12 December 2025
Bilbao campus
David Fernández-Rojo, lecturer at Deusto Law School, has been awarded the runner-up prize of the 2025 Leizaola Award for his work "From Europe to Basque municipalities: multilevel governance and citizen participation in the resettlement of refugees".
In his monograph, he analyses how multilevel governance and direct citizen participation, through community sponsorship programmes such as Auzolana II, strengthen the capacity for early reception and integration of resettled individuals and position the Basque Country as a laboratory for solidarity-based governance in the field of refugee support.
The Leizaola Award is an annual prize granted by the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) to unpublished research monographs related to Basque autonomy or that contribute to its study and deeper understanding. Jesús María Leizaola, after whom the award is named, was Minister of Justice and Culture in the first Basque Government during the Civil War and later served as Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Country in exile during the Franco regime.
