Afterword

We never thought this would end up being such a public good. But here we are!

The BESTEPS Guide grew out of the BESTEPS Lectures, a flagship PhD training project organized at the UB School of Economics (UBSE). But it is more than just a collection of lectures.

Just as generating a research idea begins with identifying a relevant and answerable gap in our knowledge, designing the BESTEPS project followed the exact same logic. For us, the gap was a set of research skills missing from the standard PhD curriculum, skills that are not only practical but also sharpen the judgement and research sense that are more important than ever in the age of AI. Looking back, we are glad that we took up the opportunity and built a fully demand-driven curriculum to fill it.

Such a curriculum, taught by leading experts, is too valuable to keep to ourselves. This Guide is our attempt to turn the lectures into a shareable resource, one that can lower the barriers for junior researchers around the world facing the same steep learning curves. It was not easy: we invested more than 100 hours turning it into what we hope is an enjoyable read.

A project like BESTEPS does not appear in a vacuum. It needs a community that is at once rigorous and collaborative, and that takes early-career researchers seriously. Years of collective effort have made UBSE exactly such a place, with its PhD program playing a central role. Here, faculty and students work in close contact, junior researchers bring early-stage ideas to the biweekly “Brainstorm Coffees”, and PhD students organize seminars across universities in Barcelona. This is the UBSE that made BESTEPS possible.

BESTEPS is, ultimately, an expression of this broader vision: we have seen what a research community can give to those just starting out, and we believe what it gives should not stay behind our own doors. This Guide is our small way of contributing to the wider academic community we belong to. The research journey is hard for all of us; wherever you are along the way, we hope the Guide meets you there.