Ismael Blanco-Fillola, new director at IGOP

Ismael Blanco-Fillola, lecturer of the UAB Department of Political Science and Public Law, was recently appointed new director of the Institute for Governance and Public Policies (IGOP), a UAB research centre focusing on fostering research, training and social transfer in the governance and public policies field.

Blanco-Fillola holds a PhD in Political Science from the UAB and is associate lecturer of the  Department of Political Science and Public Law, with AQU credentials on Advanced Research (Chair).

As a Ramon y Cajal researcher, he is also linked to the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Pompeu Fabra University. He was also a Beatriu de Pinós researcher of the Department of Public Policies at the De Montfort University (UK),and visiting researcher at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Joao Pinheiro Foundation (Brazil). He is member of the SGR Urban Governance, Commons, Internet and Social Innovation of the IGOP. His current research focuses on the dynamics of inequalities and socio-spatial segregation in cities, and in the emerging forms of urban participation and governing under the (post)crisis context. He is member of the research consortium Collaborative Governance Under Austerity: An Eight-Case Comparison, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and directed by Prof Jonathan Davies.

In the plenary session in which he was elected new director, Blanco expressed his will to direct the IGOP in proximity to other members of the organisation and from a horizontal perspective, sharing the decision-making processes with the rest of the team. He also identified some of the challenges for the following years such as maintaining the excellence and internationality of the institute's research and publications, while at the same time reinforcing public dissemination and social impacts; promoting the incorporation of new postdoctoral researchers through programmes such as Juan de la Cierva, Ramon y Cajal and Marie Curie; strengthening the incorporation of PhD students into IGOP research activities and groups; and working on aliances with other organisations, both within the UAB and elsewhere.