The Diplomat
The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) yesterday signed an agreement to strengthen the scholarship programme for the training of Hispanists in the countries of the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE).
The agreement, signed by the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau, and the director of the RAE and president of ASALE, Santiago Muñoz Machado, “seals the commitment of both institutions to the pan-Hispanic language policy and guarantees the continuity of this training programme for professionals in the study of the Spanish language”, according to the RAE.
The agreement represents the renewal of the previous agreement of 2001, which took the form of the training scholarship programme that has been running since 2004 and which is now facing a new phase marked by digital transformation. ASALE, created 70 years ago in Mexico, is made up of the Spanish Language Academies of Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Panama, Cuba, Paraguay, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Argentina, Uruguay, Honduras, Puerto Rico, the United States, Equatorial Guinea and Israel (the National Academy of Judeo-Spanish).
The MAEC-AECID training collaboration grants were created in 2004 as a result of the increase in academic projects in the Spanish language that required shared training among all the academies linked to ASALE. Since then, and throughout its seventeen calls for applications, 524 grants have been awarded to university graduates from the geographical area of ASALE, preferably specialising in the School of Hispanic Lexicography. The beneficiaries have participated in the production of pan-Hispanic works and continue to collaborate with the academies.
The scholarships have an annual duration, extendable for a second year, provided that the beneficiary has the support of the academy that has hosted him/her. They are aimed at university graduates from the geographical area of ASALE, preferably specialising in the School of Hispanic Lexicography, and are endowed with a monthly grant of 750 euros. In total there will be up to 45 scholarships per year, for a maximum annual value of 415,000 euros, according to the AECID.
After signing the agreement, Ángeles Moreno Bau welcomed the opportunity “to continue working together for the care and promotion of Spanish, a heritage we share”, and highlighted “the service to our societies” provided by the Academies of Language in Ibero-America. For his part, Santiago Muñoz Machado expressed his “enormous satisfaction at the signing of this agreement, which allows us to maintain the pan-Hispanic academic work and face the new digital challenges in a collaborative task that is fundamental for the unity of our language”.
