Profs. Ruben Durante and Piotr Zwernik of the Department of Economics and Business have been named Beatriu de Pinós research fellows by the government of Catalonia. Awarded researchers are granted €92,000 for salary costs and training expenses for two years in order to train and conduct research at Catalan institutions.

The Beatriu de Pinós fellowship aims to build the independent careers of young researchers through support and development. Applicants to the fellowship must have two to seven years of post-doctoral academic research, and at least one original publication as a first author or co-author.

Prof. Durante's research interests cover political economics, with a focus on the functioning and impact of traditional and new media in democratic societies. Prof. Zwernik's research includes multivariate statistics, latent graphical models, and algebraic statistics.

Each year the programme awards 60 fellowships to junior researchers who are recognised as having the potential to become leaders in their fields. The Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) has run the programme since 2005 to promote research and science in Catalonia.

Prof. Durante and Prof. Zwernik are the latest department professors to be honoured by the Beatriu de Pinós programme as outstanding researchers. Profs. Christian Brownlees, Joan De Martí, Filippo Ippolito, Daniel Navarro Martinez, and Jordi Quoidbach have also previously been awarded the fellowship.

Find out more about these professors on their personal websites:

• Ruben Durante
• Piotr Zwernik