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UB and Santander Bank join forces to promote the transfer of knowledge

By 11 de October de 2006November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 11.10.2006

UB and Santander Bank join forces to promote the transfer of knowledge

Màrius Rubiralta, rector of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona) and president of the Fundació Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), and Emilio Botín, president of the Santander Bank have signed an agreement to promote the development of initiatives aimed at nurturing entrepreneurial spirit and the transfer of research results to society. In particular, this agreement includes an innovative programme of research valorisation and commercialisation, with the aim to extend this programme to universities in Ibero-America. The agreement strengthens and extends ongoing collaboration between these two organizations since 1997. In the words of Emilio Botín, this agreement "is the most important of the 535 that the Santander Bank has signed with numerous universities in Ibero-America".


During the signature, the president of the Santander Bank emphasized the importance of collaboration between public research bodies and the private sector. “In Spain, only 20 % of the companies most committed to R+D have contact with the University”, he remarked, adding that it is “essential to increase the channels of cooperation and knowledge transfer between the university and the business sector”. He ended his speech with a reference to the meeting that will be held next year in Brazil, which will involve the 35 leading research universities in Ibero-Amercia. The UB rector, Màrius Rubiralta, remarked that “if knowledge is the differential value of the XXI century, the leading university producers and managers of this knowledge must play a decisive role” and he went on to comment on the importance of projects that are promoted within the framework of this new agreement.

The agreement reflects the collaboration of the Santander Bank in university programmes that facilitate the transfer of research results to society and includes funding for research groups and also for the projects developed by the Innovation Centre of the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, the PCB, and the Agency for Valorisation and Commercialisation of Research Results (AVCRI), organisations established by the UB to promote collaboration between the university and society.

In addition, through this agreement the Santander Bank will promote and extend the PCB’s Bioincubator, with the aim to stimulate the establishment of new technology-based enterprises. This incubator will join a network of incubators for technological companies that the Bank is furthering through its collaboration with several academic centres in Ibero-America and Spain, such as the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico), the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and now the UB.

Furthermore, the UB, with the support of the Santander Bank, will establish a professorship, the activities of which will be devoted to promoting an entrepreneurial culture among university students and the study of family-run businesses.