Pompeu Fabra is a public university that has undergone a spectacular and exponential journey since it was founded in 1990. We are a university rooted in the city of Barcelona, highly competitive in research and committed to educational transformation. We have achieved a good position in Catalonia, Spain and internationally, as evidenced by the rankings. We have done this by dint of the determination and active involvement of all the governing teams and workers. 

We are a university rooted in the city of Barcelona, highly competitive in research and committed to educational transformation. We have achieved a good position in Catalonia, Spain and internationally

However, we are currently in a context of powerful evolution, at a unique point, of which I would highlight three key aspects. First, we are dealing with legislative changes concerning both the higher education and research system in Catalonia; second, we are at the start of a massive generational renewal of university teaching staff; and, third, we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in higher education on a global scale, in which lifelong learning will become more important and the training offer is growing. We thus have a unique opportunity not to take our foot off the accelerator; to reinvent ourselves, be brave and take full advantage of the opportunity to change in order to make the knowledge system better. To this end, we will need the impetus and support of the Catalan government (both the political leaders and the technical and administrative teams), as well as the most senior authorities at universities and research centres. In this regard, it is important not to get trapped by inertia – which tends to be resistant to change – or give in to the homogenizing temptation of the system. Legislative changes are a good opportunity. We have to work hard not to waste it.

There are many projects, both new ones and others that were already underway. But I am also aware of our time, energy and funding constraints. In addition to continuing to promote research and knowledge transfer, I would at least like my team to leave a mark on various challenges we are currently facing. 

One such challenge is to reform and renew the UPF Statutes. As I said earlier, we have to capitalize on the fact that we are at a unique moment of legislative changes concerning the university and research system in Catalonia. The need to renew our statutes and regulations offers us a great opportunity to make UPF a much more flexible university, one that encourages innovation and remains unique within the Catalan system. 

Promoting the process of the university’s digitization, transformation and organizational modernization is also on the table. We must first perform a rigorous analysis of the processes carried out by the various services to have a reliable understanding of workloads and areas of improvement. The aim is to improve process management, which, in many cases, calls for digitization to become more efficient and, in others, for increased administrative simplification. 

A third challenge is the consolidation of our talent recruitment and retention policies, considering, amongst other things, the generational renewal of teaching staff and administrative and service staff. UPF stands on the cusp of a major generational renewal of its teaching staff. This affords us an opportunity to consolidate our talent recruitment and retention system, which is based on the tenure-track programme. Likewise, the turnover in administrative and service staff gives us an opportunity to update professional profiles to meet the university’s current essential needs, for example, with regard to internationalization, fundraising or digital skills. 

Taking a proactive approach to the paradigm shift in higher education that is already underway, especially in terms of educational transformation and lifelong learning at the university, is another challenge. UPF has to deploy all its strategic instruments and try to get ahead of this challenge. Additionally, we have to continue working on educational transformation in order to adapt it to the new times and be competitive with the university system, which is also changing. 

Leading a process to review the mechanisms and procedures that UPF has in place to channel and resolve cases that might affect peoples’ well-being, with the aim of identifying possible areas of improvement, is a challenge we are already working on. Clearly, there should ideally be good preventive and training policies in place to prevent cases of abuse of any kind from happening in the first place, and we will also focus on that. 

If we can make progress on these issues, it will mean that my team has worked!

Catalonia needs a university system that allows us to encourage the diversification of the knowledge system, be flexible and defend our autonomy. 

To this end, it is urgent to update the budget allocation. Funding for universities has fallen 20% since 2009. Despite the increase in resources included in the Catalan government’s budgets this year, we are still at levels from fifteen years ago. It is also key to enable accountable funding criteria that reflect more than one university model or, at least, take different indicators into account: teaching indicators (number of credits enrolled on, graduate employability level and times, etc.) and research and transfer indicators (publications, innovation, competitive grants, etc.). 

It is also key to enable accountable funding criteria that reflect more than one university model

Additionally, Catalonia has been a pioneer and role model in several policies related to attracting and hiring teaching staff; we have to strive to ensure that this continues to be the case in the present as well, with all the impending legislative changes. The Catalan Science Act equips the country with a programme to promote university research that can be used to incentivize both research and knowledge transfer and better governance, that allows us to give incentives to compete internationally and to protect and promote recruitment methods with specific programmes. The promotion, evaluation and recognition of teaching staff should also take all their activities into account, including those related to knowledge transfer. 

Finally, we need to minimize regulation, to design mechanisms that reinforce universities’ autonomy. At the same time, there needs to be clear, demanding and consequential accountability for universities that do not act responsibly with regard to what they said they wanted to do and requested funding for.

The challenges are diverse and we have to address them on different levels, bearing in mind that we depend on the economic muscle, human resources and legislative framework we have. 

Recruiting and retaining international undergraduate students is important, so we have to lobby to change the current strict regulatory and legal framework. We also have to work towards international double degree programmes, strengthen our welcome service, and work on language learning, amongst other things. Additionally, we should promote and consolidate a high-quality outgoing mobility experience – through Erasmus or EUTOPIA, for example – as well as strengthen the programmes for visiting professors and researchers at UPF. 

Separately, we have to support strategic relationships, whether through bilateral partnerships with universities or organizations in other countries or by taking advantage of the international consortia we currently participate in, such as EUTOPIA or The Guild, to undertake actions of interest to us. We have to improve UPF’s communication abroad, its international outreach and its marketing. 

Last, but not least, we will continue to work on building a UPF alumni network that is consistent and useful both individually and collectively, for our alumni, to attract the best talent and raise UPF’s profile around the world.

We have a moral obligation to go beyond the university’s walls, both to be taken seriously as a first-rate social actor and to give back to society the knowledge we produce. Transfer is unquestionably an area we have to consolidate in the coming years, to ensure that the knowledge generated at our schools and laboratories has a more positive impact on societal well-being. Moreover, we are in an exceptional environment to promote innovation and attract investment. 

Rector Amat had the good sense to propose a new Office of the Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer; it has also allowed us to lay the foundations and define the strategy to promote our relations with the local community, companies and public bodies. We have integrated, visualized and enhanced, under a single umbrella, the transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives being carried out at the university. 

We have a moral obligation to go beyond the university’s walls, both to be taken seriously as a first-rate social actor and to give back to society the knowledge we produce

I am optimistic and the transfer indicators give us reason to be so. For example, the number of priority patents the university holds has grown considerably: we used to apply for two or three a year; now the number stands at ten or fifteen. Likewise, the funding obtained to valorize knowledge has trebled, from 500 thousand to 1.5 million euros a year. The creation of six new spin-offs in the last three years, in which UPF holds an interest, also bears witness to this trend. Nevertheless, we understand that this is not enough, and we aim to improve these indicators even further, which is why we want to provide as many tools as possible. 

Another challenge we have is to motivate the UPF community to carry out transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship actions. It is important to provide opportunities for interested undergraduate and postgraduate students, postdocs and researchers. We also have to provide incentives for transfer activities. Research lecturers are generally evaluated on their teaching and research merits; we need to start recognizing their transfer activity, too. Finally, we need more flexible legislation for research and transfer activities.

Artificial intelligence is clearly already transforming the university world, with regard to both how and what we teach. It is likewise affecting all aspects of research and, increasingly, management. I see this growing weight as a major challenge, but also a huge opportunity to reflect on everything we can change to make our work more valuable. If we plan and prioritize well, artificial intelligence can be an extraordinary lever for change and transformation, as opposed to merely a tool for replacement, in teaching and institutional management. 

I repeat, today, universities have no choice but to consider AI an opportunity, not a threat.

The former Mercat del Peix is a first-class scientific project that will create one of the most attractive and powerful research hubs in southern Europe, focused on the fields of biodiversity, biomedicine and planetary wellbeing. With an expected investment of more than 100 million euros, this new knowledge hub will host some 1,200 researchers. It is projected to be operational by 2026 and to be operating at full capacity within four or five years after that. It is a transformative project that, within the framework of the Ciutadella of Knowledge initiative, has the potential to redefine its environment and the relationships arising in it. At the same time, it exemplifies the great capacity that universities, institutions and governments have to launch exciting projects when we work together. 

UPF will locate its Planetary Wellbeing Research and Innovation Centre there. We need to get right to work on the scientific projects we want to pursue and, also, on defining its governance. It will be the best way to make good on our commitment to the future and to recognize all the good work done by everyone who has contributed to this project since Rector Casals first proposed it in late 2017.

Having financial resources is essential to boosting universities’ competitiveness. In my inaugural speech, I said that one of my aspirations, one of my desires, for the next four years is to leave behind concepts such as the replacement rate, budget caps on staffing, and regulatory rigidity. The preamble of the University System Act (LOSU from the Spanish) talks about the need to allocate at least 1% of the general state budget to universities, and the National Pact for the Knowledge Society sets as objectives for 2030 the allocation of 1% of GDP to research, development and innovation, as well as the encouragement of private investment in order to reach 2% of GDP. I believe that if we take the necessary steps to reach these figures, it will entail a huge quantitative leap forward for our system. 

However, the question is how and with what criteria these resources should be distributed to universities. As I said earlier, it is key to enable a funding model that can accommodate more than one model of university or, at least, that takes different indicators into account: teaching indicators and research and transfer indicators. We need to demand clear and consequential accountability and have the freedom to decide what university model we want. Under current conditions, we have one of the best university systems in Europe. Does anyone doubt that with more resources and autonomy we could establish ourselves as an even more powerful and competitive system? Deep commitment, freedom and accountability are good for universities, but they are especially good for society as a whole.

Deep commitment, freedom and accountability are good for universities, but they are especially good for society as a whole

In my view, this is a challenge not only for universities but society at large. There is work to be done in all areas, starting well before women students reach university. For me, it is a fundamental issue and one I feel personally called upon to address and that I think should be on the table every day of the year. 

If we focus on the university system, the challenge is not so much female students’ access to university as their presence in specific fields and the progression of their academic careers. Women currently account for more than 60% of students at UPF, in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and more than 50% in doctoral programmes. But these percentages fall in more technical studies, which is where we can have an impact. For example, in the context of UPF’s undergraduate programmes linked to technology and biomedicine, we have been working with secondary schools for years to kindle interest and enthusiasm amongst girls. A good example is our participation in the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation’s 100tífiques programme to raise awareness of leading women scientists in honour of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 

It is likewise important to realize that the presence of women declines as you make your way up the different categories of teaching and research staff. We absolutely have to fight vertical segregation and enable women to move up in their professional careers to senior positions. Only 22% of full professors at UPF are women; we have to use every measure at our disposal to increase this percentage, even if it happens slowly.

I am honest, optimistic and perseverant. I enjoy working, I like to learn, and I quickly take in what is happening around me. I can sometimes be too blunt, and I can be impatient. I will also have to learn not to worry so much about everything and to overcome my shyness. 

As for the qualities that define my style: I am demanding and I value quality over quantity. I am a team player and I work cooperatively and across disciplines and areas. I listen and I try to reach consensuses and find a balance whenever I can. Finally, I expect the people around me to be honest and enthusiastic about the projects they are assigned.

I am demanding and I value quality over quantity. I am a team player and I work cooperatively and across disciplines and areas. I listen and I try to reach consensuses and find a balance whenever I can

I define them as the best team I could have. I think they are very committed and loyal and that they display impressive dedication. They also have vast experience in different fields. I am sure I will learn a lot from them! I am convinced that I am surrounded by highly qualified people who give the best of themselves to make UPF even better.