On 2 and 3 May, the Ciutadella campus hosted a meeting of the deans of law of the member universities of The Guild network, including Pompeu Fabra. Some fifteen representatives from the different European universities and research centres of the Alliance, as well as from the head office of The Guild and from UPF took part.

The delegates, on behalf of their respective faculties, agreed on an open letter in which they call on the public authorities in the field of research and innovation to recognize the fundamental value of legal research for the development of democratic societies and the preservation of the rule of law. They also asked them to commit to designing and evaluating research funding programmes in the social sciences so that the methodological particularities of the legal sciences might find an adequate and sufficient space.

Maurici Pérez: ”Legal research often has serious problems to access funding because, in many calls addressing the field of social sciences, there are no jurists on the committees that establish the requirements of the calls or that sit on the panels that award the grants”

Maurici Pérez Simeón, vice-dean of the UPF Faculty of Law, wished to underscore the consensus when agreeing on the letter, and addressed some of the aspects it demands: “Legal research often has serious problems to access funding because, in many calls addressing the field of social sciences, there are no jurists on the committees that establish the requirements of the calls or that sit on the panels that award the grants”, he reflected.

“So, projects whose central element deals with legal research encounter serious difficulties in fitting in”, he added. The letter, which will be published in the coming days, will be open to the adhesion of other Law faculties.

The Guild, a commitment to European alliances

Based in Brussels, the seat of the main community institutions, The Guild is present in more than fifteen countries with 22 universities and research centres and seeks to participate and liaise with the different administrations that regulate university policy in the European Union.

UPF has participated for more than three years in The Guild, an alliance committed to pursuing excellence, the importance of truth and the creation of trust as a basis for public life and the creation of new knowledge for the benefit of society, culture and economic growth. The network has three large working groups -Research, Education and Innovation Policy; Research and Academic Collaboration; and Institutional Enhancement- with members and representatives from different UPF services and units.

Some of the members of The Guild are also members of the EUTOPIA alliance, the teaching and research alliance of which UPF is leading the flagship project: EUTOPIA MORE. The institutions in question are the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) and Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania).