Laia Mestres is research fellow associated to the European Foreign Policy Observatory and institutional relations and equality officer of at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals. 

She has worked as a researcher at the University Institute for European Studies and the CIDOB think tank (Barcelona Center for International Affairs).  She holds a PhD in International Relations and European Integration from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has taught Spanish foreign policy at UAB and at UPF’s Study Abroad program and she has also served as national associate researcher for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). 

Her research areas focus on Spain’s foreign and European policies and bilateralism within the EU.