News

Through the ‘Iberdrola U’ programme, the group engages with academia to attract talent and transfer knowledge and skills

2019-01-31 00:00:00.0

Her Majesty Queen Letizia awards Iberdrola Scholarships to mark ‘Iberdrola Talent Day’

  • The 97 beneficiaries will expand their education at universities in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mexico, as well as at the Prado Museum and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
  • The chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, in the presence Minister Teresa Ribera, announced a new call of applications for master's and research grants for 2019-2020 which opens tomorrow
  • Ignacio Galán made plain his pride at "having contributed to the training of almost 4,000 university graduates in the past five years alone"

Today, Her Majesty Queen Letizia, accompanied by Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, and the Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, presented 97 master's degree and research grants that the company awarded for the current academic year 2018-2019.

In this edition, the company has allocated nearly €3 million to its master’s degree and research grants benefiting graduates from 10 countries, including United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Holland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Ignacio Galán thanked the support of Her Majesty Queen Letizia to the “new generations tasked with transforming today’s reality into a more global and fair world with greater solidarity”.

For the Chairman of Iberdrola, it is essential that talented graduates contribute to building a more sustainable world through the protection of the environment and biodiversity, ‘just as purposeful as the Ministry for the Ecological Transition is doing under the leadership of Minister Ribera.”

Iberdrola has strengthened its links to academia through resources and activities aimed at rewarding talent and the transfer of knowledge. In addition, it supports skills training of young professionals and the creation of quality and stable jobs. "We are proud to have contributed, over the past five years alone, to the training of nearly 4,000 university graduates; 4,000 stories of endeavour and success," said Ignacio Galán.

Also, the Chairman of Iberdrola announced the call for applications to 75 new scholarships and research grants for the academic year 2019-2020 which opens tomorrow. To close his speech, Galán offered young graduates this advice: "Be brave. Take risks.”

With its support for universities, research and knowledge, Iberdrola continues to advance in the fulfilment of the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The company focusses its efforts on the supply of affordable and clean energy (Goal 7) and on climate action (Goal 13) whilst also contributing directly to quality education (Goal 4), ensuring clean water and sanitation (Goal 6), increasing its investment in R&D+I activities (Goal 9), promoting respect for the life of terrestrial ecosystems (Goal 15) and working to establish partnerships to achieve the goals (Goal 17).

 

Iberdrola U: Iberdrola’s universities programme

Through the Iberdrola U Programme, the company has signed partnership agreements with six outstanding institutions of learning: the Comillas Pontifical University, University of Salamanca, University of Strathclyde, Monterrey Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, reaching more than 200,000 members of the education community.

The company also seeks to promote quality in education, technology transfer and the universal provision of energy services through different professorships with universities such as the Iberdrola-AVANGRID professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Eighth Centenary Iberdrola professorship at the University of Salamanca and the Iberdrola Economic and Business Ethics professorship recently signed with the Comillas Pontifical University.

Iberdrola U is backed up with the Iberdrola Alumni internship programme and support for R&D&I projects.

Through the €70 million Iberdrola Perseo International Start-Up Programme, the company is seeking disruptive energy industry ideas to invest in new companies that provide innovative and sustainable solutions.

 

About Iberdrola

Iberdrola is a global energy leader, the number one producer of wind power, and one of the world’s biggest electricity utilities by market capitalisation. The group is present in numerous countries and supplies energy to over 100 million people mainly in Spain, the United Kingdom (Scottish Power), the USA (AVANGRID), Brazil (Neoenergia) and Mexico. With a workforce of 34,000 and assets in excess of €110 billion, it posted revenues of over €31.263 billion and a net profit of €2.804 billion in 2017.

Iberdrola is leading the transition towards a sustainable energy model through investments in renewable energy, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation, offering the most advanced products and services to its customers. Thanks to its commitment to clean energy, Iberdrola is one of the companies with the lowest emissions and an international benchmark for its contribution to the fight against climate change and for sustainability.