The title of this year’s annual report is “Connecting people with Economics.” It encapsulates many of the challenges and successes of the 2020-21 academic year, from fine-tuning online course delivery for students to organizing the first virtual edition of the Summer Forum, our marquee conference for researchers.

Despite the continued restrictions on campus activities and travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we provided knowledge and training in Economics, Data Science, and related fields to people across the globe, including: 179 Master’s students; 663 participants in Summer Schools, professional courses, and in-company training; 1,159 Summer Forum attendees; and all those in academia, public institutions, and the business world who use the research we disseminate to advance toward their objectives.

We thank our sponsors, those companies and institutions that continued their support during this difficult period.

We also counted on two groups in our community that are always at core of everything we do: our Affiliated Professors, who maintained the highest quality in their teaching and research activities; and our administrative team, who supported our students, alumni, and faculty with professionalism and personal attention.

Another key group in our community is our Scientific Council, which provides strategic guidance that has helped us mature into the institution we are today. Sadly, this summer we lost our dear friend and Chair of the Scientific Council, Hugo Sonnenschein. Hugo believed in us from the beginning and gave generously of his time and energy over the years. We would like to dedicate this annual report to his memory.

We will keep Hugo’s spirit and high standards in mind as we move forward next year under our new name, Barcelona School of Economics. Hugo and the entire Scientific Council advised us on this change, which was approved by our Board of Trustees. The name change went into effect on September 1, 2021 (after this report closed) and will be reflected in the next edition of the annual report.