SPANISH PROGRAM FOR CULTURAL COOPERATION
Toward a Common Future

Spain, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands share a common heritage, which opens windows towards mutual growth through collaboration and cooperation. The Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of Spain and Universities in the Philippines and the Pacific Islands was designed to foster closer ties between Spain, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands through the collaborative works of scholars in the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

The program theme, "Toward a Common Future," expresses the intent to build a strong common future among the participating countries, rooted in their historically rich common past.

The Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of Spain and Philippine Universities began in November 1997 and was formally launched on June 15, 1998. Four countries from the Pacific Islands formally joined the Program in the grant year 2001. These are: Guam, Palau, Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federal States of Micronesia.

The Program is intended to foster closer ties between Spain, Philippines and the Pacific Islands through the collaborative work of scholars in the Humanities and the Social Sciences and of artists of the participating countries.

Financial support is awarded to projects that study and promote our shared heritage and shared future. Studies on Spain, contemporary or historical, fall within the mandate of the Program.

Applications have to be endorsed by a Philippine university or an academic institution in the Pacific Islands.

AREAS OF INTEREST:
The Program considers a broad range of projects in the Humanities and the Social Sciences which study and articulate the shared heritage and the shared future of Spain, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. It also awards grants for studies about Spain, either historical or contemporary.

The following is a list of possible areas of interest (This list serves just for illustration and does not intend to exclude other areas):

• Contemporary Spain: modernization, democratization, migration and ethnic diversity, social services, and regional organizations.
• Comparative Studies on Spain and the Philippines, or the Pacific Islands.
• Spanish Language: didactics, borrowings
• The Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Design and the Cinema
• Preservation of Cultural Heritage
• Urban Planning

TYPES OF COOPERATION:

1. RESEARCH GRANT
2. PUBLICATION PROJECTS
3. CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
4. CONFERENCES, SYMPOSIA AND SEMINARS INVOLVING COLLABORATIVE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
From 1998 until 2004, the administration of the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation in the Philippines has been housed by the Ateneo de Manila University through the exemplary leadership of Fr. José M. Cruz, S.J, Ph.D.

Presently, it is under the administration of Instituto Cervantes in Manila through its Director, José Rodriguez Rodríguez. Since its conception, the program has so far given 248 grants in total supporting a variety of researches and cultural events. The President of the Program and Chair of the Executive Committee is the Ambassador of Spain to the Philippines and the Pacific Islands, and the General Coordinator is the Director of Instituto Cervantes.

The Executive Committee is composed of the General Coordinator, the General Director for Cultural Cooperation and Communication of the Ministry of Culture of Spain, the Assistant General Director for International Cultural Cooperation of the said Ministry and a select group of university professors from the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.

The duties of the Executive Committee are to propose projects of cultural collaboration, to evaluate the applications submitted for consideration, and to help attract funding from the universities.