Rector Lafuente inaugurates TeRRIFICA, a European summer school project on climate change

UAB Rector Javier Lafuente inaugurated a summer school on climate change in the Mediterranean linked to the European project on Territorial RRI Fostering Innovative Climate Action (TeRRIFICA). He does so as president of the Catalan Association of Public Universities and president of the Global University Network for Innovation. 

In his intervention, Rector Lafuente spoke on how universities "must be the leaders" in identifying important social challenges and finding effective solutions for them. Therefore, the path to continue is "unquestionably" that of open research and citizen science, by opening up the campus to collaborations with surrounding social and economic sectors. In this sense, according to the rector, the TeRRIFICA project, in line with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, is clearly "a model which needs to be promoted" in order to take on a more responsible and sustainable approach to research and innovation.

The summer school will take place online from 28 to 30 June, under the name of "Climate Change in the Mediterranean Basin: evidences, discussions and citizen contributions". It forms part of the activites of one of the pilot regions of the TeRRIFICA project, which is the Barcelona metropolitan area, and in which the ACUP is the coordinator. This project is funded by the H2020 programme framework and aims to have an influence on climate change mitigation and adaptation policies through a series of responsible research and innovation actions (RRI) and the creation of knowledge among relevant actors located in the six pilot regions. In addition to Barcelona, the other regions are located in Germany, Belarus, France, Poland and Serbia.

The summer schools of the different regions have been programmed with the aim of developing ideas for a positive vision on the future of climate landscapes of cities for the year 2030. In the case of Barcelona, the summer school focuses on a Mediterranean region and includes the collaboration of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), the Institute of the Environment at the University of Girona (IMA-UdG), and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). The school includes awareness-raising activities, talks and submission of proposals. Participants include undergraduate and graduate students from the environmental and climatic sectors, as well as professionals from these fields. The meeting uses English as its working language and includes people both from Spain and from Tunisia, Morocco, United Kingdom, Albania, Italy, Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Serbia, Turkey and Venezuela.