2020_03_10_ICS_delbarrio

At the opening of the 2004-2005 academic year, the then President, José María Bastero, announced that the University intended to promote research in Humanities and social sciences as a strategic priority goal through the creation of an interdisciplinary center.

After consulting international experts and seeking models in some of the most prestigious universities in Europe and the United States between 2007 and 2008, a call for expressions of interest was launched, which culminated in 2009 with the selection of ten projects.

A year later, on March 10, 2010, the ICS was officially created. Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), the research center with which the University has extended to the Humanities and social sciences a model of research excellence consolidated over more than half a century in business (IESE), biomedicine (Clinic, Cima, Tropical Health Institute) and engineering (CEIT), among other fields.

In the following interview, ICS's director , Jaime García del Barrio, reviews the first decade of high school and talks about the challenges ahead.

What would you highlight of the first ten years of life of high school?
First of all, we would like to thank the University for its commitment to research in Humanities and social sciences. Our way of reciprocating is to do our best to contribute to making it a true research university, a reference in all fields of knowledge, not only in the technical and experimental sciences.

During these years, our mission statement has set the north: to rigorously investigate major human challenges and find universal proposals that help to respond to them. Everything else, from the projects we have launched to the activities we have organized, has come about naturally.

What are you most proud of?
One of our main achievements has been to consolidate the team, which is our resource most valuable asset. Not in vain, more than 90% of the ICS's annual budget is allocated to it. In our projects, Spanish and international talent coexists, junior and senior researchers specialized in almost 30 areas of knowledge.

Likewise, we have established a way of working with integrity and high standards that has led us to publish in prestigious academic journals and publishers, in addition to attracting public and private resources. So far, more than 40 institutions and entities have supported us.

We have also managed to establish synergies of research with other Schools and centers of the University, as well as with external institutions, both public and private.

What are your next challenges?
Ten years of life is a very short time of what we hope will be our history, but it gives us enough perspective to move forward with our successes and recognize opportunities for improvement.

Our main challenges are to continue advancing in the dialogue between disciplines and social impact, understood as the confluence between the interest of researchers and the needs of citizens.

On the other hand, we would like to make ourselves better known in the university community, in order to involve everyone in our work and activities.

Likewise, in line with the suggestion made by our external evaluators, we must make a greater effort towards project convergence. The three major areas that we have defined -Be human, Challenges of the Hispanic world and Europe and its identity- will help to give greater cohesion to high school and can help us to obtain external resources, which is another of our lines of work.

What activities do you have planned to celebrate the anniversary?
All the activities that we will organize between March and December 2020 will be framed within the celebration of the tenth anniversary. We will start with the VII ICS Lecture on Humanities and Social Sciences, which will take place on March 26 under the degree scroll 'Advances in couples research and intervention: A 40 year perspective' and will be given by Howard J. Markman (University of Denver, USA).

This year's congresses, workshops, conferences and conference , open to the entire university community, are also organized for the tenth anniversary.

Internally, at the ICS course opening in September 2020, we will have the opportunity to review some milestones of these years, and the X Annual meeting , a workshop of discussion, reflection and sharing, will also be different.

On the other hand, we have developed communication materials to explain our first decade of life, including a brochure and a video, and an exhibition panel that will be placed itinerantly throughout the buildings. We also plan to renew our website and campaign on social media under the hashtag #ICScumple10.