The project

University of Barcelona approaches this project with a double goal. On the one hand, it broadens our presence in the metropolitan area, taking advantage of the agreement with Diputació de Barcelona, owner of part of the land in which UB develops academic activity in a sectorial way: Mundet Campus (Psychology, Education and Teacher Training), La Maternitat site, Escola Industrial site and, in this case, Torribera Campus. On the other hand, it develops specific and highly specialized university environments, with a sectorial nature and in collaboration with other actors.

 

Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus is considered a hub of academic activity and relations with society surrounding food sciences, nutrition, dietetics, gastronomy and food culture. It is reinforced by UB faculties' own related activities, particularly from the Faculty of Pharmacy, which offers the EHEA bachelor's degree courses in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Food Science and Technology. Nevertheless, other faculties also take part along the process, the most noteworthy of which are the Faculty of Medicine (nutrition), the University School of Nursing (dietetics), the Faculty of Biology (food science and nutrition), the Faculty of Chemistry (food science and technology), the Faculty of Geography and History and the attached University School of Hotel Management and Tourism (food culture and gastronomy), the Faculty of Psychology (food behavior) and the Faculty of Economics and Business (organization and management of food companies).

 

The teaching model of the courses offered in our campus is intensively practical and fully coordinated with its application areas. Therefore, we put special emphasis on knowledge and skill gains that favor employability. That's why a great deal of importance is attached to formal and informal activities promoted from the Campus. Moreover, and with the object of boosting the practical formation, a quality program has been developed related to the teaching laboratories building (Marina), whose total surface is of 3.460 m², in which students have at their disposal a set of laboratories and practical techniques closely linked to their studies. This formation is reinforced with placements involving a group of institutions, companies, hospitals and laboratory centers which have established an agreement with the UB through the Faculty of Pharmacy, responsible for these studies. The initial offer of EHEA bachelor's degree courses is complemented by the master's degree courses, coordinated under the management of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Geography and History, with different courses linked to Torribera Campus and in close cooperation with other university institutions (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universitat Rovira i Virgili) or public agencies (Agència Catalana de Seguretat Alimentària). Besides, the academic offer is also enhanced with post-graduate degree courses, coordinated by IL3-UB, and other university extension courses. In the future, the relation between this UB campus and the city of Santa Coloma de Gramenet is meant to be of paramount importance, particularly in terms of advanced vocational training (FPII), in Universitat de l'Experiència's courses and the organization of Els Juliols de la UB.

 

The research in food and nutrition field undergone in Torribera campus is located in the research building (Gaudí), developed by a group of both professors and investigators who form different research teams of the faculties taking part in the forementioned studies. Its coordination with the rest of UB's sectorial scientific activity is carried out by the Nutrition and Food Safety Research Institute (INSA), under supervision of the Vice-rectory for Research. The multidisciplinary nature of the campus' research teams, either in a global sense or through one of their members attached to campus' spaces, is one of Torribera's added values, and thus will be overseen and boosted by INSA's secretary itself. The doctorate related to research undertaken from campus' laboratories or common spaces is coordinated from UB's Doctoral School.

 

Regarding Campus' third university mission, related to the knowledge and technology transfer, the promotion of innovation (both in business and society) and those activities related to university social responsibility, in the coming months many activities are planned in order to open and make known the great collaboration possibilities from the campus, INSA, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation activities and, in the near future, carrying out other interaction mechanisms in its strategic alliance with Generalitat de Catalunya's XaRTA (Reference Network in Food Technology).

 

The sectorial food program developed in Torribera is based, in first instance, on health and pharmaceutical sectors with a series of interactions with different hospitals and businesses. In such environment is very important the coordination with the faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine, the BioCAT and the Health Department (Public Health Agency). The second sector is the agri-food industry, directly aligned with the guidelines from Catalonia's agri-food strategic research plan for the period 2012-2016, set by Generalitat de Catalunya's Department of Agriculture.

 

At the same time, one of the top priorities in Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus is related to the cultural and social aspects of food, and how nutrition interacts with social policies. It is in this regard that some campus spaces have been suited to host several UB units, such as the Food Observatory (ODELA) or the Sent Soví Chair, resulting of the agreement reached between the UB and Institut Català de la Cuina Catalana Foundation. There are also many activities coordinated by the Faculty of Geography and History within the framework of the Grup d’Estudis Alimentaris (Food Studies Group) and the Observatori Permanent de Comportaments Alimentaris (Permanent Observatory of Diet Behaviors). Immigration's current role in food consumption and culture is a cross-cutting issue with a huge economic, social and health impact in which local entities like the city of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Barcelona's metropolitan area towns center their programs, and is the object of this Campus to take direct part in them. Finally, Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus is part of the HUBc aggregation, a campus of international excellence led by the University of Barcelona and which merges the potentials of all the faculties, hospitals, institutes and private entities linked to human health and the university offerings. It is in these fields that Torribera Campus' cooperation with the HUBc is conceived.

 

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