The agreement has been signed by the Bosch Aymerich Foundation, UIC Barcelona and BIST, whose intention it is to foster excellence in research and teaching in the fields of health (precision medicine in particular) and the environment (energy and sustainability), by means of these FBA Fellows positions.  Both fields pose complex challenges for today’s society, one such example being the recent health crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tackling these challenges requires a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary perspective in order to drive frontier research and improve the educational offer for new generations of researchers and professionals.

 

The Sant Cugat campus is playing host to 11 of the 25 recognised research groups from UIC Barcelona, who will focus their research on different areas of health such as biomaterials, tissue regeneration, ageing, metabolism, physiotherapy and healthcare policies, among others.  What’s more, our University also has seven company-sponsored chairs linked to the field of health, which drive our collaborations with the private sector.

 

Additionally, the School of Architecture prioritises research on sustainability and conscious resilience against the progressive and unsustainable urbanisation of the planet.  The School also has two research groups focused on genetic architecture and community-based urbanism, a research Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrialised and Sustainable Construction (LITEIS), as well as plans to set up a research institute on sustainable architecture and urbanism. 

 

A significant proportion of BIST’s research revolves specifically around two current fundamental and interrelated global challenges: human health and environmental and energy sustainability.

 

This collaboration represents a great opportunity for the University to attract the best research talent to join our excellent teaching programme and our tenure track model.