Carlos Mendez

Carlos is a Principal Research Fellow at the EPRC. He was educated at University College London (BA), London School of Economics (MSc) and Strathclyde (PhD). As a specialist on the European Union and regional development policy, Carlos’ main research interests include EU Cohesion Policy, the EU Budget, and regional policy in Portugal and Spain. He has co-authored a monograph on EU Cohesion policy, published a wide range of academic articles and policy reports, and worked on research projects and evaluation studies for European, national and regional institutions.

More recently, Carlos is leading on the development of a new research stream at the EPRC on citizen engagement and communication of Cohesion Policy. The research is underpinned by a major Horizon 2020 project (COHESIFY) funded by the European Commission on the impact of Cohesion Policy on citizen attitudes and identity, and a study for the European Parliament on the Visibility of Cohesion Policy in Online Media. As the coordinator of the these projects, Carlos has been collaborating with a multidisciplinary team of academic experts across the EU to apply innovative techniques including computational text analysis and framing analysis of online media, focus groups and large scale surveys of citizens as well as interview-informed case studies of the effectiveness of strategies to improve communication and tackle misinformation.