The candidacy of Pablo Oñate was proposed by the professor Fernando Vallespín and other full university professors of the subject area. Oñate is the third political scientist to receive the award, after Francisco Murillo (2002) and Juan J. Linz (2004).

Pablo Oñate, graduate in Law and doctor in Political Sciences by the Autonomous University of Madrid, is an author, editor and co-author of 17 books, as well as more than a hundred articles in specialized magazines and chapters of books. He has presented more than 150 conferences in national and international scientific conferences about democracy, politics parties, electoral systems, electoral quotes, elections, political behaviour, political representation, politics, parliaments, parliamentary political elites, among others.

Researcher and visiting professor at the Georgetown University and the George Washington University (USA); Oxford University and London School of Economics and Political Science (UK); Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México de México; Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur and Universidad de Veracruz (México); and Universidad René Moreno (Bolivia), he has worked as a consultant and international observer in many electoral processes in Latin America, in Bosnia Herzegovina and in Myanmar. He has also been institutional asessor in Spain, and has worked for the Ministeri d’Educació (Spanish Ministry of Education), the ANECA, the Andrés Bello Convention, and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and Development.

The jury of the award was directed by José Félix Tezanos, and integrated by Silvia García Ramos, Rosario H. Sánchez, Inés Alberdi, Constanza Tobío, Rafael Pardo, Luisa Carlota Solé, Juan Montabes, Màrius Domínguez, Lucila Finkel, Irene Delgado, Antonio Francisco Alaminos and María Violante Martínez.