5 universities develop transborder project to become newest competitive research pole

5 universities from both sides of the Pyrenees are working to become the newest competitive research and knowledge pole of Europe. The project will unite university teachers with graduate students to carry out investigations in the fields of tourism, water, nutrition, health, physics and computing.

CNA / Sarah Garrahan

October 5, 2010 11:07 PM

Girona (ACN).- 5 universities have decided to unite forces in a project to create a new research and knowledge pole in Southern Europe. The project was presented this Tuesday at the University of Girona. The initiative aims to develop joint projects in the fields of tourism, water, nutrition and health. The pole will bring 80,000 students and 3,300 professors and researchers together from universities in Girona, Lleida, the Balearic Islands, Perpignan and the Banyuls de la Marenda Oceanic Observatory.


The project’s main objective is to promote joint investigative work between teachers and masters and doctorate students in the fields of tourism, water, nutrition, health, physics and computing. University of Girona president Anna Maria Geli says that the project will function as “a pole of attraction for southern Europe”. She added that it would get the 5 universities to be known on an international level.

The president of the University of the Balearic Islands, Montserrat Casas, is convinced that the new pole could be “one of the most competitive in Europe”. “It deals with taking the strengths from each university and uniting them”, Casas explained. According to Casas, transborder cooperation serves to broaden the capacity for innovation and research. “Universities have to be the engines in these fields”, she said.

One of the proposed projects of the research ad knowledge pole is the creation of a European laboratory where the 5 universities will work together to investigate the sea environment.

The project presented on Tuesday is called the ‘Pol de Recerca i Ensenyament Superior Pirineus Mediterrani’ (The Superior Research and Knowledge Pole of the Mediterranean Pyrenees). The initiative is part of the trasnborder cooperation framed within the Euro-region Mediterranean Pyrenees, sponsored by the European Union.