In November 2002, the oil tanker MV Prestige sank off the coast of Galicia. The resulting oil spill was massive and led to a major environmental disaster in the area. The event sparked widespread social mobilization, including at universities. At UPF, several members of the university community began to organize and, with the support of the Rector’s Office, nearly 100 students and staff members travelled to Galicia to help with the clean-up.

This collective act of solidarity was the embryo for the UPF Solidària platform, made up of members of all the university’s groups. The platform was soon formally established at the institutional level, with the aim of promoting social engagement activities at the university in a general, participatory and committed way. Some years later, in 2007, UPF launched an annual call for proposals in the fields of social engagement and development cooperation under the management and coordination of UPF Solidària, which today is attached to the Institutional Communication and Promotion Unit.

For the last eight years, Mònica Figueras has been vice-rector for social commitment and equality projects at UPF. Her office is the governing body that publishes the call. In this time, the call has been consolidated and grown. Today, it is rooted in the university model provided for in the 2016-2025 Strategic Plan. It is likewise grounded in the university’s various cross-disciplinary projects, such as the new EDvolució educational framework and the Planetary Wellbeing initiative, which the University launched to advance on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

‘We also have some margin. Certain priorities allow us to reorient the call, based on UPF’s specific interests, to promote certain SDGs or institutional strategic projects’

‘This call has a global framework of action, which brings us into line with organizations such as the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation and the Catalan Development Cooperation Council. We are working with the Catalan government and other Catalan universities. However, we also have some margin. Certain priorities allow us to reorient the call, based on UPF’s specific interests, to promote certain SDGs or institutional strategic projects’, Figueras explained.

The university community has responded enthusiastically to this call to solidarity over the past fifteen years. In all, the programme has subsidized a total of 152 projects in 27 countries across four continents. Some 70 organizations have received funding, and the total budget allocated to the grants is close to €625,000.

Number of grants and allocated budget by geographical region (2007-2021)

• Africa
  63 projects - 259.300 euros

• Catalonia
  38 projects - 127.800 euros

• South America
  24 projects - 150.800 euros

• Asia
  14 projectes - 44.500 euros

• Central America
  12 projects - 40.500 euros

• Europe
  1 projecte - 1.600 euros

TOTAL: 152 projects - 624.500 euros

Three categories, to alleviate inequality and vulnerability

The annual call for proposals for social engagement and sustainable development projects, which celebrated its fifteenth edition in 2021, is a commitment by all UPF groups (teaching and research staff, administrative and service staff, students, and alumni) to work with the countries and communities that suffer most from all aspects of inequality and poverty. The rules have been adapted over time to the circumstances and social context.

The application must be made by a member of the university community, who must partner with a social organization (representing the interests of the beneficiaries), and there must be a link between them. This person liaises with UPF Solidària and actively participates in the project’s implementation, which must be managed in such a way that any indirect third-party benefits that it might generate (hiring of staff, acquisition of materials, etc.) go to local staff and people in the target geographical regions and populations.

With an annual endowment of €40,000 since 2014, the call currently includes three categories: one for training and educational actions intended to promote education and facilitate teacher training at universities or other formal education institutions on sustainable development issues; a second for projects to promote international development cooperation; and a third for local aid work targeting populations at risk of social exclusion.

Some of the aspects to which most value is attached include: an educational and training component; knowledge transfer; involvement of the beneficiary community; and being a coherent, viable and sustainable project that can be kept up autonomously once the selected project has been completed

The call – whose current rules were approved by the university’s Board of Governors in 2019 – sets certain priorities for the projects to be funded, which are then selected by an evaluation committee. The committee is chaired by the competent vice-rector and includes representatives from UPF’s social responsibility area, the university’s various groups, a member of the Board of Trustees, and an external expert.

Some of the aspects to which most value is attached include: an educational and training component; knowledge transfer; involvement of the beneficiary community; and being a coherent, viable and sustainable project that can be kept up autonomously once the selected project has been completed.

Projects subsidized throughout these fifteen editions

Project finder
 

Map of UPF's international development cooperation projects

In red, projects subsidized in the 2021 call.

Map of UPF's local cooperation projects 

In red, projects subsidized in the 2021 call.

A global call that adapts to the context

One of the call’s most salient features – once the continent, country, region and groups receiving the aid are taken into account – is that it addresses current needs. It is a mirror reflecting the various global conflicts and challenges, from economic, demographic and refugee crises to humanitarian disasters and pandemics, such as Covid-19.

In the wake of the economic and social crisis of 2008, for example, the number of projects located in Catalonia (mainly Barcelona) carried out with local NGOs and organizations grew considerably

In the wake of the economic and social crisis of 2008, for example, the number of projects located in Catalonia (mainly Barcelona) carried out with local NGOs and organizations grew considerably, reflecting the substantial increase in the needs of at-risk people in vulnerable situations. Since then, the programme has seen various fluctuations with regard to both such local projects and projects aimed at development cooperation, which, over the years, have primarily focused on countries in Africa, followed by South America and, to a lesser extent, Central America and Asia.

Ranking of projects by beneficiary country:

TOTAL: 152

The 2020 and 2021 calls, marked by the pandemic

Coinciding fully with the effects of Covid-19, the most recent call saw record participation. A total of 28 proposals were submitted (of which 14 were selected, receiving funding ranging from €1,450 to €5,300), distributed fairly evenly amongst the university community’s component groups: 5 were submitted by students (including one student from the UPF Senior programme), 11 by teaching and research staff, 6 by administrative and service staff, and 6 by alumni.

‘The 2021 call, published in the midst of the pandemic, saw an increase in grants aimed at mitigating needs. Many of these needs were no doubt already there, but Covid-19 exacerbated them and made them more visible’

The 2021 call gave priority to projects linked to SDGs 3, 10 and 13 (corresponding to health and well-being, reducing inequality, and climate action, respectively), as well as projects that overlapped with the lines of the Planetary Wellbeing initiative related to these SDGs. Most of the projects (11) are located in Africa, 2 in Barcelona and its greater metropolitan area, and 1 in Asia. According to Figueras, ‘The 2021 call, published in the midst of the pandemic, saw an increase in grants aimed at mitigating needs. Many of these needs were no doubt already there, but Covid-19 exacerbated them and made them more visible.’

In fact, it was the outbreak of the pandemic that caused the 2020 call to be exceptional, and many of the 11 selected projects were affected. ‘A few months after most of the projects had begun, we began to receive messages telling us that, because of the measures taken to address the pandemic, there had been incidents’, the UPF Solidària team explained. As a result, some projects had to be restructured and their execution made more flexible through two options: extending the deadlines and allowing part of the grant money to be allocated to needs arising from the pandemic.

Throughout the projects’ implementation, UPF Solidària remains in contact with both the organization and the applicant in order to monitor progress and raise awareness of the project through institutional communication channels. Once the project has been finished, the applicants have to submit a project report and a financial report showing that all the plans provided for in the application were carried out and assessing the impact thereof. Additionally, UPF Solidària advises both the university community members and the organizations that apply to the call.

Promoting collaboration and networking

The grants are not awarded directly to UPF’s own projects. Instead, a partner is required, namely, a solvent NGO or organization linked to the third sector. ‘The aim is to create networks, links, synergies with society and with external agents’, Figueras explained. It is also a form of recognition for the members of UPF, who are able to access the grants and carry out their own projects because they belong to the university community.

Total grants awarded by UPF group (2007-2021)

TOTAL: 152

*Includes undergraduate, postgraduate and UPF Senior students.

The call is open to all the university’s component groups, including alumni and retired employees, which strengthens the bond with the institution and helps foster a sense of community and belonging. In fact, the call encourages and positively values applications involving members of multiple university groups.

‘The participation, year after year, of students, alumni, teaching and research staff, and administrative and service staff, with plural and individual commitments and projects, both exemplifies and contributes an effort and a type of learning that is consolidated in the form of global sensitivity and a community-wide commitment’

According to Montserrat Vendrell, chair of the UPF Board of Trustees, a body that plays a prominent role in funding the call and is represented on the evaluation committee that selects the projects, ‘The participation, year after year, of students, alumni, teaching and research staff, and administrative and service staff, with plural and individual commitments and projects, both exemplifies and contributes an effort and a type of learning that is consolidated in the form of global sensitivity and a community-wide commitment.’

Additionally, during the year, the organizations that receive the grants are invited to participate in the awareness-raising activities organized by UPF Solidària, such as the UPF Solidària Fair, to introduce themselves and have a chance to network with the other participating organizations.

A call rooted in a university model

As Figueras pointed out, the call is not intended as a parallel activity to the university’s traditional functions. Instead, the aim is to ‘integrate it into the teaching and research carried out at UPF, two areas that need to be imbued with solidarity and cooperation, and orient it towards projects linked to the university’s own mission.’

With regard to teaching, the call promotes cross-disciplinary skills included in the EDvolució project, such as citizen engagement and civic engagement with global challenges. Additionally, the UPF Passport, one of the components of EDvolució, will include the knowledge, skills and competences acquired by students over the course of their studies, including those inherent to the call.

With regard to teaching, the call promotes cross-disciplinary skills included in the EDvolució project, such as citizen engagement and civic engagement with global challenges

Figueras specified, however, that the UPF Solidària call is more closely linked to aspects related to teaching and training. To promote research and knowledge transfer to the population, the vice rector’s office created a parallel call for proposals to increase the social impact of research. (two editions have already been held and the third is underway.) The aim is to promote multidisciplinary research in this field.

Three-way funding including from the university community itself

Funding for the UPF Solidària call comes from the solidarity fund, which includes items from the university’s general budget and the budget of the Board of Trustees, as well as voluntary contributions from members of the university community’s various groups (employees through a withholding from their pay cheque; students by checking the option to collaborate when they register), as well as other one-off donations.

According to the UPF Solidària team, ‘Although the contributions from the university community have remained quite stable over the years, we noticed an uptick in the number of students choosing to contribute during registration in 2020.’ They believe the rise may be due to the pandemic and the increased dissemination of the projects carried out.

‘Although the contributions from the university community have remained quite stable over the years, we noticed an uptick in the number of students choosing to contribute during registration in 2020’

‘The philosophy of the call is based on co-funding, the existence of a partner organization and the contributions made through other channels’, said Figueras. She explained that it is people from the various UPF groups who provide the money for the projects promoted from within the university community itself and, thus, who make it possible to pursue such social engagement and cooperation work.

According to Vendrell, the aim of the call can be found at the heart of the mission of the Board of Trustees, the body she chairs, which represents the interests of Catalan society at UPF in its capacity as a public university. ‘The projects carried out with these grants maximize the impact of our institutional social responsibility and are fully aligned with a university open to the world. That is why we collaborate on their funding’, she concluded.

(The video does not include data from the 2020 and 2021 calls)

Six projects selected in the 2021 call, promoted by members of all the university's groups

To offer a better idea of the scope of the social engagement and cooperation work that UPF is carrying out through the call, six of the projects awarded grants in 2021 are highlighted below, including two in Catalonia, three in Africa, and one in India. The applicants represent all the university’s groups (teaching and research staff, administrative and service staff, students, and alumni) and the beneficiaries, through the partner organizations, include young people currently or formerly under guardianship and immigrants in at-risk situations in Barcelona; teachers, women farmers, and students with disabilities in Senegal; and young people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

• Improving the resources of young people currently or formerly under guardianship to facilitate their emancipation

  Project title: New GR16-18: young people for rights
  Modality: Local aid work targeting populations at risk of social exclusion
  Applicant for aid and affiliation with UPF: Eloi Jerez Soler, student
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 2,000 euros
  Beneficiary entity: Associació Punt de Referència
  Country where it is developed: Catalonia

  ‘New GR16-18: young people for rights’ is the project led by Eloi Jerez Soler, a student on the UPF Senior programme in Humanities and Audiovisual Communication. The partner organisation is the Barcelona-based association Punt de Referència, which works to promote equal opportunity and improved quality of life for young people currently or formerly under guardianship (and other young adult family members who are close positive role models) at risk of social exclusion.

  Both Jerez, who sits on the Punt de Referència Board, and his UPF Senior classmates and fellow project participants, Carmen Netzel and Marcelino Nebra, volunteer as mentors in the social mentoring programme ‘Referents’. This is the third year the association has been awarded funding under the UPF call for proposals, with projects focusing on various aspects related to mentoring and support for this group of young people in their growth process.

  ‘We want to improve these young people’s resources for managing their emancipation through a group space for community and audiovisual participation’

  In 2021, the grant they obtained for the project ‘New GR16-18: young people for rights’ is intended to improve the resources needed for emancipation of young people between the ages of 16 and 23 currently or formerly under guardianship and at risk of exclusion. Boosting cross-disciplinary skills for emancipation, expanding social capital, and promoting empowerment and decision-making are some of its main objectives.

  The project, which is also aimed at young men and women between the ages of 20 and 30 interested in volunteering to mentor participating young people, is based on four main lines of action from a methodological point of view: group activities; audiovisual communication as a resource for expression; promoting participation through the communicative project; and individual mentoring.

  ‘We want to improve these young people’s resources for managing their emancipation through a group space for community and audiovisual participation’, explained Jerez, who encourages UPF Audiovisual Communication students to sign up as ‘youth mentors’.

• Training women farmers in Medina Boudialabou (Senegal) in business management

  Project title: Business management training  for women farmers in Medina Boudialabou (3rd stage)
  Modality: Projects to promote international development cooperation
  Applicant for aid and links with UPF: Eva Brescó Nebot, alumni
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 1,800 euros
  Beneficiary entity: Acció Solidària i Logística
  Country where it is developed: Senegal

  ‘Business management training for women farmers in Medina Boudialabou (3rd stage)’ is a project led by Eva Brescó Nebot, a graduate of the bachelor’s degree programme in Political and Administration Sciences, with the support of Marta Ventura Rubio, a Business Management and Administration alumna. The grant recipient is Acció Solidària i Logística (ASL), where Eva is a member, sits on various committees, and is secretary of the Board.

  In Medina Boudialabou (Senegal), due to the lack of rice cultivation and paucity of wealth-generating activities, survival is precarious. In 2016, ASL considered that the most efficient way to address these problems was to provide support to existing women’s groups in order to increase production quality and quantity, diversify crops, improve families’ diets, and obtain surpluses to sell. The next year, in the 2017 call for proposals, it received its first grant from UPF, aimed at improving training for women farmers.

  In 2020, as a result of a second grant, the training continued, this time focused on the business management of the three agricultural groups, including income management, product sales, and prospecting. ‘With the outbreak of the pandemic, we were unable to complete all the planned training in 2020. So, we believe we need to use the funding we have secured in 2021 to continue supporting women farmers in their training process, which will enhance the marketing of the yield obtained from these crops’, explained Brescó.

  The training will benefit the 84 women farmers currently working on the three farms in Medina Boudialabou: it will facilitate their access to more efficient means of production and they will thus be more economically empowered, more socially respected, and more valued in the community.

• Promoting new teaching strategies in the face of the pandemic in Senegal

  Project title: New teaching strategies in the face of the pandemic: an opportunity to narrow  the digital divide in Senegal
  Modality: Projects to promote international development cooperation
  Applicant for aid and links with UPF: Marcel Costa Vila, PDI
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 5,000 euros
  Beneficiary entity: Association Éducation Solidaire
  Country where it is developed: Senegal

  The project ‘New teaching strategies in the face of the pandemic: an opportunity to narrow the digital divide’, which is partnering with Association Éducation Solidaire in Senegal, is a special case in the call’s fifteen-year history. The project has received grants in almost every edition because it has been repeatedly readapted to incorporate new approaches, always with a view to helping teachers and schools in Senegal with their training needs.

  It is also a clear example of collaboration between various university community groups: in the 2021 edition, the grant applicants were Marcel Costa Vila and Elisabeth Moyano Claramunt, lecturers in the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS), together with Mercè Tricàs Preckler, a retired member of the teaching and research staff (and the applicant for the first grant, awarded in the 2007 call). They are joined by Silvia Lope and Miquel Nistal (lecturers on the joint UOC-UPF master’s degree programme in Teacher Training for Secondary Education) and Vanessa Soria, an administrative and service staff member and officer at the UPF Center for Learning Innovation and Knowledge (CLIK).

  ‘This year, the project aims to promote the educational use of information and communication technology (ICT) and learning and knowledge technology (LKT) in Senegalese schools, to address the challenge of teaching during a pandemic’

  The project was originally led by lecturers from the Department of Translation and Language Sciences, who sought to improve language learning at various schools located in underprivileged towns and neighbourhoods in the country. Since 2015, it has focused on training activities for primary and secondary school teachers. In 2016, this training was expanded to include the sciences as a result of the participation of a team of DCEXS lecturers. In the 2016-2017 academic year, a Senegalese teacher network was launched to share good practices and new methodologies through seminars given by UPF science and language lecturers. From 2018 to 2020, both the training and teacher cooperation networks were strengthened.

  In 2021, the pandemic has highlighted the problem of access to technology for the most vulnerable, especially amongst teachers, who have not been able to teach face-to-face classes due to school closures. ‘This year, the project aims to promote the educational use of information and communication technology (ICT) and learning and knowledge technology (LKT) in Senegalese schools, to address the challenge of teaching during a pandemic’, explained Costa, who has participated in the five seminars for Senegalese science teachers held to date.

• Providing schools in Kolda (Senegal) with equipment for an inclusive, quality education

  Project title: An inclusive quality education: equipping schools from the city of Kolda with table-bancs adapted to different educational needs
  Modality: Projects to promote  international development cooperation
  Applicant for aid and links with UPF: Núria Pedrós Barnils, student
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 2,200 euros
  Beneficiary entity: ONGD ALKARIA
  Country where it is developed: Senegal

  The applicant for the project ‘An inclusive quality education: equipping schools from the city of Kolda with table-bancs adapted to different educational needs’ was Núria Pedrós Barnils, a student on UPF’s master’s degree programme in Migration Studies. It is the first grant awarded to the recipient organization, the development NGO ALKARIA, a Catalan organization for international development cooperation and solidarity, under UPF’s call for proposals for social commitment and sustainable development projects.

  ‘The project has an inclusive perspective and wants functionally diverse students to have access to adapted table-bancs’

  Pedrós, who has been working at ALKARIA since 2017 as a project coordinator in Senegal (in the areas of education, functional diversity and health), amongst other places, travelled to the city of Kolda in 2019 and, together with the organization, identified a need to improve school furniture, especially for people with reduced mobility due to functional diversity. That is why ALKARIA used the UPF Solidària call to request funding to purchase table-bancs (tables and chairs) to improve conditions for this group.

  The project aims to help equip primary schools in the region and in the city of Kolda with this furniture so that these students can attend class. ‘The project has an inclusive perspective and wants functionally diverse students to have access to adapted table-bancs’, explained Pedrós. To this end, ALKARIA will carry out a process to identify functionally diverse students in the city’s schools: in addition to the standard table-bancs, adapted ones will then be designed and subsequently built by local carpenters.

• the educational needs arising from the pandemic at two centres for adolescents in India

  Project title: Meeting the educational needs of adolescents in the ‘Residential Care’ programme stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic
  Modality: Projects to promote  international development cooperation
  Applicant for aid and links with UPF: Xavi Herrero i Anglí, PAS
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 3,500 euros
  Beneficiary entity: Committed Communities Development Trust
  Country where it is developed: India

  ‘Meeting the educational needs of adolescents in the ‘Residential Care’ programme stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic’ is the project submitted by Xavi Herrero i Anglí, an administrative and service staff member and head of the Computing Service Project Unit. The grant recipient is Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT) an NGO founded in Mumbai (India) in 1990.

  With the participation of nine other UPF students and alumni, the project will be channelled through Associació Solidària Amics de Mumbai, a Catalan association that has been collaborating with CCDT since 2003, co-founded by Herrero. This is the fifth grant to come out of this symbiosis over the history of the UPF call.

  Schooling, reinforcement classes, innovative teaching methods and counselling are some of the planned actions

  The ‘Residential Care’ programme was created by CCDT in 1990, following the detection of children and teenagers infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS in vulnerable or at-risk situations. It promoted the creation of support centres for these young people, to provide them with care and nutrition and reintegrate them in their family and social environments. Specifically, the funding received in the 2021 edition will go to two centres (Ankur-Asmita, in Badlapur, and Aakaar, in Khandala), which are home to 25 girls and 24 boys, respectively, between the ages of 12 and 18, affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. The initiative aims to meet the educational needs that have emerged as a result of the pandemic, which has hit the country hard.

  ‘The project’s main goals are to encourage the boys and girls to participate in the centre’s operation, foster understanding amongst the staff at these centres of problems related to stigmatization and discrimination, and raise collective awareness amongst the young people about the health services they have access to’, said Herrero. Schooling, reinforcement classes, innovative teaching methods and counselling are some of the planned actions.

• Bridging the digital divide for children in vulnerable situations, made worse by the pandemic, in Barcelona

  Project title: Technological space for social transformation
  Modality: Local aid work targeting populations at risk of social exclusion
  Applicant for aid and links with UPF: Ricard Zapata Barrero, PDI
  Amount of aid obtained in the 2021 call: 2,750 euros
  Beneficiary entity: Fundació Comtal
  Country where it is developed: Catalonia

  ‘Technological space for social transformation’ is a project led by Ricard Zapata Barrero, a professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences and director of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF), together with Zenia Hellgren, a researcher in the group. The grant recipient is Fundació Comtal. It is the fourth time Zapata has successfully applied for a grant for this foundation (which he has been collaborating with since 2000), the first of which dates back to the 2016 call.

  ‘The project with Fundació Comtal aims to spark curiosity and encourage students’ creativity and ingenuity, encourage them to explore and create‘

  The project aims to increase opportunities for children and young people (especially immigrants) in vulnerable situations or at risk of social exclusion – situations that were aggravated by the pandemic – and to boost their motivation to learn and their interest in studies in the field of technology. It is conceived of as a space for training in cross-disciplinary and technology skills, focused on programming and digital manufacturing, with the aim of bridging the digital and educational divide for this group.

  It will be carried out in the Barcelona neighbourhoods of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina, and Ribera and is expected to directly benefit around a hundred children, teenagers and young people over the course of the year. ‘The project with Fundació Comtal aims to spark curiosity and encourage students’ creativity and ingenuity, encourage them to explore and create. It aims to build and share knowledge, thereby developing these kinds of thinking skills amongst all students, because we are all creators. We all have this ability to make things’, Zapata said.