Archive for category: News

A-4U expands to include collaborations with South Africa

From 23 to 26 of April, A-4U delegation travelled to South Africa on an institutional visit to a number of leading universities in the country and governmental bodies concerned with higher education.

The aim of the visit was to identify common areas of interest and to discuss specific initiatives such as staff and student exchange programmes, joint seminars, and participation in the European Framework Programme projects. The following institutions were visited:

University of Pretoria

University of Witwatersrand

University of Stellenbosch

University of Cape Town

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Ministry of Higher Education and Training

national Research Foundation (part of the Ministry of Science and Technology)

Higher Education South Africa (an association of all South African public universities)

Spanish Embassy in South Africa

As a result of the visit, A-4U started the process of signing general agreements with the above universities, which will open the way to setting up student and staff exchange programmes as well as research collaborations.

Internationalisation is one of the main objectives for creating the Alliance. The four universities have developed a joint strategy of internationalisation with priority in BRIC countries: India, Brazil, Russia, and China. Recently, the BRIC group has expanded to include South Africa, an emerging economy that is currently leading on the African continent. The visit to South Africa was co-funded by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), which supports A-4U international activities.

Call for A-4U postdoctoral grants is now open

Call for applications is now open for postdoctoral grants to undertake research at A-4U universities. Candidates from Spain and abroad can apply, and the application period is until April 27, 2012. Further details are available here.

Bridging Barcelona and Madrid: Alianza 4 Universidades

On March 22, Alianza 4 Universidades was invited to participate in the “Bridging Barcelona and Madrid” radio programme, hosted by Onda Cero Catalunya. The talk featured Dr. Manel López Bejar, Vice-Rector for Research at UAB, who was at Onda Cero studios in Barcelona, and Dr. Álvaro Escribano, Vice-Rector for International Relations at UC3M, who took part in the programme via telephone.

The Vice-Rectors discussed the activities that are being carried out by the Alliance in the universities-members of the consortium based in Madrid and Barcelona.

The talk (in Spanish) can be heard and downloaded here.

A-4U rectors to debate the future of the university in Spain

On March 5, the rectors of A-4U universities (Ana Ripoll from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, José María Sanz from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Daniel Peña from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Josep Joan Moreso from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona) will take part in the debate “Towards a New University”. The event will take place at 19:00 at CosmoCaixa (Isaac Newton St. 26, Barcelona), and will be moderated by journalist Iñaki Gabilondo.

This event is the second debate in the series “Madrid and Barcelona in dialogue”. The first debate took place in Madrid on November 24, 2011.

Those wishing to attend the event should send a message to dialegsa4u@upf.edu.

A-4U to receive Brazilian students and researchers

A-4U will soon be welcoming some of 75,000 Brazilian students and researchers who will be awarded grants to study in the most presigious universities around the world, the four universities of the Alliance among them, under a new programme “Science Without Borders”.

The Programme was initiated by the Brazilian government through its National Council on Scientific and Technological Development. Thank to an agreement between A-4U and the Council, students and research who will be awarded grants under the “Science Without Borders” programme can come to study and do research at the universities of the Alliance, which includes Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Universidad Carlos III.

Grants will be awarded to undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in completing their studies or research with a stay abroad. Stays can last from six months to two years. The programme covers disciplines such as engineering and technology, health sciences and biomedicine, biotechnology, nanotechnology and new materials, experimental sciences, etc.

The programme’s objective is to consolidate the internationalisation of science, technology, and innovation that is currently taking place in Brazil. The programme will also include grants for students and researchers froun around the world to undertake research at universities and research centres in Brazil.

For more information, please check Science Without Borders website.

Experts in Ancient Greece meet at UAB

On 12 and 13 December, the Ancient History research group of the Department of Antiquity and Middle Ages at UAB, together with Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and other research groups, will host a conference on ancient Greece, bringing together most experts on this subject in Spain.

The event takes place in the framework of collaborations in teaching and research fostered by the Alianza 4 Universidades, which, since 2008, brings together UAB and UAM, as well as Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

More than 29 researchers will take part in “Polis in crisis: First meeting of Historians of the Fourth Century B.C. in Greece” from UAB, UAM, Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Alcalá, Universidad del País Vasco, Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, and Universidad de Buenos Aires.

This conference, whose scope and reach are already a success, aims to provide space for sharing ideas, establishing contacts and fostering research collaborations in this field. The conference proceedings will be published in a monograph, which will serve as a start for other collaborative projects.

The conference will take place in the lecture hall of the UAB Faculty of Philosophy and Arts and will consist of seven thematic streams that provide space for presentations, as well as discussion and debate.

The keynote address, entitled “Greek cities in the Fourth Century: a century of changes”, will be given by Prof. Domingo Plácido from la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and will take place on 12 Decembre at 10h.

For more information please check The conference programme, Department of Antiquity and Middle Ages at UAB.

A-4U rectors debate the future of universities in Spain

The rectors of A-4U universities (Ana Ripoll from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Jose M. Sanz from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Daniel Peña from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Josep Joan Moreso from Universitat Pompeu Fabra) took part in the debate on the future of the universities in Spain, an event moderated by journalist Iñaki Gabilondo.

The debate was structured in four blocks where each rector presented their view of the projects and challenges facing universities in the future in terms of teaching, research and internationalisation. According to Iñaki Gabilondo, “these four universities are all recognised for being a Campus of International Excellence and are strongly commited to research and a clear European and international focus”.

Ana Ripoll, President of A-4U, spoke of the alliance, which was founded in 2008, as “a platform, which improves the international profile fo each university and of the alliance per se, with consolidated projects and future objectives borne from an entrepreneurial and innovative academic and scientific environment”. According to Ana Ripoll, now the society “demans more from universities, but since each university is different, each should work on their strengths and, in this sense, A-4U knows where it wants to go”.

Jose M. Sanz focused on research, “If we add up publication impact and funding for European projects, our four universities are on a similar level with the best universities in Europe. Our research is competitive and this has led to the creation of science parks with the aim of offering collaboration areas, which can offer local, national and international benefits”.

Daniel Peña, who spoke on academic issues, stated that “knowledge is the key to sicual development and the most important value a country can possess. In Spain, this value is for the most part generated at uinversities”. Daniel Peña added, however, that A-4U must not be complacent: “we have the inescapable obligation of meeting the challenges of a reconversion process in order to keep up with the pace of global developments”.

In the field of internationalisation, Josep Joan Moreso stressed the fact that “if the four universities represented here today intend to make substantial progress, we must open our doors to the best professors in the world. Our teaching staff must include academics from abroad and there must be an increase in the number of international students in our postgraduate programmes”. He went on to defend the need to have “at least half of our students spend one semester at a university abroad”.

The debate is part of the series of round tables, organised under the auspices of A-4U and funded by CaixaForum. The second round table will take place on March 5, 2012 and will see the four rectors continue to discuss the future of the universities in Spain.

Ministry for Education and A-4U exchange research information

Ángel Gabilondo,Minister for Education, and Ana Ripoll, President of Alianza 4 Universidades (A-4U) and Rector of the UAB, signed a collaboration agreement with the aim of strengthening the relations of the two institutions in the exchange of information between the Observatory for the Monitoring of Research Activities of the Spanish University (iUNE) and the Integrated University Information System (SIIU). The information exchanged is related to indicators of scientific activity carried out in the Spanish university system.

Collaborations will focus specifically on the following indicators: scientific activity – production, productivity, collabortaions and patents; research impact through ISI databases and other science production databases; visibility of publication sources; and information on research staff and years of research.

This agreement will permit Alianza 4 Universidades to have more knowledge of both the information and application systems developed by the Ministry of Education with regards to university management.

The agreements were signed this past 26 October in Madrid at an event, which was attended by rectors from the other A-4U member universities: José María Sanz from Universitat Autónoma de Madrid, Daniel Peña from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Josep Joan Moreso from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, as well as Elías Sanz, Coordinator of the iUNE Observatory.

See also Research assessment

A-4U expands its collaborations in Russia

A delegation of Alianza 4 Universidades (formed by Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona – UAB, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid – UAM, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid – UC3M, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra – UPF) travelled to Russia on an institutional visit from 10 to 16 October. During the visit members met to sign collaboration agreements in teaching and research with some of the most prestigious universities of Russia.

The collaboration agreements will go towards the promotion of international mobility between lecturers, researchers, and undergraduate and postgraduate students. Tha main objective of A-4U is to make its postgraduate programmes attractive to top students from one of the most important countries in the internationalisation project of Alianza 4 Universidades, which is strongly focused on the emerging power countries known as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Among non-EU member countries, Russia is the one that participates most in projects offered under the EU Seventh Framework Agreement (FP7).

During its visit A-4U signed collaboration agreements with four universities: Moscow Bauman State Technical University, Moscow State Law Academy, Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, and North-West Academy of Public Management.

In addition, A-4U established contact with other universities interested in future collaboration projects: Moscow Lomonosov State University, Russian State University for the Humanities, Higher School of Economics, New School of Economics, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, and Saint Petersburg Academic University – Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre.

The majority of these universities have obtained recognition as a “National Research University” by the Russian government, a status equivalent to recognition as Campus of International Excellence in Spain.

The trip to Russia taken by A-4U delegates forms part of a series of international visits and are co-funded by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX).

SENAI of Brazil visits A-4U universities

During a visit by delegates from the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina to member institutions of Alliance of 4 Universities, UAB signs a collaboration agreement with the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI).

SENAI is the national organisation for the professional training, technological assistance and information provider for the industrial sector of Brazil. It offers 1,800 courses and programmes and over two million students enrol each year.

The agreement signed with UAB establishes the collaboration strategies between the two institutions in knowledge and technology transfer, in the organisation of scientific meetings, the development of research projects and in the training of teaching and research staff.

There is also the aim to create future undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the area of sciences and environmental technologies, as well as to encourage exchange programmes between staff members.

The agreement was signed as part of a visit to Barcelona and Madrid by delegates from centres related to research, transfer and innovation of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Led by Carlos Kurtz, Director of the Federation of Industries of Santa Catarina (FIESC, which among other institutions includes SENAI), the delegates met with members of A-4U, a platform which in addition to UAB, includes Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III and Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

During their visit to UAB, delegates visited the UAB Research Park (PRUAB), the Department of Chemistry, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), the Food Technology Plant Special Research Centre (CERPTA) and the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB).

The meeting is a continuation of other visits which took place by Santa Catarina delegates to UAB on 23 May and by A-4U delegates to Brazil in March, where representatives met with several universities and institutions of Santa Catarina including SENAI. Brazil is a strategic country in A-4U’s academic and research internationalisation project.

More information:

SENAI

SENAI Santa Satarina

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