The network is now underway!

The Strategic Network DESP-OB has officially launched with an inaugural event held at the Faculty of Humanities on the Lugo Campus of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). The project, coordinated by the Instituto de Estudos e Desenvolvemento de Galicia (IDEGA), aims to generate useful and transferable knowledge on one of the most pressing territorial challenges in contemporary Spain: the depopulation and demographic decline affecting large rural areas.

DESP-OB will focus its work on ten actions, structured around three major lines of activity: the creation of an interdisciplinary observatory on depopulation, the development of a catalogue of good practices supported by case studies across Spain, and the design of a strategic roadmap aimed at both public administrations and the wider public.

An event bringing together ten leading research units

The institutional presentation of the network took place on Tuesday, 2 September, and featured contributions from the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Gonzalo Fernández; the Vice-President of the Provincial Council of Lugo, Efrén Castro; and the Director of IDEGA and general coordinator of DESP-OB, Professor Rubén C. Lois.

Following the opening session, the participating teams presented their research lines and the areas in which they will contribute to the project. The public programme concluded with the lecture “Depopulation and Population Decline in the National Atlas of Spain”, delivered by Professor María José Piñeira Mantiñán.

Afterwards, the team held its first in-person working session and visited several inspiring rural revitalisation initiatives in the surrounding areas.

A multidisciplinary network of excellence to address a complex challenge

DESP-OB brings together leading units linked to the universities of Oviedo (RegioLab), León (GIEA), Zaragoza (CEDDAR), Illes Balears (GREI), Valencia (UDERVAL-IIDL), Alicante (IEI), Murcia (CEMUGE), Málaga (INACOM), and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Terres del Ebre campus), in addition to IDEGA and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The network as a whole includes specialists from a broad range of disciplines—geography, economics, sociology, political science, communication studies and territorial analysis—forming a multidisciplinary research environment designed to understand and address the demographic challenge from multiple perspectives.

A project funded under the national Research Networks call

DESP-OB is one of the initiatives selected in the 2024 call of the national Research Networks programme, promoted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the Spanish State Research Agency. Within the framework of the State Programme for Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration of the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2024–2027, the project will carry out ten core actions over an initial two-year period.

The network is conceived with a long-term vision: it aims to incorporate new partner institutions, strengthen its international projection, and consolidate itself as a stable space for academic cooperation, scientific outreach and support for public policy development on depopulation. All updated information on activities, publications and initiatives will be available on this website and on DESP-OB’s official social media channels.