The Social Observatory of ”la Caixa” Foundation launches an open and competitive call to fund excellent, innovative and socially-oriented research projects. Proposals must generate new knowledge to broaden our understanding of the major challenges of today’s society, using quantitative methods.

The submission of proposals is structured through a two-stage procedure.

Submission period for proposals: January 8-23, 2024.
 

GOALS

• This call will support excellent social research projects that rely on robust quantitative evidence and an original and innovative approach to provide robust information to better understand current and emerging social challenges.

• Projects must be focused on Spain and/or Portugal.

 

 GRANTS

• Up to €115,000 per project and up to 24 months duration.

 

WHO CAN APPLY?

The call is open to researchers who can demonstrate research independence and evidence of prior achievements. For this reason, applicants need to meet the following requirements:

• Certify at least 1 scientific article published in Q1 journals according to the rankings Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) from Scopus or the Journal Citations Report (JCR) from Web of Science, in the last 5 years before the closure of the call. For the latter, only indexes Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) are considered.

• Hold a PhD awarded more than 2 years before the call deadline as written in the Rules for participation (i.e. before 23th January 2022).

The call is aimed at supporting proposals led by individual researchers of any nationality who conduct their research activity at a non-profit organization: public or private university or research centre legally based in Spain or Portugal.

 

CALENDAR

Information session:

Wednesday, 25th October. You can view the information sesion here:
 

 

Phase 1 - Application period (short proposals)

• Opening of the submission period for short proposals: 8th January 2024

• Submission deadline: 23rd January 2024, at 2 pm CET

• Evaluation of short proposals: February - March 2024

Phase 2 - Pre-selected proposals (full proposals)

• Opening of submission period for full proposals: March 2024

• Submission deadline: 24th April 2024, at 2 pm CET

• Evaluation phase 2.1: May 2024

• Evaluation phase 2.2 (interviews): 19th-20th June 2024

• Announcement of funded projects:  July 2024

 

  APPLICATION PROCEDURE

• The submission of proposals is structured incrementally through a two-phase procedure. Applicants will first submit a 3-page short proposal describing the research idea and the social challenge(s) addressed, taking into consideration its novel and innovative aspects.

• Applicants with successful short proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal of up to 15 pages providing detailed information on the project and the methodology. At this stage, applicants will also be required to submit a brief document regarding their research expertise and social and public sector expertise (1 page each).

• Both proposals and the documents required must be submitted in English. All information regarding this programme will be exclusively available in English.

CONTACT

• For any questions or queries please send an email to:  [email protected]
   

RESULTS OF THE CALL
 

Funded projects

List of evaluators

 

Summaries of the funded projects provided below:

 

• Social-HEROES: Health and Education Research Opportunities Empower Students and tackle inequities
  Rafaela Rosário, University of Minho

• The broad impact of Early Childhood Education and Care
  Antoni-Italo de Moragas, CUNEF Universidad

• Re-shaping Attitudes about Refugees and Gender Minorities in Spain and Portugal
  Bilge Yabanci, University of Deusto

• Schooling Against Fake News
  Carlos X. Lastra-Anadón, IE University

• The perspective of children and adolescents in vulnerable social contexts: what do they say?
  Dra. Carme Montserrat, Universitat de Girona

• Growing Up Kind: Neural Markers Of Prosocial Development And The Effects Of Social Media
  Inês Mares, William James Center for Research (WJCR), ISPA, Lisboa, Portugal

• Understanding gender-based violence in equal times
  Leire Rincón García, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Trackfrailty: track to prevent, mitgate, and reverse frailty
  Mário António Cardoso Marques, University of Beira Interior

• The role of influencers in the political socialisation of young people in Spain
  Mercè Oliva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)

• Preventing school failure of migrant students via a whole-school narrative intervention
  Pilar Prieto (ICREA-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Breaking Barriers to Enhance Criminal Justice Interactions and Safeguards for ASD in Portugal
  Telma Sousa Almeida, William James Center for Research, Ispa – Instituto Universitário

• Threat/safeness perception, mind-body mechanisms of action, and behavior of youth during detention
  Diana Ribeiro da Silva, University of Coimbra

• The differences in mortality by social class in Spain. Approaches to health inequalities, 1940-2023
  Francisco J. Marco-Gracia, Universidad de Zaragoza

• Knowledge is power: towards a comprehensive approach to diminish fake news spread and susceptibility
  Inês Sousa Guedes, University of Porto

• Uncovering political information diets among youth through novel computational methods
  Laia Castro, University of Barcelona

• A sociocognitive-based strategy to combat misinformation
  Margarida Vaz Garrido, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

• Understanding Parental Burnout: Cultural values, family and individual processes in Parents
  Marisa Matias, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences – University of Porto

 

CALL DOCUMENTS 

 

Brochure

Rules for participation
 

Assessment of proposals
 

Proposals must be submitted through the online platform designed for this purpose  (http://grants.lacaixafoundation.org/). Applications received via other channels will not be accepted. 

 

PHASE 1 DOCUMENTATION

 

Checklist for phase 1 submissions

Guidelines for the short proposal

Proposals selected for Phase 2

 

PHASE 2 DOCUMENTATION

 

Checklist for phase 2 submissions
 

Guidelines for the full proposal
 

Manual Submission full proposal
 

Guidelines Research Expertise
 

Guidelines Social and Public Sector Expertise

Proposals selected for the interview