One hundred students receive a ”la Caixa” Foundation fellowship to pursue postgraduate studies abroad

His Majesty the King of Spain has presided over the 44th edition of the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s ceremony for the award of postgraduate fellowships abroad. The 100 university students selected have been chosen for their excellence from among 1,101 candidates and admitted to some of the world’s leading universities.

His Majesty the King has today presided over the ceremony for the award of the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s postgraduate fellowships abroad, granted to the 100 university students selected in the 2025 call for applications. This is the 44th edition of the Foundation’s fellowship programme, which aims to foster the talent of outstanding students by broadening their training at the world’s leading universities and research centres.

Also in attendance at the event, held at CaixaForum Madrid, were the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, and the Chairman of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, Isidro Fainé. “At the ”la Caixa” Foundation, we are convinced that promoting excellence by supporting the most talented individuals is one of the cornerstones of scientific progress and social wellbeing. The Foundation’s fellowship programme has responded to this conviction since 1982, becoming one of the organisation’s most emblematic initiatives, with immense national and international prestige,” explained Isidro Fainé.

Luis Sentís, an international leader in humanoid robotics and cyber-physical systems, addressed attendees on behalf of the community of ”la Caixa” Foundation fellows. A full professor at the University of Texas at Austin, director of Good Systems and co-founder of the company Apptronik, Sentís promotes a people-centred approach to robotics that combines technological innovation with a clear humanistic vision aimed at ensuring safe coexistence between humans and machines. His international career began in the United States thanks to a ”la Caixa” Foundation postgraduate fellowship, which enabled him to pursue his master’s studies at Stanford University and lay the foundations for a career dedicated to integrating ethics, engineering and society. Over the course of his career, he has received several awards, most notably the NASA Elite Team Award for his contributions to the Johnson Space Center.

Statistical data on the new fellows

The 100 fellowships awarded are distributed across three continents: 64 are for study in Europe, 35 in the Americas and 1 in Asia. The countries attracting the highest number of fellows are the United Kingdom (38) and the United States (34).

The 100 fellows in the 2025 cohort come from 27 Spanish provinces and 1 Portuguese district. Five of them are from Argentina, Cuba, Italy, Lebanon and Serbia. The provinces of origin with the highest number of fellows are Barcelona (30), Madrid (22), Zaragoza (4), Seville (3), Tarragona (3) and Valencia (3).

The average age of the fellows at the time of receiving the fellowship is 24 years old.

La inversió de la Fundació ”la Caixa” a la convocatòria de l’any 2025 ha estat de 10 milions d’euros. El cost mitjà de les beques concedides per fer estudis de postgrau a l’estranger és de 100.000 euros.

Outstanding young people across multiple disciplines

A total of 1,101 eligible applications were submitted for this edition of the ”la Caixa” Foundation fellowships for postgraduate studies abroad, competing for one of the programme’s 100 fellowships, awarded on a competitive basis. Applications must pass an initial evaluation phase through a peer review system (assessment carried out by experts with similar competencies), and candidates who receive the highest scores are invited to a personal interview. The selection phase involves university professors with international experience in this type of evaluation process.

Both the number of applications received and the rigour and demanding nature of the selection processes ensure that the selected candidates demonstrate outstanding levels of excellence. The effectiveness of this system is subsequently reflected in the success of ”la Caixa” Foundation fellows in securing admission to the world’s leading universities.

The universities hosting the highest number of fellows are the University of Cambridge (10), Columbia University (9), the London School of Economics and Political Science (8), ETH Zürich (5), Harvard University (5) and the University of Oxford (5).

The most represented disciplines are mathematics (15); geography, political science and international relations (14); engineering and technology (12); art and history (11); physics (9); life sciences (7); and law (6).

More than four decades investing in the future of new generations

The ”la Caixa” Foundation’s postgraduate fellowships abroad programme is a benchmark within the university community. Several aspects make it uniquely valuable:

Since the launch of the postgraduate fellowships abroad programme in 1982 up to the 2025 call for applications, the ”la Caixa” Foundation has invested a cumulative total of more than 229 million euros in the international education of 4,177 students.

The Foundation’s investment in the 2025 call amounts to 10 million euros. The average cost of the fellowships awarded for postgraduate studies abroad is 100,000 euros.