The CPDOC commenced activities in 2003 in the area of learning, with the launch of its Professional Master of Cultural Goods and Social Projects program, the first stricto sensu graduate course of its kind approved by CAPES.
CPDOC owns a collection of personal files of relevant public figures in the domestic stage post-1930, with around 1.5 million text documents, photographs, records and films.
Noteworthy among the works produced is the Histórico-Biográfico Brasileiro Pós-1930 (2ª edição, Rio de Janeiro, FGV, 2001), and the weekly cross-disciplinary review Estudos Históricos.
The Center's main activities further include coordination of Espaço Cultural FGV, which operates at the Candelária street building, consulting services in the areas of Documentation, Oral History and Historic Research, the organization of exhibitions, and opinion polls.
Market, public opinion and user satisfaction are some of the areas surveyed by its applied social research center, FGV-Opinião.