The program will begin in 2009 and terminate on 31 December 2013

The Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) has been awarded a grant by the Research Groups Support program (SGR 2009-2013) by AGAUR, the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants, of the Generalitat, the Catalan government. The SGR program provides support for research groups based at universities and non-profit-making public and private centres in Catalonia whose main activity is research and knowledge transfer, and promotes their development or consolidation.

The call for applications was divided into two parts: one for emerging research groups (GRE) and one for consolidated groups (GRC). The IEB made its application as a consolidated group.

In total, 1,518 applications were presented, of which 496 (32.67%) were accepted, and 779 (51.31%), among them the IEB’s application, were awarded funding. The rest (16.01%) were rejected.

Among the assessment criteria used by the AGAUR were the degree of innovation of the application and the objectives and activities proposed for the next five years; the group’s scientific production relative to its size; the training capacity of the group’s research staff; the usefulness and impact of the group’s research results; the group’s involvement in knowledge transfer via contracts or agreements with government bodies or companies; the securing of funding and leadership of projects; the group’s composition, structure, degree of interdisciplinarity, and the dissemination of its results.