Today, the UPF Ciutadella campus hosted a major ceremony for the signature of the institutional protocol for the promotion of the Ciutadella of Knowledge and the laying of the first stone of the Mercat del Peix research complex.

The protocol was signed by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, the UPF rector, Oriol Amat, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, the minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, the rector of the UAB, Javier Lafuente, the president of the CSIC, Eloísa del Pino, the director general of the BIST. Eduard Vallory, and the director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Arcadi Navarro.

In his speech, the UPF rector, Oriol Amat, highlighted the gravity of the climatic and environmental situations facing the planet and stated that universities have the capacity to provide solutions to the individual, social and planetary emergencies we are living. “We have a great opportunity to demonstrate the huge capabilities we can mobilize if we are able to act collaboratively”, the rector affirmed. “We owe it to ourselves, to future generations and to all the species on the planet we share”. In this sense, he offered the Mercat del Peix project as an example of UPF’s explicit commitment to combating the climate crisis and advancing towards greater planetary wellbeing.

“We have a great opportunity to demonstrate the huge capabilities we can mobilize if we are able to act collaboratively. We owe it to ourselves, to future generations and to all the species on the planet we share”.

Francesc Subirada, director of the UPF Ciutadella of Knowledge initiative, assured that the project “contributes to helping the city so that knowledge has greater weight, since it is the only way to be more competitive. We are doing our bit for the wellbeing of people, society and the planet”.

Meanwhile, Pere Aragonès, president of the Catalan Government, stressed that “the Mercat del Peix reaffirms potential and excellence in the field of research and scientific innovation and positions itself as a Europe-wide pole”. He added that it is an “ambitious, ground-breaking project with the ability to attract”.

For Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, “we are not dealing with an isolated project, but with a strategy of the city with a scientific component, but also one of urban planning; a city strategy of the future economic and international projection of Barcelona”. Moreover, she assured that “it is an exemplary project due to its contents and the need to come together to make it possible, and it also represents an example of long-term vision”.

Eloisa del Pino, president of the CSIC, stressed that the Mercat del Peix project contributes to the strategy of the CSIC to promote scientific and economic development from various points of view. She assured that the new complex “will create major scientific infrastructures that will also contribute to regenerating the urban environment, with quality spaces so that people can live better”.

The symbolic laying of the first stone consisted of the creation of the phrase “Planetary Wellbeing” using the letters worn by the people participating in it

Subsequently, all the representatives of the protocol signatory institutions and the people attending the event went to the site where the Mercat del Peix is to be built to symbolically lay the first stone. The symbolic laying of the first stone consisted of the creation of the phrase “Planetary Wellbeing” using the letters worn by the people participating in it. Apart from the representatives of the 10 signatory institutions, the following dignitaries participated: the first vice-president of the Parliament, Alba Vergés, the minister of Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, the minister of Territory, Juli Fernàndez, the delegate of the Spanish government, Maria Eugènia Gay, first deputy mayor and president of B:SM, Jaume Collboni, second deputy mayor, Janet Sanz, and the president of the BIST, Andreu Mas-Colell. At the end of the event, a joint photograph was taken to demonstrate the transversality of the project and the commitment of all institutions to this strategic project for UPF and the Catalan research system as a whole.

On the floor of the future research complex Martín Bonadeo, resident artist at UPF, painted an ephemeral work of art representing Planetary Wellbeing and the need for research as a way to combat the climate and biological emergencies. The laying of the first stone featured a performance by Vignesh Melwani, a dancer and an ex-student of UPF.

During today’s event, the president of the Catalan Government, Pere Aragonès, signed the UPF Book of Honour. The signature was made in the institutional office of the rector, Oriol Amat, who thanked the highest institutional representative of Catalonia for visiting and supporting the project of the Mercat del Peix and the Ciutadella of Knowledge.

One of the most powerful knowledge hubs in Europe

The Mercat del Peix, which will cover an area of 46,000 square metres, is an initiative arising from the institutional agreements entered into between the Catalan Government, Barcelona City Council, UPF, the UB, the UAB, the CSIC, the BIST and the FPM. The new site is key to the Ciutadella of Knowledge project and will replace obsolete spaces and equipment to become one of the major hubs of scientific knowledge, research innovation and higher education in Europe.

The new site is key to the Ciutadella of Knowledge project and will replace obsolete spaces and equipment to become one of the major hubs of scientific knowledge, research innovation and higher education in Europe

The new complex will house a total of three buildings. On the one hand, the building of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) will have 24,700 square metres and will host some 800 researchers and around sixty research groups from four BIST centres (CRG, IBEC, ICN2 and IRB Barcelona). The BIST is a multidisciplinary research institute based on the capacities and aspirations of seven Catalan centres of excellence: the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE), and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

The second building will have 7,300 square metres and will host the UPF Centre for Research and Innovation on Planetary Wellbeing. It will be a meeting point for researchers, from both experimental sciences and social sciences and humanities, who will conduct interdisciplinary projects in areas such as planetary health, complex systems and data science, artificial intelligence, the economy and governance of climate change, the loss of biodiversity and global law and governance.

The UPF Centre for Research and Innovation on Planetary Wellbeing will be a meeting point for researchers from the experimental sciences, social sciences and humanities

Finally, the third building will have 6,500 square metres and will host the headquarters of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a mixed research centre created in 2008 by UPF and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The IBE will house its research staff at the new headquarters of the Mercat del Peix, where it will consolidate and expand its research project on evolution and biodiversity.

Just below the three buildings, the municipal holding B:SM (Barcelona de Serveis Municipals) will build and manage a new 7,000 square metre car park that will be integrated into the public parking network. It is the first that has been conceived as a mobility services hub and will include electric charging points, shared vehicle rental services, a safe space to leave bicycles and personal mobility vehicles, as well as accessible parcel collection points for citizens and a goods microdistribution centre. 

First major event linked to the Ciutadella of Knowledge

The Mercat del Peix project is one of the first actions of the Ciutadella of Knowledge, a scientific, cultural and urban initiative that aims to turn the surroundings of Ciutadella park, in the centre of Barcelona, into a preeminent urban knowledge hub in the city of Barcelona. The initiative is jointly promoted by Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Government and Pompeu Fabra University.

The Ciutadella of Knowledge aims to attract new national and international institutions to the area that are recognized for their excellence in the field of planetary wellbeing, thus joining the existing critical mass to increase inter-institutional synergies and promote interdisciplinary initiatives.

> Photo album posted on Flickr