2025 EDITION

The Julio Cotler Program was created in 2024, within the framework of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Obreal’s founding, as a tribute to Professor Julio Cotler (1932–2019). A central intellectual figure in Obreal’s early years, his conviction in the transformative power of higher education to address social inequalities inspires this initiative. The program aims to promote analysis and dialogue on the main challenges facing democracies in Latin America.

The 2025 edition was supported by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), the Advanced Studies Center of the University of Bologna in Buenos Aires (UniBO BA), and the Argentine Society of Political Analysis (SAAP).

PARTICIPANTS

The Julio Cotler Program is open to young people from Latin American universities in their final year of undergraduate studies, as well as graduates from any discipline who are researchers or political or social activists and who have not yet published a research article in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

2025 Call for Applications

In the 2025 edition, candidates were invited to submit an abstract of no more than 400 words addressing theoretical and practical enigmas relevant to the functioning and challenges of Latin American democracies. Research proposals could select the topic and the most appropriate academic field or subfield to address the research question/problem.

The evaluation of the proposals paid special attention to the academic relevance of the research question and to the consistency between the question and the proposed research method. In addition, research proposals were expected to include original empirical research. A committee of experts selected between 15 and 20 participants to develop an 8,000-word article.

The shortlisted proposals were accepted as abstracts to participate in the XVII National Congress of Political Science of Argentina, held in the city of Rosario (Argentina) from July 23 to 26, 2025. The 3 most outstanding articles received a financial award of 2,000 euros each and were published online with open access for all.