University of Barcelona

The University of Barcelona (Spain) is the 19^th in the 2018 Times Higher Education Europe Teaching Ranking. It is the 166^th in the 2019 QS World University Ranking. It is in the 151-200 domain in the 2018 ARWU (Shanghai) Ranking and in the 201-250 domain in the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Ranking. In the U-Multirank, from the 29 available indicators, it is “excellent” in 9, and “good” in 9 further indicators.¹³ The University of Barcelona is the 65th in Reuters Europe’s Most Innovative Universities ranking.¹⁴ Reuters empathises that the number of spinoffs has been increasing permanently since 2000. At present the institution has 24 spinoffs; in the 2014-2015 academic year 5, in 2016 4 new spinoffs were founded, and the university has 93 registered patents. The fact that in 2011, the university had only 18 patents clearly shows the dynamic expansion of its commercial intellectual property. The number of research projects of the University of Barcelona is outstanding even on the European level, and 100 million EUR income has been obtained by knowledge and technology transfer. (UB in Figures 2017) Another notable achievement of the institution is that it has 23 masters and 48 doctoral programs in English, 37% of masters students and 31% of doctoral students are from abroad. (Report on the academic year 2015-2016)

Among its best practices, some smart organizational solutions are the most noteworthy. First, several organizational units were established that are responsible for the efficient management of such revenue-generating activities as lifelong learning, university-business cooperation, entrepreneurship. Second, the university applies organizational solutions that unite the available resources and facilitate the well-coordinated collaboration of different units.

Research activities are managed by the office Research Management, which is in charge of national research programs, the UB office International Research Projects, which is responsible for European projects, and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, which oversees knowledge transfer and relations with the business sector (see later). The Science and Technology Centres are a group of university centres that support research both in the university and in other public and private institutions.

The University of Barcelona Group (UB Group) is a group of entities with legal

ultimate responsibility for determining the political and strategic course of action to be assumed by each member of the Group. At the same time, it guarantees the collaboration, coordination and synergy of the activities of Group members through their individual governing bodies. The university safeguards the decision-making and control capabilities – both economic and legal – of UB Group entities and holds majority voting rights in them.

It can also appoint and dismiss most of the members of their governing bodies. ¹⁵ The most important UB Group members – the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, the UB Innovative and Scientific Culture and the Institute for Lifelong Learning Foundation – are described below.

The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (BGF) is the foundation of the university and is responsible for connecting the university and the business sector to transfer innovation to society by:

• Contact Research: The BGF offers companies the possibility of improving their products and services by contracting these out to researchers and research groups of the University of Barcelona. There is an online database called Experts’ Guide to help to find the right professionals at the university.16

• Business Creation: The BGF promotes the creation of innovative companies arising from UB research projects and fosters their growth and consolidation

• Technology transfer: The BGF transfers innovation developed at the University of Barcelona to companies through licencing.

• Grants and funding: The BGF provides information and advice to turn innovation transfer into a reality. They offer up-to-date information about the different kinds of grant calls (fellowships, prizes, etc.) promoted by the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, about the European projects, and also about calls funded by other entities that might be of interest.

• Management support: The BGF offers support and tools for the management of innovation projects in legal, economic, regulatory and technical aspects. They keep the accounting of projects using the Extractes application -- a complete management intranet -- that includes a series of manuals to help manage one’s project.¹⁷

In 2018, the collaboration between the UB and the different socio-economic agents had allowed the development of 640 projects and resulted in € 32.62 million in revenue through the Foundation.¹⁸

Table 1 shows the increase of the income from research and technology transfer between 2011-2016.

Table 1. Income from research and technology transfer between 2011-2016

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total income from research and

technology transfer (thousands of

euros) 74 336 56 832 70 344 88 156 88 988 107 326

Projects 24 915 23 248 19 997 25 312 31 471 47 384

Funding 11 217 3 134 15 172 19 997 13 740 7 681

Infrastructure 1 659 - - 186 - 657

UB research agreements 2 503 2 471 194 538 248 445

FBG agreements 6 850 9 263 9 600 11 971 10 865 12 532

Complemetary actions - - 401 305 369 -

Services provided by Science and Technology Centres to other

institutions - - 3 057 2 901 3 236 3 250

Income generated by UB

researchers at other institutions 27 182 18 716 21 943 27 108 35 244 35 377 Source: https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/recerca_innovacio/recerca_innovacio/xifres/xifres.html

UB Innovative and Scientific Culture was created in 2003 to hold, manage, administer and make calls on shares in possible spin-off companies in other technological and scientific initiatives within the UB Group. It is in charge of grouping shares held or bought from other societies in the UB Group, while the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation has responsibility for monitoring the everyday work and possible capital expansions of the companies in which it has a stake.¹⁹

The Institute for Lifelong Learning Foundation’seducational offer brings together all disciplines of science and the arts into a broad range of courses (face-to-face, blended and e-learning) of different lengths, from master’s degree courses and postgraduate studies to seminars and personalized training for professional communities and companies. The foundation was established in 2007.²⁰ In 2016-2017 the university had more than 19.000 LLL students in its 540 LLL courses. (UB in Figures 2017)

19 https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/universitat/grup_UB/detall/cultura_innovadora_i_cientifica_UB.html

20 https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/universitat/grup_UB/detall/il3_universitat_de_barcelona.html

The Barcelona Knowledge Campus (BKC) is a joint project of the University of Barcelona and the Technical University of Catalonia launched in 2008. It merges the two universities' training, research and innovation potential. The result of this partnership is a territorial campus defined but not restricted to, by three areas of specialization: life sciences, social sciences and technologies. BKC also covers other thematic areas following the same standards of excellence: architecture, engineering, sciences and fine arts. The Barcelona City Council, the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona and the Spanish National Research Council, are also partners. Some of its objectives are:

• Coordinate actions and maximize the visibility of the different organizations comprising this alliance.

• Consolidate teaching excellence in the degree programmes.

• Increase academic efficiency by focusing efforts on preferred or priority areas for the alliance and facilitating employability.

• Commit to active mobility policies which promote and increase student exchanges and the mobility of teaching and research staff.

• Make new research infrastructures and innovation services managed in a professional, efficient manner available to the alliance. ²¹

Some results of the project between 2008-2014:

• Number of international master’s degree and doctoral students 1.966 → 3.186

• Number of international doctoral students 539 → 2.091

• Number of Erasmus Mundus master’s programmes 9 → 16

• Teaching innovation projects 76 → 182

• Value of research contracts signed with companies 4.779.780 → 10.713.741

• National and international patents generated in the past three years 192 → 355

• Licensing contracts signed with external organizations 15 → 46

• Number of companies in residence at the alliance’s science and technology parks 62 → 96

• (Barcelona Knowledge Campus Project Report 2014)

21 https://bkc.ub.upc.edu/en?set_language=en