With a mission to promote knowledge and debate, transfer the most disruptive research and help transform social behaviour and public policies, especially in urban areas, the “Re-Generation UPF Chair on global challenges, urban governance and planetary wellbeing” has been created by Pompeu Fabra University and the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB).

The new chair has been made official with the signature of an agreement between the two, which took place today, 11 February, online. The agreement was signed by UPF rector Jaume Casals and Pere Navarro, special State delegate to the CZFB and chairman of the executive committee of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, a public body that promotes economic revitalization, social progress and job creation.

Also attending the virtual proceedings were Daniel Serra, rector’s delegate for the coordination of Sponsorship, Patronage and Business Chairs; Josep Fernández Cavia, director of the Department of Communication, and Francesc Subirada, director of the UPF Initiative for the Citadel of Knowledge. They were accompanied by Gemma Sendra, executive director of the Re-Generation UPF Chair, and Carles Feixa, full professor of Social Anthropology at UPF and scientific director of the Chair.

Jaume Casals: “The commitment to wellbeing and the need to project it on a global scale indicate a moral obligation and, simultaneously, an open concept of knowledge”.

During the signature proceedings, Jaume Casals gave huge thanks for “the momentum that the Consorci de la Zona Franca, in accordance with our Department of Communication, led by professor Josep Fernández Cavia, and more specifically in accordance with the team led by Ms. Gemma Sendra and professor Carles Feixa, gives to the practical expression and dissemination of this series of events that cannot be neglected in any way whatsoever by the university”.

The rector also wished to highlight the imminent publication in a scientific journal of Pompeu Fabra University’s most ambitious programme and of the greatest temporal scope, linked to the concept of Planetary Wellbeing: “These activities include those that can be interpreted in the sense of knowledge of the social environment and practices that result from it in terms of respect for the planet and the progress of local and global welfare. Social anthropology and communication studies here, therefore, play as important a role as the natural and health sciences or economics and law. In fact, we are trying, after many centuries of fractionated or partly-fractionated academia, to rebuild a common epistemological foundation to free some academic fields of their solitude and of the obstacle of an unnecessarily geometric, rigid spirit. The commitment to wellbeing and the need to project it on a global scale indicate a moral obligation and, simultaneously, an open concept of knowledge. Both ethics and, let us hope, politics too as well as science today are again beginning to break away from the rules of closure and intellectual marquetry in which the end of the twentieth century and so many other moments in history have attempted to restrict them”.

Pere Navarro: “Cooperation with UPF for the creation of the Re-Generation UPF Chair will help Barcelona to position itself as one of the leading cities in the transition to a new economy based on innovation and sustainability”.

For his part, Pere Navarro said that “as a public entity we are fully committed to the Agenda 2030 and to the implementation of the sustainable development goals in industry. In the current context it is essential to reflect on global challenges and create alliances that allow us to move in this direction”. Navarro added “cooperation with UPF for the creation of the Re-Generation UPF Chair will help Barcelona to position itself as one of the leading cities in the transition to a new economy based on innovation and sustainability”.

Under this agreement, which has a duration of three years, the CZFB undertakes to make an annual contribution of 30,000 euros to promote the running of the Chair, created with a view towards innovation and transfer to the business, institutional and associative fabric. With this aim, it will focus on the economic development of the city, and will prioritize the search for new quality niches in the labour market, in areas of the future with added value, such as the green economy and the digital economy.

Another aspect of the Chair, which will be linked to the UPF Communication Academic Coordination Unit, is to stress youth as a particularly innovative social group, capable of coming up with new solutions to the challenges facing society as it exits the crisis caused by the pandemic.

Global challenges and planetary wellbeing, the backbone of the new chair

The Chair is part of the University’s Planetary Wellbeing project, which aims to respond to a situation of global emergency in the various areas of knowledge, through cross- and interdisciplinary actions. It also aligns with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDG) and is a firm commitment by UPF to assume its responsibility as an international centre of excellence in research and teaching in this field.

It will include several programmes dealing with global challenges and planetary wellbeing: debate and reflection; knowledge transfer, funding the acceleration of research and innovation projects related to the definition and implementation of urban transformation. In addition, the Chair plans to set up an urban laboratory aimed at solving the specific challenges faced by cities, especially Barcelona, and cooperation networks between cities, social movements and business agents.

The Chair plans to set up an urban laboratory aimed at solving the specific challenges faced by cities, especially Barcelona, and cooperation networks between cities, social movements and business agents.

To meet these objectives, the activities of the Chair will hinge around several specific areas of work (including climate change, economic innovation, technology transfer, new models of governance, social inequalities, intergenerational solidarity, and creative culture), which will take shape through multi-annual lines of work.

Both with the CZFB and with collaborating partners, through the Chair UPF will offer various actions such as the organization of joint activities of interest to enterprise, advice on innovation and development and attracting new talent, including the incorporation of graduates and internship students.

A structure consisting of a management body, a joint committee and a board of organizations

In addition to the scientific direction and executive management, undertaken by Carles Feixa and Gemma Sendra, respectively, the Chair will have a joint committee, which will involve these two directors, as well as other officers and representatives of the two entities. The committee will meet once a year to monitor activities, approve action programmes and the budget as well as assess the activities carried out, among other functions.

The structure will be completed by a board of organizations, gathering national and international institutions working on global challenges and planetary wellbeing from Barcelona, that will provide consultancy regarding the challenges and priorities for implementation.