POLIBIENESTAR Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary with more than 55 million euros raised for research
ANA SERRA /
The Inter-University Institute of Social Welfare Policies (POLIBIENESTAR) of the Universitat de València (UV), to which ScienceFlows belongs, is commemorating this September the tenth anniversary of the centre, an event that should have been celebrated in 2021, but that had to be postponed to this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the decade between 2011 and 2021, the centre – in which 61 researchers from the Universitat work – has obtained more than 55 million euros for research through 107 projects.
The commemorative events took place in the framework of European projects, conferences and coexistence activities of the different units integrated in the institute, both from the UV and other institutions. Among these events, on 9 September, Jorge Garcés, director of POLIBIENESTAR, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universitat Politècnica de València.
In the last ten years, the Institute has become a benchmark in social science research, especially in the study and transfer of European public welfare policies. It is at the forefront of international research where technical and social science teams collaborate in an interdisciplinary way. The result is hundreds of reports, policy recommendations, books and academic articles, with a powerful contribution to the scientific community and society through platforms, standards, indicators, apps and algorithmic applications.
Since 2011, POLIBIENESTAR has been coordinating European projects with funding that has reached more than 55 million euros, obtained through 107 projects assigned to the institute. The Institute employs 61 researchers from eleven departments of the UV, who are integrated in research groups such as LabPsiTec, InnoMark or ScienceFlows, in collaboration with the UCC+i of the UV.
The research team of POLIBIENESTAR España has more than 120 experts, as, together with the UV team, research staff from other institutions also collaborate, forming part of the associated units: Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Universidad de Burgos, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Universidad de Murcia, Universidad de Extremadura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidad del País Vasco, Universitat Politècnica de València, Universidad de Concepción in Chile, Unversity of Guelph in Canada and Universidad Autónoma de Encarnación in Paraguay.
According to Jorge Garcés, “we have consolidated a crossbreeding between the Social Sciences and Technical Sciences without losing rigour or independence; we identify ourselves as a forum for thought and creativity, where professionals in social work, sociology, mathematics, pedagogy, engineering, psychology, economics, medicine, architecture, journalism, law and political science research collaboratively. We enjoy the pleasure of learning, discussing and arguing in research from a kaleidoscopic perspective, training the future generation of researchers and researchers”.
Polibienestar is a public institute belonging to the Universitat de València, whose mission is to improve social welfare and the quality of life of society through interdisciplinary and socio-technical research. Its director, Jorge Garcés-Ferrer, is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Valencia and Prince of Asturias Professor at Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA).
