The transfer of knowledge, the research in family and the relations between East and West, among the axes of work of the course 2024-25 of the ICS.

The transfer of knowledge, the research in family and relations between East and West are some of the lines of work that will be addressed by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) during the 2024-2025 academic year. This was emphasized by Jaime García del Barrio, director of the center, during the meeting at the beginning of the course, who thanked the team for their dedication and commitment on a professional and human level. It is currently made up of 83 people from 17 scientific disciplines and 19 nationalities, and has the support of 181 international collaborators.

At presentation, García del Barrio highlighted some of the milestones of the previous year. During the year 2023-2024, 24 projects were approved in competitive calls. Of these, four were awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain and the European Regional Fund development and one Europeanproject . Of the competitive funding proposals requested, a success rate of 22.63% was obtained.

The center's director also pointed out the increase in non-competitive grants and signature of new agreements. Among the institutions that have collaborated most with the ICS are Fundación Ciudadanía y Valores, Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación "La Caixa", Fundación Tatiana, Fundación IDEA, Fundación L'Ontano, Fundación Dignia, Action Institute and Banco Santander.

Other projects that have obtained non-competitive funding during the 2023-2024 academic year are 'Prosperity and Economic Freedom', with the support of the Atlantic Council; 'Human Neurobiology and Cognition in the Face of Synthetics and Artificial Intelligence', together with the International Center for Neurology and Ethics (CINET), of the Tatiana Foundation; 'Environmental policies and social equity', with the partnership of the Ramón Areces Foundation; and the implementation of the project Pallium in Spain, with the support of Fundación Dignia; and the Global Map and Palliative Care Africa Atlas, together with The True Colours Trust.

The continuous improvement of research production has also been emphasized, resulting in 2,389 articles and reviews, of which 899 were published in first and second quartile journals. There have been 1,539 publications in journals, 259 books and 591 chapters in collective works.

Balance and new challenges

García del Barrio highlighted the good development of the first challenge ICS 22-23 'Young people, relationships and psychological well-being', both academically and in the media. In this line, he recalled the main lines of work of the new challenge ICS 24-25 'Orientalism and Occidentalism: crossed views', which seeks to study how the West and the East have seen, explained and represented each other, and to analyze the discourses that have been produced, especially as a result of decolonization and the consequent changes in the identity of nations. In addition to researchers from different groups of the center, 22 researchers from different national and international universities will participate in this challenge, who will carry out stays and give seminars. Likewise, the ICS Lecture will be held in April 2025 and an international congress will close the event in April of the same year.

The director also highlighted the relevance of the training courses that have been given, both for researchers and other professionals, as well as for students, a line of work core topic in the transmission of knowledge that the center will continue to develop this year.

In this line, activities have also been carried out for the knowledge dissemination, aimed at the general public, such as conferences and concerts. In addition, the Spanish version of the play Cicely and David, about the origin of palliative care, was premiered with the support of the Fundación Pía Aguirreche; among the lines of work to be further strengthened, he pointed out the synergies with other centers, such as the Museo Universidad de Navarra, and the links with Latin America; and the promotion of crowdfunding.

In the meeting, he also welcomed the new incorporations: Helena Baigorri, as assistant to the the scientific direction; Julie Chaccour, Marcos Lama and Carlos Chaccour, to the Pallium Ibérica team; Nicolás Cancio, to the Navarra Center of International Development; Daniela Suárez, to the ATLANTES Global Observatory of Palliative Care; Daniela Andrade, as postdoctoral researcher (Infinity: family, love and sexuality); Roberto Calvo; Pilar Aviñó (Infinity), Janire Ruiz (Infinity: family, love and sexuality), Sally Amma S. (Navarra Center of International Development) and Nadia Aldunate (Vínculos, creatividad y cultura) as doctoral candidates. It has also statement the appointment of Ruth Breeze as scientific director and Javier Bernácer as co-researcher principal of group 'Mente-cerebro'.