CEICS - News

Creation of the first post-doctoral Campus of International Excellence position in scientific excellence

2012-05-08 10:16:19

This competition aims to recruit a young researcher to present a project to the European Research Council (ERC) “Starting Grants” scheme. The assessment criteria are based on scientific excellence.

The PCT has launched an online tool that recommends oenotourism resources

2012-04-30 15:14:57

The Science and Technology Park for Tourism and Leisure (PCT) has designed an intelligent system that recommends oenotourism activities and resources and which can be consulted online and with mobile devices. The tool allows tourists to design their experience at the destination according to their personal details and the time they have available, and also give operators and destinations common access to information for managing oenotourism.

Unique Giant Nanoscopic-size Cages developed at ICIQ featured in Nature Communications

2012-04-18 11:36:06

Prof. De Mendoza ( Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)) and his research team have synthesised unique octahedral and icosahedral anionic UOFs (Uranyl Organic Frameworks) from calixarenes, carboxylates and uranyl at room temperature.

A group of researchers at the URV has created smart fabrics that provide instant information about our health

2012-04-10 18:42:44

Science fiction is about to become science fact with clothes that can provide information about the state of an injury or that can detect the emotional state of the wearer. The researcher Francisco Andrade is leading a research project to add a new function to textile fibres by enabling them to detect chemical substances. The clothing is impregnated with a carbon nanotube ink which turns the fabric into an electrical conductor. In this way, the textile can detect different chemical substances present in bodily fluids (such as sweat or urine) and transform them into electrical signals that are sensitive enough to be monitored. This allows the textiles to provide, for example, data about our physical state which can be analyzed instantly by a doctor or by the wearer using a computer or a mobile device. Francisco Andrade is part of the Chemometrics, Qualimetrics and Nanonsensors group of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

New method for predicting diabetes in people with high cardiovascular risk

2012-04-11 10:13:25

The Human Nutrition team of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Reus has collaborated with the Jordi Gol Institute for Primary Care Research to publish a study that demonstrates how being overweight, smoking, having a family history of diabetes, consuming high quantities of alcohol, high tension and high levels of blood sugar are all related to an increased risk of developing diabetes in the future. They created questionnaire based on these factors in order to easily identify at an early stage those people who are at risk of developing diabetes. This study has been published in the international scientific medical journal PLoS ONE.

Six Nobel laureates and 100 junior researchers to take part in the Southern Catalonia Nobel Campus

2012-03-30 16:15:37

From 1 to 4 July the Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia in conjunction with Rovira i Virgili University will hold the Southern Catalonia Nobel Campus, an event to be attended by six Nobel laureates in Chemistry, leading scientists and leaders in R&D&i from the chemical industry. The motto of the conference will be “Chemistry for Life”. The objective of the Nobel Campus is to promote intensive interaction between the Nobel laureates and the junior researchers who will take part in the event in an environment which will foment dialogue and the exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge.

The journal "Quaternary International" supports the research that the IPHES has made in the Abric Romani site

2012-04-13 09:58:56

The volume number 247 of Quaternary International intituled “Neanderthal Home Spatial and Social Behaviours” resulted from the International Workshop “The Neanderthal Home: Spatial and Social Behaviour” organized by the IPHES (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social) on October 2009 at Tarragona (Spain). The 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Abric Romaní site, an event that is in keeping with the beginning of research on Prehistory in the Iberian Peninsula, and also the celebration of the 25 years of excavation of the IPHES research team at the site, was the perfect occasion and opportunity to organize this meeting.

"If I hadn’t got the grant, I would have had to leave"

2012-03-23 13:02:00

Anna Moya has received one of the first grants for the research and doctoral programme sponsored by the URV and Catalunya Caixa’s Fundació CaixaTarragona, and linked to the areas of specialisation of the Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia. Her research will be conducted in the area of modern history.

Research provides the keys to prioritising which species to conserve

2012-03-26 18:52:28

The importance of species within food networks depends more on the type of species and its evolutionary history than where it is found in the world or the other species that surround it. This is one of the main conclusions of the article "Evolutionary Conservation of Species’ Roles in Food Webs”, which was published today in the prestigious journal Science. The article is the result of an international joint effort in which a researcher from Rovira i Virgili University, Marta Sales-Pardo, took part.

A new programme to promote off-season tourism in the Costa Daurada

2012-03-26 11:34:50

The Consortium for Improving the Competitiveness of Tourism and Leisure in the Tarragona region is collaborating with AdHoc, a consultancy specializing in environmental sustainability, in project to design strategies for promoting off-season tourism in the Costa Daurada. The project will focus on new activities such as cultural tourism and the promotion of areas of the Costa Daurada that have until now not been the focus of tourism activity.