The execution period of the María de Maeztu Strategic Research Program on data-driven knowledge extraction at DTIC-UPF ended on June 30th 2020. In a series of blog posts we will describe the impacts at different levels that the program has contributed to create.

In financial terms, the program is funded by the State Research Agency with 2M euros (1.8M for direct costs) over 4 years. The direct economic impact of the accreditation has been higher as it has allowed to: 1) successfully participate in calls for talent attraction exclusive to accredited centres and 2) raise additional funds for its activities (especially the novel sources of fundraising obtained for public engagement and infrastructure) and align with other DTIC funds, such as the cofund for predoctoral contracts.

Summary:

1 – Direct costs funded by the MdM program: 1.8M EUR

2 - External grants associated to the accreditation: 3.223.342,41 EUR

• La Caixa predoctoral contracts: 11 researchers (7 women, 4 men) have received predoctoral contracts in the different calls: Arantxa Zapico, Alexandros Zacharikis, Andrea Urru, Venkatesh Shenoy Kadandale, Milica Vujovic, Silvia Butti, Duygu Ozbagci, Mana Ludovica, Germano Gabbianelli, Amelia Jiménez, Indre Pileckyte
• La Caixa postdoctoral contracts: 3 researchers (1 woman, 2 men) have received postdoctoral contracts: Gergely Neu, Giovanni Geraci, Belén de Sancristóbal
• Predoctoral contracts within the State Programme for the Promotion of Talent and its Employability in R&D&i: 12 researchers (3 women, 9 men) have received predoctoral contracts: Ishari Amarasinghe, Pablo Accuosto, Daniele Pezzatini, Federico Franzoni, Enric Perera, Diana Ramírez, Álvaro López, Minz Won, Juan Montesinos, Jordi Mill, Emily Theophilou, Marc Carrascosa

3 – Other sponsors: 1.210.000 EUR

The execution of the program served to open new ways of funding, both from public sources (such as FEDER cofund for the upgrade of the computational cluster or City Council funds for public engagement actions) as well as private funding for public engagement actions, which are continuing after the program, supporting their own financial sustainability, slightly exceeding 0.5M EUR. The MdM program cofunded positions under the DTIC PhD Fellowship program, and DTIC funds have supported the finalization of the activities until the end of the execution period, for a total estimated amount of 0.7M EUR.

The total funds mobilised are in total 6.13 M EUR.

This calculation only includes the direct costs directly accounted for activities under the MdM framework. All 22 projects (18 research and 4 innovation projects) were aligned with other sources of funding (in addition to the resources dedicated by own staff), and the research, innovation and public engagement activities are continuing to mobilise additional public and private funds, which are not considered in this summary.