Emilio Lora-Tamayo defended the "tough but exciting" role of researchers and referred to a career in research as the "great 21st-century adventure". He said it takes dedication, but "there can be no science without inspiration and no creativity without hard work". The President of the CSIC, an institution that is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, reminded the audience, "Great scientists are people who fight to break away from the mainstream" and find a new paradigm. He also pointed out that the university should view research as a "service to society to make it a fairer place".
The ceremony was presided over by UIC Rector Dr. Pere Alavedra and began with the reading of the report on the 2013-2014 academic year by Belén Castro, the Secretary General of the UIC. After the opening lecture by Lora-Tamayo, the next speaker was Josep Maria Martorell, the Director General for Research of the Catalan government, who highlighted the important role played by universities in the system as a whole. He pointed out, "In Catalonia, we have a relevant university system" and that, in an "exciting, but complex and uncertain context, we can face the future on solid footing". Martorell also mentioned "the commitment to quality teaching and, above all, to human quality" at the UIC.
Finally, Dr. Alavedra closed the ceremony with a speech in which he thanked the entire university community for their hard work and praised the results achieved in different faculties and services, as well as the advances made in terms of research and knowledge transfer, as reflected in the growing number of chairs and company-sponsored programmes. Dr. Alavedra also spoke about the future and quoted Catalan Minister Andreu Mas-Colell, who said at the inauguration of the Catalan university system in the 2011-2012 academic year, "We have to be able to consolidate a knowledge-transfer system that drives innovation". He encouraged everyone in the university community to work hard in this direction, which, he said, is also the path towards internationalization.
The event was attended by over 450 people, including academics and other members of society, such as María de los Llanos de Luna, the delegate of the Spanish government in Catalonia, Juan F. Julià, the Vice President of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), Emilio Ablanedo, the sub-delegate of the Spanish government in Barcelona, Miguel Ángel Gimeno, the President of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, Carlos Pérez, the Rector of Universitat Abat Oliba, Carme García, the Mayor of Rubí, Joan Carles Sánchez, the Mayor of Sabadell, and Esther Salat, and the town councillor for Education of Sant Cugat City Hall.
