CEICS, Campus of International excellence southern catalonia URV

Representatives of institutions affiliated with the project shortly after the presentation of the proposal.

The rector of the university, describing the proposal at the headquarters of the Spanish National Research Council.

The Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia (CEICS) has been selected by the Ministry of Education in the 2010 Campus of International Excellence call for proposals. The proposal presented by Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and some one hundred public and private institutions has received the distinction of “Campus of International Excellence” in the regional excellence category.

The rector of the URV, Francesc Xavier Grau, affirms that this “is a project for the entire region and one of a regional university with international visibility.” Grau and his team were congratulated for receiving the recognition of excellence and said that the doors are now open to consolidate a strategy that was put into place years ago. The rector also stated his appreciation for the participation of all the organizations involved.

Several other projects were also recognized in this category: Campus BioTic Granada (coordinated by the University of Granada), Campus do Mar (coordinated by the University of Vigo), CEI Canarias (from the universities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and La Laguna), CEI Mare Nostrum (from the universities of Murcia and Cartagena) and Studii Salamantinii (University of Salamanca).

The projects selected in the international excellence category were: Andalucía TECH (universities of Sevilla and Malaga), Euskampus (coordinated by the University of the Basque Country), VLC/Campus (University of Valencia and the Technical University of Valencia), Campus UPF-Icària Internacional, and Campus Iberus (coordinated by the Universidad of Zaragoza). The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the University of Barcelona were again recognised for their international excellence through the new projects they presented this year, having won the distinction in last year’s call for proposals. In total, 14 candidates presenting projects in the 2010 Campus of International Excellence call for proposals were selected and 75 million euros were distributed for the development of their projects.

In the 2009 call for proposals the CEICS project was singled out as a Promising Project. The proposal presented this year was improved and reinforced with new areas of action. One of the changes in this year’s project is the strengthening of the strategic alliance of the university, research institutes, research centres, technology parks, the healthcare sector, companies and public administrations, which together make up the Southern Catalonia Knowledge Hub, the promoter association for the campus. It is an association that enjoys the involvement of 25 core members and 57 affiliated entities. Improvements have also been made in the area of international relations and in the creation of benchmark doctoral schools in the areas of chemistry, prehistory and archaeology.

The proposal has its foundations in excellence in teaching, research and knowledge transfer in the five areas on which the initiative is based: chemistry and energy, nutrition and health, heritage and culture, tourism and oenology. The alliance of research and knowledge transfer structures in the region strengthen a project whose mission is to become an international benchmark centre and a magnet for the attraction of talent that will contribute to improving its international visibility and the quality of its research.