The Barcelona Institute of Analytic Philosophy (BIAP) has been awarded the María de Maeztu Prize by the Spanish government’s Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The prize includes official recognition for BIAP as a “unit of excellence” and a €2 million (approximately $2.12 million) grant to support its research over the next five years.

BIAP was the only institute in the humanities in Spain to have been awarded a María de Maeztu prize this year. BIAP is comprised of researchers from the University of Barcelona, the University Pompeu Fabra, and the University of Girona, and the project will involve researchers at all three institutions.

The research program the prize will support is on the nature and role of evidence. It aims to:

1. explore and systematize the different roles, and scope, assigned to evidence in a variety of well-defined contexts of enquiry,
2. develop a coherent overall conception of the nature of evidence, and of evidential support, across the aforementioned contexts of enquiry, synthesizing the results obtained in pursuit of the first principal research objective, and
3. determine the lessons to be drawn from this conception for the uses and roles that evidence should have in the public sphere.

The inquiry is organized around 7 work packages:

• Evidence in Epistemology, led by Sven Rosenkranz (Barcelona)
• Evidence and the Law, led by Jordi Ferrer (Girona)
• Evidence in Science, led by José Díez and Carl Hoefer (Barcelona)
• Evidence in Philosophy of Mind, led by Josefa Toribio (Barcelona)
• Evidence and Philosophical Method, led by Manuel García-Carpintero (Barcelona)
• Evidence, Politics, and the Public Sphere, led by José Juan Moreso and Serena Olsaretti (Pompeu Fabra)
• Outreach and Transfer of Knowledge, led by Teresa Marques (Barcelona)

You can learn more about the research program here.