Laia Andreu research focuses on the study of the interactions between forests and the environment and on reconstructing past climate conditions using tree rings and isotopic geochemistry. Warming temperatures associated with global climate change are having dramatic and profound impacts on forests, and her research centers on assessing these changes across several key regions of the planet. She is currently conducting research in boreal, tropical, Central Asian and Mediterranean regions, which are ‘hot spots’ of current climate and environmental change.

Xavier Costa-Pérez research focuses on the digital transformation of society (DX) driven by the interplay of mobile networks and AI. In contrast to previous mobile network generations, a key new aspect for the industry is the need to expand the mobile ecosystem to incorporate industry verticals like automotive, manufacturing, smart-grids and health. While early research and field trial results are promising, the AI-driven automation of mobile networks for a cost-efficient society digitalization (DX) is still at its infancy and will require a huge research effort to deliver on the DX promises in the next decades.

Carla Lancelotti research focuses on the essential role of plants for the adaptation and resilience of past and present socio-ecological systems in drylands. Her work examines dryland crop farming strategies, drawing on archaeobotany and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to inform current agricultural practice in regions threatened by climate change-driven aridification. She is currently working in South Asia and Africa, where desertification is massively affecting food-security and where the presence of a long archaeological record testifies of past successful adaptations of human groups.

Francisco Ortega research focuses on the interactions between global biopsychiatry and local psychiatric epistemologies. His work examines the extent to which global mental health initiatives appropriately address mental health challenges in the global South, with a focus on the role of culture in mental health. To that end, he explores the historical roots, and the political and epistemological aspects present in the discussion about cultural diversity and mental health, and investigates experiences in public mental health that incorporate the cultural dimension. His research assumes that integrating cultural studies in mental health can help describe and interpret the complexity of the issues involved in mental health care in global times. He is currently conducting research in Brazil. 

Diana applies machine learning and cutting-edge technology to analyse key cultural transformation processes within a transnational and cultural analytics approach. She is fascinated by the circulation of cultural goods and the study of how historical networks offer new insights into patterns of cultural change. Within a sociological and digital humanities perspective, her research pushes forward global literary and cultural history to analyse multiple connections that go beyond intercultural entanglements in Europe or the Western world. Her research is grounded in a decentred and empirical approach, a big data turn, and a focus on agents and social network research to abandon the focus on innovative centres and imitative peripheries, when studying large accounts of literary and translation processes between spaces and over time. She is the PI of an ERC StG (2018-2023).