Soledad
Morales Pérez

I am currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Academic Coordinator of the UOC Rural Network, and a member of the NOUTUR research group. My academic and professional career has been defined by a strong commitment to territorially grounded, critical research oriented towards social transformation. From my early work as a researcher in geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in 2002—where I completed a PhD on rurality and gender—to the present day, I have built a hybrid academic profile that integrates research, teaching, and knowledge transfer with a clear focus on social impact. After a period coordinating postgraduate programmes in tourism at UAB and leading the development of international master's programmes, I joined the UOC in 2009, where I have since consolidated my research on the relationship between tourism, local development, and sustainability. Since 2014, I have been the Academic Director of the Master’s in Sustainable Tourism and ICT, and for eight years I also directed the Master’s in Sustainable Destination Management, co-organised with the UNWTO. My current research focuses on the ecological and digital transitions in rural territories. I serve as Principal Investigator of the UOC Rural Network, an institutional initiative that promotes research and knowledge transfer related to contemporary ruralities, engaging researchers, students, and local stakeholders in co-creating solutions to today’s major challenges. In this role, I lead two ongoing competitive projects and two additional research and innovation (R&I) projects. In parallel, I have carried out research within the NOUTUR group (SGR 2023), through which I have obtained competitive funding as PI for national projects (ECCOLTUR, EPTUR) and European initiatives (IDEATE), in addition to numerous knowledge transfer and R&D contracts. This work has enabled me to explore new lines of inquiry around the impact of digital technologies on tourism and the potential of collaborative economies in shaping emerging social geographies. I am also a member of the Coordination Group of the European Commission’s Rural Pact, and strive to be an active voice in both academic and social spheres advocating for critical and innovative perspectives on rural territories and knowledge systems. My goal is to continue fostering collaborative research, securing competitive funding, and mentoring new generations of researchers in their pursuit of academic excellence—always grounded in the transformative power of research and shared knowledge.