The UAB and Abertis create the UAB Campus of Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves
The UAB and the Abertis Foundation have signed an agreement to create a campus linked to the UNESCO International Centre for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves and offer a space for research, dissemination, exchanges and innovation in this field.
The creation of the UAB campus will be possible thanks to a collaboration agreement signed by UAB Rector Margarita Arboix and President of Abertis and the UNESCO International Centre Salvador Alemany on 3 November at the Abertis headquarters in Barcelona. During the signing of the agreement, both parties voiced their will to work actively on the fostering and development of interdisciplinary research on the socio-environmental field in relation to the Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves.
On behalf of the UAB, the creation of the campus will be responsible of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Faculty of Science. The main recipients of the campus will be students of the UAB Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and the master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability (SAES) offered by the ICTA-UAB.
The agreement will include collaborations in the development of projects related to the reserves and the organisation of research and academic activities related to the activities of these two degrees. In addition, there will be academic seminars, presentations of final projects from bachelor's and master's degrees, the promotion of student exchanges with universities around the Mediterranean.
A work group will be created by technical staff from the Abertis Foundation and researchers and lecturers from the ICTA-UAB, who will encourage students to develop research projects focused on biosphere reserves of the Mediterranean basin.
The UNESCO International Centre for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves, scientifically coordinated by ICTA-UAB professor Martí Boada, and put forward by the Abertis Foundation and the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and the Environment through its Autonomous Organisation of National Parks (OAPN), became a pioneer example of a Category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO, with a combination of public and private funding.
The UNESCO International Centre,with headquarters in Castellet (Barcelona), will house the coordination of the Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves Network. With sixty reserves from 15 different Mediterranean, the centre aims to build constructive dialogue and cooperation, as well as an exchange of knowledge and experiences among these protected areas.