Recognition event to the chairs of the University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona held yesterday, for the first time, an event to honour the contribution of the University of Barcelona chairs to the fields of teaching and research. As noted by the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, “the public-private collaboration facilitates finding traveling buddies to reach common goals efficiently”.
The University of Barcelona held yesterday, for the first time, an event to honour the contribution of the University of Barcelona chairs to the fields of teaching and research. As noted by the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, “the public-private collaboration facilitates finding traveling buddies to reach common goals efficiently”.
The Vice-rectorʼs Office of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Barcelona, Mercè Segarra, talked about the intense task carried out at the University to find collaborations with the most important companies of every sector: “In 2021, twelve chairs were set. This is a relationship of common benefits: the UB deepens on its aims of teaching, research and knowledge transfer and it does so together with consolidated companies that want to strengthen their ties with the university”.
Carme Vidal, director of the Chair UB Danone on healthy and sustainable nutrition, spoke on behalf of the chairsʼ management groups. She said they are “the ideal tool” for developing projects on training, research, and transfer, shared between the universities and the companies. “The Chair UB-Danone was created in May 2015. This chair has a certain trajectory that has evolved both in objectives and in the activities it carries out to adapt to the needs and trends of the current nutrition”, said Vidal. “Also, it is a clear example of Danoneʼs strong ties with Barcelona, the city where this company was born a hundred years ago, although it is also linked to the Torribera Campus of the UB, in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, where the UB activities related to nutrition, food sciences and gastronomy take place”, she concluded.
Business eye
Juan Naya, CEO of ISDIN, spoke on behalf of the promoter entities of UB chairs and minor chairs. Naya valued positively the progress of the UB ISDIN Live Young chair, which was created in July 2020, and said that when academic and business interests merge, “the opportunities are enormous”. “For ISDIN, itʼs strategic to promote the training of professionals in new disciplines such as the study of the exposom; as it is also to make society aware of the importance of taking care of the skin and following healthy habits", he said.
The director of the UB Group, Olga Lanau, noted that this event means that “reality is very different” from that which is shown in some circles. “Although we could do so much more, the collaboration between company and university exists and has its results”, noted Lanau, who said the University of Barcelona is preparing a new Sponsor project in which business participation is welcome.
Scatter the fog
The rector of the University of Barcelona closed the event, defending the model of the UB chairs as a “successful case”. “We are living times with fog everywhere. Our present time is uncertain and chancy. This is why we need colleagues to scatter this fog, to have our feet on the ground, to create future scenarios and identify opportunities”, said Guàrdia. “Any institution committed to its environment creates knowledge. Without us, there would not be miracles”, he concluded.
All the companies that collaborate with the University of Barcelona received a diploma as a gratitude gesture from the University. Now, the University of Barcelona has 45 active UB chairs and minor chairs and receives an income over 1.3 million euros under these.
Photos of the event are available in the UB Flickr album.