Senén Barro, Director of the University of Santiago de Compostela’s Singular Centre for Research into Intelligent Technologies (CiTIUS), elected a member of the  of the Scientific Council of the Elcano Royal Institute

Senén Barro, a Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and Director of University of Santiago de Compostela’s Singular Centre for Research into Intelligent Technologies (CiTIUS), a member of the  CIGUS Network, has been appointed a member of the Scientific Council of the Elcano Royal Institute. This is a consultative body whose main objective is to strengthen and drive the analytical capacity and impact of the Elcano Institute on the academic community, think tank networks and society as a whole. In addition to the Centre’s Director, María Loureiro, a Professor of Economics at the University of Santiago was also appointed a member of this institution.  

The body is made up of around one hundred people grouped into four large areas: global think tanks, researchers and policy makers, Latin American academics and active Spanish ambassadors. Its members are assigned to one of the ten lines included in the Institute’s research agenda, representing the latest generations of global research staff. As Professor Senén Barro explains, the Elcano Royal Institute “is the main think tank in Spain and one of the most important in Europe”. The Scientific Council will be the Elcano Institute’s international advisory body, particularly within the context of the research it conducts. Professor María Loureiro believes that the challenges facing this organisation “lie in the need for coordination between the various areas in order to generate social information that allows for specialised and impartial advice on current issues that are of major relevance to Spain”.

Of the ten lines that make up the Elcano Institute’s research agenda, Senén Barro will be particularly involved in technology and economic transformations. “The impact of the most disruptive technologies, particularly ICTs, not only transcends borders, but also globalises the world’s societies and economies,” CiTIUS’ Director explained. In his opinion, the much used phrase ‘think globally, act locally’, “is particularly relevant in this case, and will undoubtedly be one of the challenges facing the Elcano Institute, and to which I hope to be able to make a significant contribution”. To explain this, Barro highlighted the fact that the local impacts of these technologies “are enormous: they affect employment, its automation, education, health… and they are spontaneous amplifiers of inequalities, and therefore we cannot simply  stand by and observe how they evolve and are applied”.