FUNDACION UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA ARGENTINA SANTA MARIA DE LOS BUENOS AIRES

Their core work

UCA is a Catholic university in Buenos Aires with academic strength in philosophy, social sciences, and education. In EU-funded research, they participate exclusively as a third-party institution under MSCA mobility schemes — hosting visiting researchers or sending their own staff to European partner universities for short-term exchanges. Their research contributions span empirical social inequality analysis (with a Latin American comparative lens) and theoretical philosophy, including Hegelian dialectics, feminist philosophies, and the foundations of rational inquiry. They function as an academic bridge between European and Latin American intellectual traditions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first EU engagement (INCASI, 2016-2019) was sociological and empirical — tracking social inequality trajectories, gendered outcomes, and uncertainty across Latin America and Europe. By their second project (InRatio, 2022-2024), the focus moved decisively into theoretical and applied philosophy: Hegel, metaphilosophy, feminist philosophies, inclusive rationality, and the social role of critical thinking. The shift suggests a research group that used the social inequalities work as a foundation and then pursued the philosophical underpinnings of those same questions — moving from measuring the problem to theorizing its roots.

UCA is moving toward a distinctive niche at the intersection of Hegelian philosophy, feminist epistemology, and inclusive education — a combination with growing relevance in EU research agendas around critical thinking and democratic values.

How they like to work

UCA has participated in every H2020 project as a third party, meaning they contribute through researcher mobility — sending or hosting staff — rather than managing tasks or budgets directly. Despite this limited formal role, they built connections with 19 partners across 9 countries through just two projects, which points to participation in large, well-networked MSCA consortia. Working with UCA means engaging a Latin American academic host institution that offers intellectual exchange and network access rather than technical project delivery.

UCA has connected with 19 consortium partners across 9 countries through two MSCA projects — an unusually broad network for an organization with no coordinator role and no direct EC funding. Their geographic reach spans both Europe and Latin America, making them one of the few Argentine HES institutions with an established EU research network.

What sets them apart

UCA is one of very few Latin American Catholic universities with a documented track record in EU MSCA research networks, offering European consortia a credible academic partner in Argentina for researcher exchanges. Their specific combination of Hegelian philosophy, feminist epistemology, and critical thinking education is unusual in the EU research landscape and hard to replicate with European-only partners. For any project requiring a Latin American social sciences or humanities institution — particularly one with philosophical depth and an equity-focused research agenda — UCA is a rare fit.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INCASI
  A comparative Europe–Latin America inequalities study that established UCA's international profile and anchored the university in a large cross-continental MSCA-RISE network.
• InRatio
  An unusual interdisciplinary philosophy project blending Hegelian dialectics, feminist philosophies, and philosophy for children — a combination that signals a distinctive and hard-to-replicate research identity.