The General Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation has released a report analyzing the participation of Spanish universities in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), the European Union's instrument for funding research and innovation in the period 2007-2013.

The study shows the high level of competitiveness of researchers at UPF, as despite only representing around 1% of teaching staff in the Spanish university system, they account for 10% of the total funding obtained by Spanish universities in the FP7. This percentage is only surpassed by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (11%), which is around four times the size (Figure 1).

The Ministry's figures show that UPF is also the Spanish university which in recent years has experienced the biggest increase in funding obtained as a result of research activities in Europe: the University has quadrupled the income that it obtained in the FP6 (2002 -2006).

The report also makes a comparison between the funding obtained by universities in the FP7 and that obtained within the National Plan for R+D+i, the equivalent instrument in Spain. UPF stands out among all the universities as the only one with a volume of income from competitive European research that is comparable to its income obtained within Spain (Figure 2). To date, the University has participated in 95 activities in the FP7 and led 45.

In terms of geographical distribution, Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest percentage of return (30%), followed by Catalonia (25%) and at some distance, by the Basque Country (18%). The autonomous communities with the lowest return are Ceuta (0%), Extremadura (0.1%), the Balearic Islands (0.4%) and Murcia (0.6%).

Finally, given that the European research and transfer programmes are open to a wide range of institutions (universities, research institutes, SMEs, public organizations and individual researchers who are associated with an institution, etc.), the report also provides data on the profile of the most efficient institutions in Spain.

Businesses are the most competitive institutions (with a 32% return on the total, half of which is from SMEs). They are followed by universities (23%), public research centres (14%) and technology centres (12%).