"In the BGSE we pay special attention to the programme for retaining and attracting talent"
Interview with TERESA GARCÍA-MILÀ
Director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics
The Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE), a research institution belonging jointly to the Pompeu Fabra University and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, was created in 2006 with the objective of promoting frontier research and postgraduate education of excellence in Economics. In 2011 it was recognized as one of the eight centres of excellence with an international impact in the framework of the Severo Ochoa programme. The director of the Barcelone GSE, Teresa García-Milà, explains in her interview that the Severo Ochoa award has made them stand out as the centre of reference in economic and social sciences in Spain. “It has also contributed to strengthen the position of the Barcelon GSE as a leading centre of research in economics at world level”.
With the recognition and the additional funding of the Severo Ochoa Programme, the Barcelona GSE has succeeded in “reinforcing the strategy of attracting and retaining able researchers of the highest level, supporting the research, notably the applied research, allowing them to purchase the needed data or software, financing research assistants, strengthening the doctoral programmes in the academic surroundings of the Barcelona GSE with the aim of competing with highly rated institutions to attract the best students and to carry out new lines of research. The most outstanding point has been the Summer Forum, which in only three editions has become the meeting point for over 800 researchers from the research centres and universities with most the highest world reputations to debate for two weeks topics on the frontier of research in economics.
It is clear that this young institution aims to stay in business. When asked about her objectives the director answers that the main challenges for the Barcelona GSE are to maintain and improve the level of excellence of the centre and its scientific community, and to be internationally competitive. “With this in view” she emphasizes “we pay special attention to the programme of retaining and attracting research talent of the highest prestige, and to support young researchers within our scientific community with economic assistance to finance specific projects”.
Teresa García –Milà stresses her desire “to reinforce the synergies among the different lines of research in the four academic units which make up the Barcelona GSE (UAB, UPF, IAE, and CREI) by organizing our research activities” as a strategic objective of the centre, to which she adds the intention to create “a programme of studentships to attract academically brilliant students to our doctoral programmes”.
The popularization of science is one of the main lines of discussion within the “100XCIENCIA” meeting. Relationships with society through this type of activities is an objective of this centre of research in economics, and in this context the director explains that its main activities of science popularization will be “lectures by outstanding academics and researchers at world level in collaboration with the Bank of Sabadell, the international Calvo-Armengol prize for economists younger than 40 years old with an outstanding international reputation, and by choosing the best papers for presentation at our workshops”.
As well as all this, they have the clearest intention to give an “impulse to the section on research on the institution website, giving it more content and utility, and of the research blog where we include summaries of our research projects”, and that they will update their inputs to the social networks “to spread news about research, about prizes, and distinctions” and at the same time they design a systematic presentation of their work to the public via a newsletter.
Coordination of interviews: Verónica Martín
