Her lines of research focus on living conditions and health in old age and long-term care. Her research has been awarded several prizes (Rogeli Duocastella, Investigación Social Caja Madrid, Consejo Económico y Social de la Comunidad de Madrid, Pañella Casas de la SEGG). She is a consultant for the Latin American Demographic Centre of the United Nations. She has participated in the Senate Commission on Demographic Evolution in Spain or in the Working Group on Depopulation and Ageing of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies. She has been the Social Sciences manager of the State R&D&I Plan of the State Research Agency (2012-2017) and coordinates the Committee of Experts of the Fundación General CSIC for the research area on Ageing.

Aitor Ipiña holds a degree in Business Studies from the University of Deusto.

He began his professional career in the banking consultancy sector and subsequently held management positions in several industrial companies and international groups.

Although since his youth he has been linked through volunteering with different entities such as Caritas, in 2013 he joined the Social Sector, specifically the Alboan Foundation for development cooperation. Since 2014 he has been Manager of the Bizitegi Association for a society without exclusions.

She has been a member of the Board of Directors of EAPN since 2014 and has held the presidency of the network since 2022.

Training
– Computer management.
– Specialisation in Administrative Management.
– Law studies at the UNED.

Professional career
– Civil servant in local administration from 1992-2018. Administrative Management.
– Cabinet Advisor in the Department of Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Government (2018-2019).
– Director of Family Policy and Diversity, Department of Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Government (2019-2020).
– Councillor, Agurain Town Council (2019-2023).

Other positions and activities
– Head of Social Action and Equality in the Nationalist Party in Alava (2012-2019).
– Member of the Provincial Council of Alava (2015-2018). Spokesperson in the Social Welfare Commission and Coordinator of the Paper on Financing of Local Entities.
– Member of various bodies such as the Governing Board of the Mutua Foral de Álava, Elkarkidetza.
– President for several years of social associations in the municipality of Agurain, such as the AMPA of the Lope de Larrea Ikastola.
– My interest in social issues has led me to take part in many courses and conferences on social rights, children’s rights, cultural identity, conflict management, negotiation and mediation…
– I have participated as a speaker at numerous conferences and seminars (Conference on children’s rights organised by the Andalusian Ombudsman, the Euskalit Advanced Management Conference, Conferences organised by the Association for Management Development, Congress Opening Paths to Conciliation, XIV National Conference on Psychology against Gender Violence, Summer Courses at the University of the Basque Country,…).

She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and a Master’s degree in Community Participation and Development and a Master’s degree in Equality between Women and Men: Equality Agents. Currently, she is the technician for citizen participation and community development at Amurrio Town Council and is responsible for various projects and services in the field of care. Of particular note is the innovation project for the Incorporation of the care perspective in the plans, programmes and contracts of Amurrio Town Council.

From 2019 to date, Head of Planning Section of the Department of Care and Social Policies with functions associated with the development and monitoring of objectives, targets and process and outcome indicators, as well as the Department’s statistics and memory.

In addition to this main function, I am responsible for social innovation and advanced management, managing social innovation grants and actions to improve the management plan.

From 2012 to 2019 I have carried out functions as a Senior Modernisation Technician in the current Administration Transformation Service belonging to the Governance Department. Among others, I carried out consultancy and audit functions in quality management systems ISO 14001 2000, EFQM, service charters, processes… In addition to coordinating the working group on Information Security and adaptation to the ENS (National Security Scheme).

Senior Assessor of the Club of Assessors of the EFQM model of Euskalit (Basque Foundation for Quality) since 2004. I have participated in 3 internal self-assessments of my organisation, in 7 external assessments of public and private sector organisations in the Basque Country, as well as in two contrasts for the Commitment to Excellence Diploma.

Evaluator since 2014 for the Spanish Agency for Evaluation and Quality, participating as evaluator of different public organisations in the state: INSS, Tax Agency, Institute of Public Administration…

Member of Qepea (Public Entities for Excellence) since 2006, collaborating in the organisation of the biannual Qepea Congress.

Evaluator of the Innobasque Quality Innovation Award in 2018, 2022 and 2023Professor in the Master in Sport Management of the EHU on support systems for quality management in 2019-2020.

Academic background
– Graduate in Social Work from the UPV-EHU in 2018.
– Master’s Degree in Management of Non-Profit Organisations. Servicios Normativos Formación, S.L. Years 2013/2014
– Professional expert in Community Mental Health. UNED. 2009
– Diploma in Social Work from the University School of Social Work of Vitoria-Gasteiz (91-94).

Work experience
– Director of Social Services, Provincial Council of Alava. 2019 to present.
– Manager of the Alava Association of Relatives and Persons with Mental Illness (ASAFES). 2007- 2019
– Social worker in the mental health field at ASAFES. 2001- 2007. ASAFES
– Social worker in a study on people over 65 years of age in the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz for the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council. September and October 1998, January and February 2000.
– Director of Free Time in the youth association ALEA. January – May 95.

Fifteen years of work experience dedicated to research, teaching, project management and funding in the field of social and health care, backed by scientific publications, public and private funded projects as well as various awards.

Training
Degree in Business Administration and Management and PhD in Financial Economics and Accounting from the University of Castilla-La Mancha in the Programme in Social and Health Research. Evaluation and Management. Master’s Degree in Financial Institutions from the same university. Among other training, he has completed specialisation courses in Evaluation and Economics of Social and Health Policies, Health Economics, Advanced Statistical Analysis and Financial Engineering.

Experience
He began his professional career as a researcher at the Centro de Estudios Sociosanitarios (CESS) of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) where he was involved in national and international projects and participated as a speaker in several postgraduate courses on social and health issues. Subsequently, as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Economic Analysis and Finance of the UCLM and, currently, accredited in the professional category of Full Professor.

Lines of research
Member of the Research Group in Economics, Food and Society of the UCLM and collaborator of the CESS with more than 30 publications in scientific journals of which at least 25 are included in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). His main lines are corporate finance and economic evaluation, in which he analyses costs and financing of dependency, cost and effectiveness of programmes and interventions and methods for the analysis of health and quality of life information.

José Luis is Director of the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. He also directs the NIHR Adult Social Care Policy Research Unit (ASCRU), which evaluates health and social services policies for the Department of Health in England.

Jose Luis is a health economist, and has over 25 years’ experience in the evaluation of ageing-related policies, the interaction between health and social care, and the economic evaluation of health and social care systems and services. He has been involved in several high-profile reviews of the social care funding system in England, as well as acting as a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Health Select Committee inquiry into social care.

In 2010, he co-founded the International Long-Term Care Policy Network (ILPN), which links academics and policy makers in the analysis of long-term care. He has also advised agencies such as the Department of Health and Social Care in England, the UK Treasury, the European Commission, the Asian Development Bank and the World Health Organization.

Studies
– Degree in Sociology, in the branches of urban sociology and sociology, UPV-EHU (1993-1998).
– University Specialist in Migrations, Postgraduate UPV-EHU (2002)
– Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) of the doctorate “Comparative government and political analysis” (2003-2005).

Languages
Basque: EGA

Professional and political career
– Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz (from June 2015 to June 2023)
– Spokesperson of EAJ-PNV in the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz (since 2011)
– He combines his profession with that of EAJ-PNV representative in the JJGG of Alava (2007-2011).
– Career civil servant of the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Sociologist position in the technical team of the Department of Social Intervention (2000-2011).
– Member of the Board, JJGG Álava (2007-2011)

Dolors Comas has a long research career in economic anthropology, gender and social inequalities. She has been a councillor on Tarragona City Council, a member of the Catalan Parliament and an advisor to the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia. From this double perspective, academic and political, she has worked on changes in the peasant family, violence against women, the involvement of men in care, or the care needs derived from ageing, with numerous publications. Her latest book Cuidar a mayores y dependientes en tiempos de la covid-19 (Tirant Humanidades, 2022), analyses not only what happened in the pandemic, but also shows the deficits of the dependency care system and provides alternatives to change the model.