In 2018, UPF launched the Planetary Wellbeing initiative, a project offering proof of the university’s commitment to tackling the major challenges of the 21^st century. In this context, in April 2019, the university published the first call for research projects in the field of planetary wellbeing. The call, the results of which were announced in July, included four types of grants falling under two strategies. In all, 14 of the 73 proposals received were awarded grants, for a total of 84,431 euros.

In all, 14 of the 73 proposals received were awarded grants, for a total of 84,431 euros.

In the context of the first strategy, ‘Promoting a new generation of scholars of planetary wellbeing’, support was provided to six researchers seeking to orient their research around planetary wellbeing. The strategy is divided into two categories: support for PhD students and support for postdoctoral researchers. Both aim to encourage the researchers to participate in various activities in the field of planetary wellbeing. Accordingly, the funded actions range from mobility visits or periods abroad to training activities, conference attendance and the organization of workshops.

The selected doctoral students were Cristina Vert (ISGlobal) and Begüm Dereli and Dominique V. Schmid (Department of Political and Social Sciences). The selected postdoctoral researchers were Ana María Freire (DTIC), Mario Bisiada (Department of Translation and Language Sciences) and Ana García-Juanatey (IBEI-Department of Law).

The second strategy, ‘Promoting multidisciplinary research in planetary wellbeing’, likewise includes two different types of grants. The first are for actions intended to promote collaborative research that will ultimately enable researchers to seek external funding for larger-scale collaborative projects by applying to international competitive calls.

Four projects received grants in this category:

—‘The Multifunctional Rooftop Garden of the Dipòsit de les Aigües Building’, by Carla Lancelotti (Department of Humanities), with the collaboration of M. Boleda Torrent (UPF-Infrastructure and Property Service), M. Madella (UPF-Department of Humanities), M. Bosh (UPC), F. Baró and J. Langemeyer (ICTA-UAB), C. Daher and J. Litt (ISGlobal), L. Calvo (EixVerd) and A. Abellán (Drenaje Urbano Sostenible).

—‘Low Carbon Health’, by Joan Benach (Department of Political and Social Sciences), with the collaboration of Christos Zografos (Department of Political and Social Sciences) and Nicolas Valenzuela-Levi (University of Cambridge).

—‘Forced migration and cognitive development during childhood’, by Miguel Burgaleta (DTIC-CBC), with the collaboration of researchers from Pontifical Javeriana University of Bogota (Colombia).

—‘Formació d’actituds de consciència ambiental i climàtica en les persones joves i la seva implicació en moviments globals pel clima’ [Formation of environmental and climate awareness attitudes in young people and their involvement in global climate movements], by Mariona Ferrer-Fons (Department of Political and Social Sciences), with the collaboration of six researchers from the departments of Communication, Humanities, and Political and Social Sciences at UPF, as well as the Centre for Environmental Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

This strategy also provides for the organization at UPF of workshops and interdisciplinary conferences on cutting-edge research topics related to planetary wellbeing. Four projects received funding in this category:

—A debate league on planetary wellbeing, by Gemma Garcia (University Community Assistance Service (SACU)), Pablo Pareja (Department of Law) and Mònica Figueras (Department of Communication).

—An international workshop on planetary wellbeing and global governance, by Jacint Jordana and Adam Holesch (Department of Political and Social Sciences), Pablo Pareja (Department of Law), Indira Latorre (El Bosque University, Bogota), and Charles Roger (IBEI).

—A symposium on environmental humanities: geohumanities, ecofeminism and the Anthropocene, by Rosa Cererols, Antoni Luna, Marco Madella, Carla Lancelotti and Nausikaa El Mecky (Department of Humanities).

—A talk on climate justice and planetary wellbeing, featuring Adrian Parr, by Santiago Zabala and Antonino Firenze (Department of Humanities).