Introduction
In 2023 the first call for the Pau Casals Chair Research Grants will be opened for research projects in one of the following areas:
- The musical legacy of Pablo Casals, total musician: performer, conductor, composer and teacher.
- The humanistic legacy of Pablo Casals and the contemporary interpretation of the defence of peace, democracy and human rights.
- The defence of the values of peace, human rights and democracy.
- The role of music and culture as a fundamental intangible heritage for social cohesion, multicultural dialogue and conflict prevention in accordance with the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy.
The grants are not restricted to the figure of Pablo Casals, but are open to any topics related to the values that the musician defended throughout his life such as human rights, culture of peace, international justice or the role of music and culture in conflict prevention and social cohesion.
This first edition of the research grants is part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Casals (El Vendrell, 1876 – San Juan de Puerto Rico, 1973) and has the collaboration of the Entidad de Gestión de los Artistas Intérpretes o Ejecutantes de la música (AIE):
“This wonderful universal language, music, should be a source of communication between all people.” –Pablo Casals
Call
What proposals can be submitted?
Applications may be submitted in relation to final undergraduate projects, final master’s or postgraduate projects, works associated with a doctoral thesis or any research related to the topics of this call.
The research proposals submitted must not yet have been developed. The development of the project shall be carried out once the grant has been awarded.
Candidacies of any nationality are accepted.
Grant payment
The grantees will receive the amount of €2,000 each.
In addition to the financial aid, the Pau Casals Chair offers:
- Support and assistance in the development of the project.
- Dissemination and publication of the project through the communication media of the Chair, the Pau Casals Foundation and the UOC.
- Access to the Pablo Casals document collection kept at the Nacional Archive of Catalonia.
- Publication of the research work on the Chair’s website and the possibility of publishing it on the Pau Casals Foundation and UOC websites.
- Support and advice in possible job publications.
Period for submission of applications:
from January 23, 2023 at 10:00 am
to March 31, 2023 at 11:59 pm Extended deadline!
Notification of the decision of the selection committee to all applicants:
before April 28, 2023
The final work resulting from the research must be submitted:
before December 31, 2023

Selection committee
A selection committee shall evaluate the applications submitted by applying the assessment criteria set out in these rules and shall draw up the respective report. The members of the selection committee are:
Alfons Martinell
Doctor in Pedagogy from the UdG and a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the UAB. He is currently co-director of the Pau Casals Chair and member of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (SDSN). He has been General Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is honorary director of the UNESCO Chair: Cultural Policies and Cooperation, and professor emeritus of the UdG.
Bernard Meillat
Musical advisor to the Pau Casals Foundation and artistic director of the Pau Casals International Music Festival. He has been director of Radio Classique in Paris (1991-2005) and Musiq’3 RTBF in Brussels (2006-2012).
Joan Fuster-Sobrepere
Doctor in History from the UPF and a degree in Philosophy from the UAB. He is currently an associate professor at the UOC, where he directs the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and co-director of the Pau Casals Chair. Founder and director of the Master in Humanities: contemporary art, literature and culture. He is part of the consolidated research group Identicat, and his research has focused on the political and cultural history of Catalonia in contemporary times and especially in the city of Barcelona.
Marc Gil
He holds a PhD in History from the UB and teaches Contemporary History and Current World at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the UOC. Specialist in contemporary history of the Spanish State (Francoism and transition) and in history of the current world (history of international relations). He has been awarded the Serra d’Or Criticism Prize for Research 2018 in the humanities category in recognition of his work Barcelona in the service of the “New State”. Depuration of the City Council during the first Franco regime. He is a member of the consolidated research group IdentiCat of the UOC.
Núria Ballester
Graduate in Art History from the UAB and Master in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology from the UB. She is the Director of the Pau Casals Museum and has extensive experience in the fields of heritage management, conservation, research and dissemination. She is responsible for the management of the collections and documentary collection of Pau Casals.
Pepe Reche
Performer and researcher, teacher and disseminator, and manager of educational and cultural projects. French horn player specialized in early music (ESMUC) and PhD in Musicology (UAB) with the thesis The French horn quartet of the Pau Casals Orchestra. His fields of research interest are around the historical French horn players in Barcelona and their repertoires, as well as the study of the profession of musician between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. He has won the Musical Essay Prize of Juventudes Musicales de Cataluña (JM Catalonia) and FICTA Ediciones.