Alba Aguión to drive food system transformation thanks to the Daniel Carasso Fellowship 2025
Researcher Alba Aguión will join the scientific team at ICTA-UAB to study the transformation of the food system after receiving one of the three awards in the third edition of the Daniel Carasso Fellowship.
These postdoctoral fellowships, granted by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation—also awarded to Francisco Javier Álvarez from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and Lucía Díez from the University of Barcelona—support research projects with a systemic approach and the potential to transform the food system towards fairer, healthier, and more sustainable models.
As in the previous edition, the Foundation is awarding three fellowships, each endowed with €160,000, which cover the fellows’ salaries and research activities for a two-year period.
Thanks to this fellowship, Alba Aguión will join ICTA-UAB, where she will analyze the role of local collective organizations—such as fishers’ guilds, agricultural cooperatives, and irrigation communities—in building resilient food systems. In response to growing pressure to adopt technological solutions, she will explore how these organizations combine traditional knowledge and social innovation to address today’s food-related challenges. Moreover, she will work alongside agricultural and fishing organizations to identify shared challenges and co-create action plans and policy recommendations that respond to their specific needs.
As Alba Aguión explained, “Producer organizations are essential for environmental sustainability and community well-being, yet they are increasingly pressured to adopt digital tools that do not always reflect their realities. With my project, I aim to develop a strategy that enables digital tools to complement—rather than replace—existing governance agreements and the traditional knowledge of producers.”
The three recipients of the Daniel Carasso Fellowship 2025 were selected from among 76 applications—the highest number to date—by a jury composed of leading researchers and members of the Foundation.
The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation works to transform the current societal model into one that is more ecological, inclusive, and conducive to human flourishing. It focuses on two key areas: Sustainable Food, to ensure universal access to healthy food that respects both people and ecosystems; and Citizen Art, to foster critical thinking and strengthen social cohesion.