The EU-LAC Foundation participated this week in the kick-off meeting of the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions Doctoral Network: "Understanding Latin American Challenges in the 21st Century (LAC EU)", of which the international organisation is an Associated Partner. The event was convened by the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI).
The kick-off meeting’s programme included the roundtable: "Agendas and coming steps in EU-LAC relations", which was attended by the wider IBEI community of students and researchers.
The Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, Adrián Bonilla, discussed about the shared interests and venues of cooperation in terms of economic, green, social and digital transitions between both regions in a higly challenging regional and international context with Manuel Szapiro, Representative of the European Comission in Barcelona, Anna Ayuso, Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB; and Yanina Welp, Research Fellow, Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Geneva Graduate Institute.
The LAC-EU doctoral network will provide a novel, comprehensive and interdisciplinary framework for understanding LAC and its relationship with the EU. It has set itself the goal of furthering a better understanding of current challenges in Latin American governance and support sustainable, equitable and successful LAC-EU relations.
The network will offer doctoral students a comprehensive four-year PhD programme and provide research and training in social and political sciences, law and the humanities, as well as research exchanges and policy-relevant secondments with associated partners - such as the EU-LAC Foundation. Research themes will include the rise of populism, democracy, gender rights, trade, migration, health, global cities, sustainability and green finance and cultural studies. The first calls for application for the PhD has been just published on the network’s website.
During the Kick-off meeting of the network in Barcelona, participating institutions discussed the structure of the programme, they set up a supervisory and an external advisory board and other committees courses, and planned accompanying courses and events for the public for the upcoming years.
In the context of the MSCA Doctoral Network that was launched in Barcelona in these days, Dr Anna Barrera, Director of Programmes at the EU-LAC Foundation held a seminar with IBEI students in which she offered insights on the work in an international organisation and the skills required to succeed in intercultural work environments.
