- The Rector of the UDC, Julio Abalde, and the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras, signed the agreement this morning for the second edition of the research talent recruitment program.
- The multinational will provide sponsorship of 1.5 million euros to the University of A Coruña.
- The first edition of this international program allowed the recruitment of six excellent researchers.
A Coruña, April 20, 2022.- The Rector of the University of A Coruña, Julio Abalde, and the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras, signed this morning at the UDC Rectorate, the agreement for the creation and implementation of the second edition of the InTalent research talent recruitment program, whereby Inditex will provide sponsorship of 1.5 million euros to the UDC for the incorporation of 15 excellent researchers during the period of validity of the agreement until 2026.
The Rector of the UDC thanked Óscar García Maceiras “for the support of Inditex to make this talent recruitment program possible”. A program, he added, that is being copied by other administrations and universities. Abalde also highlighted that InTalent “is also allowing us to establish mechanisms so that this talent recruited can be retained at the University of A Coruña”.
For his part, the CEO of Inditex thanked the researchers recruited in the first edition of InTalent “for their effort and commitment shown in the development of their research; this is the best proof of the success of the agreement initiated a few years ago”. “For us, the attributes of these researchers, excellence, commitment and talent, are part of Inditex’s DNA”. García Maceiras also underlined his personal satisfaction with the signing of this agreement because “I studied at the University of A Coruña and I have always considered it my home”.
The InTalent program is aimed at researchers of any nationality who want to develop their research activity at the University of A Coruña and who have been granted a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The agreement signed this morning, in a public event attended by the Vice-Chancellor for Scientific Policy, Research and Transfer, Salvador Naya, aims to increase the research quality of the UDC, as well as to make it a pole of attraction for excellent researchers at a national and international level, in addition to increasing funding for research.
Six researchers captured in the first InTalent edition
The first edition of the research talent recruitment program, InTalent, arose from the agreement signed in October 2016, through which Inditex contributed 1.45 million euros to recruit internationally renowned researchers.
The InTalent program allowed the incorporation of six high-level researchers to the UDC, selected from more than 300 applications from all over the world; 194 were from Spain, 35 from the rest of Europe, 31 from America, 30 from Asia and 26 from Africa. Elena Pazos Chantrero, José Antonio Cortés Vázquez, Ana Rey Rico, Jorge Ledo, Mónica Ferrín Pereira and José A. Iglesias Guitián were the researchers recruited in the first edition of the InTalent program.
Elena Pazos Chantrero subsequently obtained one of the most prestigious excellent science grants at European level, the Starting Grant from the European Research Council, endowed with 1.5 million euros to develop her research project. The other selected researchers obtained the most prestigious research grant at national level, the Ramón y Cajal, from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The successes achieved by the six InTalent researchers have brought the University of A Coruña, in direct funding and through performance indicators, close to seven million euros, which implies a return of five euros for every euro invested in the program.
This program also had an internal effect, causing a revival in the recruitment of talent and research at the UDC, which doubled the number of applications from researchers to the excellent science calls. The UDC, as a complementary action to InTalent, created its own specific program “Berce” to support Ramón y Cajal researchers who choose the UDC as the university to develop their research project. In 2015, the UDC had only one Ramón y Cajal researcher; this year it has 16 active contracts. In addition, the UDC has launched a specific stabilization program to retain the excellent profile researchers recruited.
Inditex’s sponsorship of the UDC
The Inditex company’s patronage of the University of A Coruña extends to other academic initiatives, such as the inMOTION program of grants for Inditex-UDC predoctoral stays, the Inditex-UDC Chair in Sustainability and the Inditex Chair in Spanish Language and Culture at the University of Dhaka (the latter in collaboration with the University of Santiago de Compostela).
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