Rocío Nogales Muriel earned her PhD at the University of Barcelona in 2017 on the topic of social innovation in cultural and artistic social enterprises. In particular, she studied the scaling-up process of the SMart cooperative model. Her research focuses on social change, organizational transformation and the management strategies operating in cultural third sector organizations. She is currently the Managing Director of the EMES International Research Network and her professional experience includes the US cultural non-profit sector, where she managed a social enterprise initiative in a community arts centre. She was a member of the Experts Group on Social Enterprise of the European Commission (GECES) from 2013 to 2017. Since 2015, she is part of the coordination team of the Ecopoetry Festival held in Northern Extremadura (Spain). More recently, she co-launched Luminosas, an initiative aimed at raising awareness on issues of gender equality and social justice through photography and poetry.

Her doctoral thesis: “Social transformation and social innovation in the field of culture: The case of the SMart model and its adaptation across Europe” obtained from the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society (CECUPS) at the University of Barcelona in Spain, won the ENCATC 2020 Research Award.