The award entails 2-million-euro funding for a period of 4 years. CEMFI's strategic research program aims to strengthen its position as a leading world-class research institution in economics, and to expand and strengthen its PhD program. As part of this research program, the following activities are being undertaken:

• The PhD Support Program enhances CEMFI's capacity to attract highly qualified international students by providing them competitive funding. As human capital, both faculty and students, is the main ingredient of successful PhD training, the ability to attract top-level graduate students to CEMFI is an essential part of the Strategic Program.
• The Visitor Program fosters the interaction between CEMFI's researchers and leading international scholars. Visits funded by this program normally last between two weeks and three months and take place between September and mid-July. Visitors are expected to contribute to the already vibrant research environment at CEMFI and interact with faculty and graduate students.

• The Research Support Program provides resources for faculty and graduate students to boost CEMFI's research output. Four elements of the Research Support program have been designed to encourage high-risk, high-return projects (Exploration Grants Program), reward top-quality research (Research Incentive Program), enhance the interaction between faculty and students (Research Assistantship Program), and address specific needs of graduate students (Explorations Grants Program and PhD Placement Program).

• Finally, María de Maeztu post-doctoral fellows contribute to CEMFI's research environment and enhance its graduate teaching capabilities.