The “Programa Talent Global”: CIDOB and Banco Sabadell Foundation commit to young talent and international research
Lewin Schmitt, Lela Mélon and Inés Arco are the winners of the “Global Challenges Talent”, “21st Century Europe Talent” and “Junior Visiting Fellowship” awards, for which 95 young people from around the world competed. The winners received their prizes as part of the CIDOB–Banco Sabadell Foundation Dialogues, in the presence of representatives of the organising institutions who highlighted the dual commitment of the “Programa Talent Global”: to reward quality research and promote young talent to guarantee society’s progress.
The CIDOB–Banco Sabadell Foundation Dialogues, held yesterday afternoon at CIDOB’s headquarters, were the setting for the presentation of the first “Programa Talent Global” awards, through which the institutions seek to encourage young research talent via a paid research stay and two prizes for applied research.
The event was attended by Pol Morillas, Director of CIDOB, and Miquel Molins, President of the Banco Sabadell Foundation. During the ceremony both highlighted the spirit that produced the “Programa Talent Global”. Pol Morillas framed the programme as a global strategic and institutional decision by CIDOB "to commit to young research talent, while simultaneously rewarding quality research in the international arena, at a time when society demands greater expert knowledge". Miquel Molins, meanwhile,said that "the “Programa Talent Global” launched by CIDOB and Banco Sabadell Foundation is part of our foundation’s commitment to the talent of our young researchers.Investing in training and recognising their research work is key to society’s progress".
The impact of social networks, sustainability and feminist policies were the subjects of the three works chosen by the jury
Lewin Schmitt, pre-doctoral researcher at IBEI, holder of a degree in European Economic Studies from the University of Bamberg and a master's in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford, won the “Global Challenges Talent” prize for his work “What's in a tweet? Twitter's impact on public opinion and EU foreign affairs”, which looks at the influence of Twitter and other social networks on the construction of global public opinion and public policy development. The “Global Challenges Talent Award” jury, chaired by Pol Morillas, Director of CIDOB, included Sofía Rodríguez, Chief Economist at Banco Sabadell; Patricia García-Durán, Associate Professor in the Department of Economic History, Institutions and World Economics at the University of Barcelona; Rafael Grasa, Lecturer in International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; and Xavier Mas de Xaxàs, diplomatic correspondent of La Vanguardia.
Lela Mélon, PhD in Corporate Law from the University of Aberdeen, Executive Director of the Planetary Wellbeing Institutional Framework and Associate Professor at ESCI-UPF, won the “21st Century Europe Talent Award”. This prize, awarded jointly with Fundació Catalunya Europa, focusses on European policies in the social, economic and political spheres. The winning work was “The EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive and corporate narrative disclosure practices: The case of the fashion industry”. Pol Morillas, Director of CIDOB, and Pau Mas, Director of the Fundació Catalunya Europa – the institution that jointly awarded this prize – co-chaired the jury, which also included Sofía Rodríguez, Chief Economist at Banco Sabadell; Anna Terrón, Director of the FIIAPP; Eva Anduiza, Professor of Political Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; and Javier Arregui, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Pompeu Fabra University.
Both works were published in the series Documents CIDOB.
The “Programa Talent Global” also supports the training of young international relations talent through a paid research stay. Inés Arco won this year’s prize for her proposal “Feminist foreign policy: paradigmatic shift or discursive instrumentalization?” Holder of a degree in East Asian Studies from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a master's degree in International Relations from IBEI, Inés Arco will join CIDOB's research team for a six-month period.
The CIDOB–Banco Sabadell Foundation Dialogues
The event concluded with two dialogues featuring the award-winners that were streamed live on CIDOB’s YouTube channel. Lewin Schmitt spoke with journalist Marta García Aller about how Twitter conditions foreign policy and public opinion in a talk moderated by Pol Morillas. The role companies can play in a more sustainable European Union was the focus of the dialogue between Lela Mélon and Carina Hopper, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship Lecturer at ESSEC Business School, in a conversation moderated by Pau Mas.
>> Rewatch the CIDOB–Banco Sabadell Foundation Dialogues
>> Photo gallery: CIDOB-Banco Sabadell Foundation Dialogues