Polibienestar Research Institute

Extended name: POLIBIENESTAR, Research Institute on Social Welfare Policy
Country: Spain
Website: https://www.polibienestar.org/
Reference person: Jorge Garcés Ferrer
Email of the reference person: polibienestar@uv.es

POLIBIENESTAR, Research Institute on Social Welfare Policy, is a Universitat de València’s research institute. Well-known internationally, its main research areas are innovation in social technology, technical advising and training in the social policy field.

About Polibienestar

This institute is made up of an interdisciplinary team with more than 100 researchers and it is led by Jorge Garcés Ferrer.

For twenty years now, it has been doing both basic and applied research on the economic, social, political and technical sustainability aspects of welfare systems. It has been advising both the Administration and private companies on the planning, design and implementation of social welfare and sustainable resources and policies.

Polibienestar research areas are:

  • Health
  • Smart Cities,
  • Tourism
  • Social policy
  • Governance and public administrations
  • Corporate economics

Staff

Jorge Garcés Ferrer
Jorge Garcés Ferrer

Role: Communication & Fundraising Manager
Country: Spain
Mail: Jordi.garces@uv.es

Jorge Garcés Ferrer is a Full Professor at Universitat de València, Príncipe de Asturias Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC, Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló and he is the Director of the Research Institute on Social Welfare Policy (POLIBIENESTAR) at Universitat de València, lecturer at Innsbruck University in Austria and at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He has been a visiting researcher at Washington, Oxford and Cambridge universities.
He has been the senior researcher or a member in research teams in near 100 projects and research public contracts at regional, national and international level. He has participated in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs at the Spanish Parliament as an expert and also in different committees at the European Commission. Currently, he collaborates with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.
He is the author and co-author of 25 books in Spanish, Valencian, German and English. He has taken part in 200 national and international conferences related to the design, managing and assessment of public policy, particularly of social policy.

Sandra Martínez-Molina
Sandra Martínez-Molina

Role: Communication & Fundraising Manager
Country: Spain
Mail: Sandra.martinez-molina@uv.es

Sandra Martínez Molina has a Degree in Social Work and Master’s Degree in Social Welfare at Universitat de València. She has developed a doctoral thesis on the resilience of European labour markets and its capacity for inclusion in a global recession scenario. This work was included in the European Union’s project INSPIRES (Innovative Social and Employment Policies for Inclusive and Resilient Labour Markets in Europe) funded by the 7th Framework programme.
She is currently working as a technician in the Polibienestar Institute working on both research and innovation projects related to labour market resilience and the labour and social inclusion of some vulnerable groups such as people with intellectual disabilities