Research Group on Social Welfare Policy

Description

The Social Welfare Policy Research Group, belonging to the Universitat de València (Spain), is an international reference group specialised in social research, innovation and technology, technical advice and training in the field of social policies. We develop basic and applied research with an interdisciplinary and holistic approach on economic, social, political and technical sustainability of welfare systems, advising the Administration and companies in the design, planning and implementation of resources and policies of social welfare and sustainability.

The group is made up of an interdisciplinary team led by Jorge Garcés Ferrer, Prince of Asturias Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC (USA) and 20 researchers from different disciplines at the Universitat de València. In turn, the group collaborates with entities and universities in the European Union, the United States, South America and Africa.

Vision: to improve the well-being, sustainability and quality of life of society.

Mission: to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in public policies, private entities and the third sector, by means of innovative, integral and inter-institutional proposals through a team with an interdisciplinary and multi-centre approach.

Challenge for 2030: to innovate public policies through information and communication technologies, ICTs.

The Research Group offers the best service in the area of public policy and to do so uses an interdisciplinary team, connected internationally and with a great knowledge of each area of work. Not only its source of knowledge and capacity, but also its cohesion, dynamism and way of working, allow the Group to continue growing towards excellence. The team teaches on degree courses of the Universitat de València, official Universitat de València master's degrees, own master's degrees and postgraduate courses, as well as other training courses.

Goals CT

To improve the well-being, sustainability and quality of life of society in the field of public policy.

Research lines

Welfare education and students with special educational needs
Research is conducted on: the improvement of the quality of life of people with disabilities (intellectual, brain damage, illness, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity), the educational response to their special needs, and on the psychosocial impact on families.
Study on the quality of legislation
Research is carried out on the instruments of legislative quality as a mechanism to improve legal certainty and thus enhance democratic quality, especially in the field of private law.
Sustainability, ICT and social innovation in health care systems
The socio-technical processes applied to the sustainability of integrated social and health systems are investigated, based on the principles of user satisfaction and system efficiency.
Health psychology
Analysis of health-related psychosocial factors that have an impact on people's quality of life. Prevention and treatment protocol for chronic patients. Especially in the areas of oncology, infertility and ageing.
Pensions and social protection
Financial-actuarial analysis of the pension systems and main contingencies: retirement, disability, widowhood, orphanage, family member, unemployment and dependency. It also studies the financial and insurance products that are best suited to the needs of individuals.
International cooperation for development. Participation and democracy. Social Security
Cooperation for the improvement of human development rates and social cohesion. Methodologies for carrying out participative citizen diagnoses, their systematisation and the elaboration of public policies from the citizen's proposal. Analysis of Social Security Systems.Cooperación para la mejora de los índices de desarrollo humano y la cohesión social. Metodologías para la realización de diagnósticos ciudadanos participativos, su sistematización y la elaboración de políticas públicas desde la propuesta ciudadana. Análisis de los Sistemas de Seguridad Social.
Active and healthy ageing, affordable social tourism and sustainable urban development, intelligent cities
Ageing and the promotion of personal autonomy. Reorientation of the tourism sector towards new consumers of products with special needs. Economic, environmental and social challenges of urban areas and their interrelationship, from an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.
Third sector and social economy: social innovation and socio-economic reengineering. CSR and entrepreneurship
Social Economy: strategies for sustainable economy and social cohesion. Design of indicators. Design, evaluation and promotion for the implementation of CSR strategies. Dissemination and consolidation of social entrepreneurship. Generation of motivation for entrepreneurship and employment M 3.0.
Health technology evaluation
All types of health technology evaluation, taking into account the broad concept of health technology ranging from medicines and procedures to health technology and techniques.
Job insecurity and youth. Occupational health. Sport and integration
Access of young people to the labour market. Barriers and difficulties in worker participation and ways to improve working conditions. Sport as an instrument of integration in degraded urban contexts or with socially disadvantaged groups - immigrants, young people, women.