Eduardo González
The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) has announced the MAEC-AECID Scholarship Program for the training of young Spaniards in the period 2024-2025, with a total amount of 2.65 million euros.
The call, signed on April 5 by the director of the AECID. Antón Leis, and published (this past Tuesday) by the Official State Gazette (BOE), is part of the MAEC-AECID scholarship and assistantship programs, which are now in their seventy-seventh edition, for the promotion of culture, art, science and education as a means of international projection of Spain abroad. Likewise, it is part of the initiatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Directorate of Cultural and Scientific Relations (DRCC) of the AECID, to train young Spaniards.
The objective of the call is to grant aid for the training of young Spaniards in the areas of development cooperation in Technical Cooperation Offices and Training Centers of the AECID (COOPERATION Program), in cultural management and scientific diplomacy (CULT Program) and in European affairs at the College of Europe (COE Program). The total amount of the scholarship call is 2,657,850.00 euros and it is planned to award 108 scholarships spread across 53 countries, according to the AECID.
The objective of the COOPERATION Program is to grant training scholarships (specifically, 40) in the management of development cooperation in the Technical Cooperation Offices and Training Centers of the AECID in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Philippines. For its part, the objective of the CULT Program is to grant training scholarships (55) for the specialties of Cultural Management and Scientific Diplomacy in the foreign network of diplomatic representations and cultural centers.
Regarding the COE Program, the objective is to grant thirteen scholarships to young Spanish graduates to complete a master’s degree in one of the specialties or areas of study offered by the College of Europe, the most prestigious postgraduate European studies institution in Europe. The scholarships cover master’s studies at the College of Europe campuses in Bruges (Belgium), Natolin (Poland) and Tirana (Albania).
The College of Europe is the oldest center for European studies in the world (it was created in 1949 at the initiative, among others, of the Spanish thinker Salvador de Madariaga). Spain, as a member country of the European Union, is part of the Board of Directors of the College of Europe through the figure of its permanent representative ambassador to the European Union. The Spanish politician Íñigo Méndez de Vigo was president of the Board of Directors for ten years, between 2009 and 2019.
