Dr Alba Lanau Sánchez (PI)

Lecturer and Ramon y Cajal Fellow, Pompeu Fabra University

Alba has more than 12 years of experience researching child poverty and social policy. She has authored over 30 publications on child poverty, child well-being, poverty dynamics and social policy, including 10 in Q1 journals such as Child Indicators Research and the Journal of Family Issues, as well as articles in leading national journals such as Papers and Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociologicas and multiple dissemination pieces. She currently holds a Ramon y Cajal fellowship at UPF, where she teaches sociology and social policy and has previously led 3 projects as PI and 2 as co- PI. Alba is also associate editor of the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice. Additionally, she is a member of the Organising Committee for the Red Española de Política Social, the country's main reference among social policy researchers, and is strongly involved with ESPAnet, the European Social Policy network. She regularly participates in outreach activities, e.g. by training Charity organisations on research methods alongside Fundació La Caixa. She is also the UPF representative in Ivalua, the Catalan policy evaluation agency.

 

Dr Pau Marí Klose (PI)

Associate Professor, University of Zaragoza

Pau has spent most of his academic career researching children, youth and welfare policies, with a focus on social risks,  poverty and exclusion. He has authored and edited more than a hundred academic publications, including articles in JCR journals such as Aging & Mental Health, European Societies or BCM Research Notes, as well as book chapters in prestigious publishing houses such as Routledge or Palgrave. Pau led an international team working on the project SOLFCARE (Plan Nacional I+D+I, 2011-2013), resulting in multiple publications on family transformations and changes in the Southern European Welfare System. He has extensive experience as project leader at the Institute of Childhood and Urban World (2005-2010) and JAE-DOC researcher at the Institute of Public Policies and Goods at CSIC (2011-2012). He has also published abundant "grey literature" for non-governmental organisations, agencies, and legislative bodies on topics of his scientific expertise. In 2018, he was appointed High Commissioner for the Fight against Child Poverty and three years later, as a member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, he served as deputy speaker on the Ingreso Mínimo Vital bill.

 

Dr Inés Calzada

Associate Professor in Sociology, Complutense University of Madrid

Ines has participated in 14 national and international research projects on social policies, being PI in four of them. At present, she is PI of the Spanish team in the ERC Project "Welfare Experiences". A recognised welfare and policy scholar, she has published four books and 15 book chapters in prestigious publishing houses (Palgrave, Ashgate, CEPC, CIS, Tecnos, Fundación FOESSA), as well as 15 scientific articles (9 of them in JCR-indexed journals and 3 in first quartile impact journals). She has recently been involved in various research projects commissioned by the Spanish National Council of Social Work.


Dr Daniel Fuentes Castro

Associate Professor in Economics, University of Alcala de Henares

Daniel holds a PhD in Economics from the Université Paris - Nanterre (2003). He served in research positions in different international institutions, including Cemagref Bordeaux, INRA, the OECD and the research department of the Banque de France as a senior economist. He was also head of macroeconomic analysis at AFI. From 2018 to 2020, he held the position of deputy director of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Presidency of the Government, as Head of the Macroeconomic and Financial Policies Unit, and was later appointed Director General of Economic Information, in the Secretariat of State for Communication. He has published his scholarly work in journals such as Applied Economics, Applied Economic Letters, Ecological Economics and Revista de Economía Aplicada. He has also translated into Spanish several works by French economist Thomas Piketty, including Capital and Ideology. He regularly publishes op-eds in the main Spanish media outlets and regularly contributes to the radio show Hora 25 on Cadena SER. 


Dr Albert Arcarons Feixas

Senior Researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas

Albert holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute. He has extensive experience in research on child poverty, inequality, and migration, as well as in the design and implementation of policies, having worked, first as advisor and then as director, in the Office of the High Commissioner against Child Poverty at the Presidency of the Government of Spain. He has conducted and coordinated research on several topics, such as the relationship between child poverty and obesity, the aggregated cost of child poverty, the intergenerational reproduction of poverty, and its geographical distribution. He has also published in prestigious journals, including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration, Nutrients, Child Indicators Research, and Migration Studies, as well as with publishers such as Routledge. 

 

Dr Maida Juni

Postdoctoral Researcher at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Maida holds a PhD in Demography at the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA, UAB). She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and a member of the Population and Society Research Group (GEPS). Her research focuses on family dynamics, fertility and social policy, with a particular interest in childcare, family policies and work-life balance. She has published articles on childcare and fertility in leading national journals, including Genus and Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas. She has extensive experience in all stages of research, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.


Alberto Fabra

PhD Candidate, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Researcher and Project Technician, Fundació Avedis Donabedian

Alberto is a researcher and policy analyst specialising in social policy, poverty, and inequality. He is currently a PhD candidate in Political Science and Sociology at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, awarded with an Industrial Doctorate scholarship, where his research focuses on the dynamics of poverty, labour markets, and sociodemographic changes in Europe during the post-Great Recession period. Alongside his academic work, Alberto has extensive professional experience in project management, monitoring and evaluation, and applied research in the fields of social policy and development. He has worked as a coordinator in the Amunt! Project (Barcelona City Council - Ministry of Social Affairs promoted, EU-Next Generation Funds financed) and Programa Lábora. He currently works as a researcher and project technician at the Avedis Donabedian Research Institute, where he contributes to research and policy development initiatives related to integrated care, social services, and public policy evaluation with La Caixa Foundation, BUILD, and SSM-CAT projects, in collaboration with national and international institutions. He has also worked as an external consultant on international evaluation and monitoring projects with the International Organization for Migration.

 

Leona Klein

Predoctoral Researcher, Pompeu Fabra University

Leona is a researcher and PhD candidate at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. She has international and interdisciplinary experience in different academic and professional contexts, revolving around the intersection of inequalities, migration, and policy-making. Her dissertation project focuses on the stratification of child poverty and social protection.