 2000. FLACSO Ecuador has administrative and financial autonomy in accordance with its founding agreement.

FLACSO Ecuador’s mission is to produce and disseminate knowledge in the social sciences and humanities through critical and creative teaching and research. Its principles are pluralism and academic autonomy, with the aim of contributing to the development of diverse Latin American and Andean schools of thought, as well as promoting justice, equality and social inclusion.

As part of its work of academic excellence, FLACSO Ecuador has established relationships with universities and research institutes in more than twenty countries in Latin America, Europe, North America and Asia. With support from this research network, the institution has obtained extensive experience and research results on issues such as socio-environmental issues; analysis of inequalities and processes of political identity formation and disputes; political processes and hegemony in Latin America and comparative analyses with other regions; political protest and popular participation within the state; social mobilization and political change; conflict, politics, nation and violence; subjectivities, cultural configurations and ways of life; political cultures and state-building; practices and imaginaries around ethnicity, "race," gender and social classes; power and political participation.

With this research background, CALAS Andes aims to address historical and contemporary crises, and to observe in a related manner the transformations of social inequality and the formation of citizenships, social movements, and institutions of public power – all through the analysis of cleavages of class, "race"/ethnicity, and gender.