On 21 October, Pompeu Fabra University was awarded a distinction as a Campus of International Excellence (CEI) owing to the launch of the CEI UPF - Icària project in the 2010 call announced by the Ministry of Education. In addition, now the Innocampus call (2010 Innovation Plan of the Ministry of Science and Innovation) has granted a further 4.5 million euros to the UPF Campus of International Excellence (CEI) to promote the implementation of the "INNO-Icària" project. As part of the Campus of International Excellence project, the Innocampus programme provides funding for projects excelling in science and innovation.

In the 22@ district, UPF has a reserve on 60,000 sq. m. of land available for building. More specifically, this area is the result of adjoining the buildings of the former military pavilions to the plot of land where the car park at Ciutadella Campus is currently located.

By arranging this area into research parks, one for each area of knowledge, UPF aims to promote the transfer of knowledge and innovation, cornerstones in the transformation of the economic model.

New buildings will be erected in this area which will house various university research groups, internationally significant mixed centres, companies and innovation and transfer centres with the aim of transforming the zone into a benchmark for social sciences and humanities in southern Europe.

Universities that have attained the distinction as a Campus of International Excellence (CEI) in the 2009 CEI call and those chosen this year by the technical committee of the Ministry of Education in the 2010 call took part in the 2010 Innocampus call.

This programme aims to improve the quality of Spanish universities, forging their capabilities with Spanish science and technology agents in order to promote specialisation and international leadership on the part of the Spanish research and development community.

The grants are aimed at funding the costs for acquiring scientific and technical equipment, expenses incurred in buildings and infrastructure in R&D, subcontracting exclusively stemming from the project and costs stemming from the generation and maintenance of patents produced as a result of the technological development of the project.

The Ministry of Science and Innovation has allocated 150 million euros to this mission in order to promote specific initiatives in 38 Spanish universities, increasing their scientific and technological capabilities and encouraging technology to be transferred to and valued by the productive fabric of universities.

This budget allocation, 42.3 million euros, has been distributed among six Catalan universities, including UPF. The specific areas in which these projects unfold are as follows: ICTs, energy, health, social sciences and so on.

Innocampus is one of the calls included in the 2010 Innovation Plan which is part of the National Innovation Strategy. The programme entails coordinated action between the government, autonomous communities, universities and social and economic agents.