Berna León, Ph.D.

Besides my academic work, I am also engaged in policy research and institutional development in the field of public policy.

I currently serve as the first Managing Director of Fundación AVANZA, the policy think tank of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), launched as an initiative of the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. Based in Madrid, the foundation aims to strengthen progressive policy development in Spain and internationally by fostering research, debate and collaboration on democratic governance, political economy and the policy implications of technological transformation. As its first director, I am helping establish the institution’s research agenda, programs and international partnerships.

Previously, I founded and directed for four years Future Policy Lab, a think tank specializing in social policy and evidence-based public policy. The organization focused on two main activities: providing policy support to public administrations at different levels (national, international and local), and publishing agenda-setting policy reports.

Our work with public administrations included:

Designing the 4-day week randomized controlled trial for the Basque Government (2024–2026)
Providing technical support for evidence-based policymaking to the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF)
Designing a pilot program addressing rural housing shortages funded by Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge

Future Policy Lab also published widely covered policy reports on issues such as housing rights (funded by Spain’s main housing associations), the implementation and expansion of Spain’s minimum income policies (funded by Oxfam), and the need for a more ambitious industrial policy. The presentations of these reports often involved relevant ministers and received extensive coverage across written press, radio and television.

Since its launch in 2022, I led the organization as Managing Director, growing it to a team of seven partners and a network of more than fifty fellows.

I also serve on the Board of Trustees of Fundación AVANZA, together with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Helen Clark (former Prime Minister of New Zealand), Ibrahim Mayaki (former Prime Minister of Niger), and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias, among others.

Prior to joining Fundación AVANZA, I served on the advisory board of the Laboratorio de Oportunidades, a project launched by Future Policy Lab, FFG, the World Inequality Lab and Opportunity Insights (Harvard University) dedicated to studying social mobility using large-scale administrative data. The initiative brought together leading scholars in the field, including Raj Chetty and Leah Boustan, among others, with the goal of advancing the use of large administrative datasets to better understand patterns of opportunity and intergenerational mobility.

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