Research news

List of news published in the Press Room on research and innovation

  • The BSC selected to host one of the first European quantum computers

    The European Union’s supercomputing consortium has chosen the BSC-CNS as one of six centres that will host the first European quantum computing network.

  • Researcher Maria Pau Ginebra awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council

    The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded UPC researcher Maria Pau Ginebra an Advanced Grant to study the mechanisms of biomaterial and bacteria interaction and to develop surfaces that can fight infections and promote bone regeneration. The study will also have a great scientific and technological impact in very diverse fields such as catalysis, water purification and protein separation.

  • Researchers find that chemical communication between living beings obeys the linguistic law of brevity

    A recent study shows that the chemicals used by living beings to communicate obey the linguistic law of brevity: just as the most used words in human language are shorter, the most frequent infochemicals in ecosystems tend to be shorter carbon chains. The study is co-authored by UPC researcher Antoni Hernández-Fernández and it delves into interspecies chemical communication.

  • Digital twins for a more efficient, reliable and safe construction industry

    Researchers from the UPC’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which is linked to the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering, are leading one of the work packages of the European project ASHVIN, an initiative that aims to make a more efficient, reliable and safe European construction industry by using digital twins. The project is already being implemented on a bridge on the Plasencia-Badajoz high-speed line and in several buildings in Barcelona.

  • Engineering students from the UPC create a 3D-printed functional robotic arm

    The Arm2u biomedical engineering team, from the UPC’s Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB), has designed and manufactured using 3D printing technology a customisable transradial prosthesis that responds to the user’s nerve impulses.

  • Boosting new gas plasma-based treatments for cancer

    Exploring the possibilities of atmospheric-pressure plasmas to develop and consolidate new medical therapies is the main objective of the PlasTHER network, an initiative funded by the European Union under the COST Actions. Led by the UPC, the network brings together research groups, the medical community, industry and patient associations from 24 European countries who will work in the coming years to launch new treatments for cancer, tissue regeneration and repair, emerging infectious diseases and others.

  • Unite! receives more EC funding for its deployment

    The Unite! alliance, made up of the UPC and other leading European technological universities, will receive more funding from the European Commission, under the Erasmus+ programme, to become a driving force for the advancement of a green and digital Europe. The implementation of future European degrees, a new mobility model and the development of a Unite! European Doctoral School are some of the key projects to be deployed in the new stage.

  • Fireball from a stellar explosion detected for the first time by eROSITA X-ray telescope

    When Sun-type stars use up all their fuel, they shrink to form white dwarfs. Sometimes these dead stars come back to life in a thermonuclear explosion and produce a fireball of intense X-ray radiation. A research team led by the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) was able to observe, for the first time, this type of X-ray light explosion. Glòria Sala, a researcher in the UPC’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Group and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), participates in this study, which made the cover of Nature.

  • Europe committed to bringing to market an innovative treatment for bone cancer created by UPC researcher Cristina Canal

    The European Research Council has awarded professor Cristina Canal a Proof of Concept grant, which aims to bridge the gap between frontier research and the market. With this grant, the researcher from the UPC’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering will assess the feasibility of bringing to market a novel therapy to treat osteosarcoma with fewer side effects and that also aids bone regeneration.

  • PLOME, a research project to monitor marine ecosystems

    Within the framework of the PLOME project, a scientific team will develop an underwater platform to intelligently monitor marine ecosystems in real time. Led by the University of Girona (UdG), the initiative involves the UPC’s Technological Development Centre for Remote Acquisition and Data Processing Systems (SARTI), the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) and Iqua Robotics SL.

  • The UPC maintains its leading position in the 2022 U-Ranking

    In the 2022 edition of the U-Ranking the UPC is still the top Spanish university in performance.

  • The UPC, SEAT and Volkswagen Group Innovation look for new strategies to improve the performance of the powertrain and batteries of future electric vehicles

    The UPC’s inLab FIB collaborates with SEAT and Volkswagen Group Innovation (Wolfsburg, Germany) in the Predictive eBoost project, focused on designing new strategies, based on machine learning algorithms and data analysis, to improve the efficiency and performance of electric vehicle motors and batteries.

  • ICFO researcher Maciej Lewenstein received the 2021 Catalonian National Research Award

    For his theoretical contributions to atomic physics and quantum optics. Presented by the Government of Catalonia, the awards have also recognised the BSC’s Som Investigadores initiative, in the Scientific Communication category.

  • The UPC’s CD6 participates in the construction of the world’s largest telescope

    The UPC’s Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development (CD6) participates with IDOM in the construction of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), promoted by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The ELT will be the world's largest ground-based optical and near-infrared telescope and is being built at an altitude above 3,000 m, on the Armazones Hill (Atacama Desert, Chile). It is expected to come into operation in 2027.

  • The Vallès School of Architecture presents a construction prototype made from corn and sunflower stalks

    The Interdisciplinary Group on Building Science and Technology (GICITED), linked to the UPC’s Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV), participates in the cross-border project SAVASCO, which aims to develop new bio-based materials to minimise the environmental impact of construction. In this context, the ETSAV has developed a sustainable building prototype made from corn and sunflower stalks, which was presented on 6 May.

  • The UPC is the top technical university in Spain and ranks among the 350 best universities in the world in the latest edition of the QS Rankings

    The UPC maintains its leading position among Spanish technical universities in the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings, in which the UPC also ranks 343rd in the world and 146th in Europe.

  • The UPC is the top Spanish university in Engineering according to the 2021 NTU Rankings

    In the latest edition of the NTU Rankings, the UPC is the top Spanish university in Engineering in terms of research productivity, impact and excellence. The University is also the top Spanish university in four subjects: Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

  • The UPC is ranked the world’s 15th best university in Architecture and the top Spanish university in seven subject areas in the 2022 Scimago Institutions Rankings

    In the 2022 edition of the Scimago Institutions Rankings, the UPC is ranked the world’s 15th best university in Architecture and the top Spanish university in seven subject areas: Architecture, Computer Science, Building and Construction, Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Energy and Mathematics.

  • The UPC, among the world’s top 100 in the SDGs Climate Action, Life Below Water and Life On Land according to the THE Impact Rankings

    In the 2022 THE Impact Rankings, which assess the impact of universities’ contributions to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UPC is ranked the world’s 71st university in Climate Action, 74th in Life Below Water and 85th in Life On Land. In the global ranking, the UPC remains in the 201-300 band.

  • Starting Grant for UPC researcher Sergi Abadal to develop a new generation of faster and more efficient processors with wireless communication systems and quantum computing

    Professor and researcher Sergi Abadal, from the UPC’s Department of Computer Architecture, has won a European Research Council Starting Grant to study new ways to build faster and more efficient processors, based on wireless communications, massively parallel processing, specialised accelerators and disruptive technologies such as quantum computing.

  • The UPC participates in a global competition to protect biodiversity in rainforests

    A team from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech is working with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá (Brazil) and the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) on a project to develop a technology that will revolutionise the protection of rainforest biodiversity. The project participates in the XPRIZE Rainforest, a 10-million-dollar international competition to transform our understanding of the complexity of rainforests.

  • UPC researcher Lluís Jofre Cruanyes wins an ERC Starting Grant to miniaturise turbulence at the microscale

    Researcher and professor Lluís Jofre Cruanyes has won a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to create disruptive energy technologies and solutions that will allow the next generation of energy conversion systems and aircraft propulsion technologies to be developed. To that end, he will create the first-ever turbulence-on-a-chip prototypes, with a potential hundredfold performance improvement with respect to current technology.

  • The 2022 Industrial Doctorates Plan call for grants is underway

    Doctoral students who wish to do a doctoral thesis in the business sector can now submit their proposals online. The research projects must be developed between companies or entities and the University’s research groups.

  • A dominant negative sentiment prevails in public perception towards the cruise industry during the COVID-19 outbreaks

    Researchers from the URV and the UPC’s Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB) have analysed more than 34 million tweets and have found a prevailing negative sentiment towards the cruise industry. One of the main conclusions of the study, published in the Tourism Management Perspectives journal, is the need for the cruise industry to reinvent itself and double down on green credentials.

  • MareNostrum 4 begins operation

    The MareNostrum 4 supercomputer has begun operating and executing applications for scientific research. Provides 11.1 petaflops of processing power for scientific research.

  • Scientists from the UPC investigate reconfigurable and programmable metamaterials

    Creating materials with programmable electromagnetic properties, called software-defined reconfigurable metamaterials, is the goal of the scientists working on the European VISORSURF project, in which the interdepartmental group NaNoNetworking Center in Catalonia (N3Cat) of the UPC participates. It is seen as a revolutionary technology with multiple applications in electronics, medicine, photovoltaic solar energy, optics and other uses that are as yet unimaginable.

  • UPC technology in the design of a road safety barrier that reduces maintenance costs and the impact of accidents

    Researchers belonging to the Concrete Structure Technology research group of the UPC, along with the companies GIVASA, SERVIÀ CANTÓ, EIFFAGE INFRAESTRUCTURAS and Applus+ IDIADA, have designed and built a prototype of a concrete crash barrier for interurban roads that, in comparison with the concrete barriers already in place, reduces the degree of severity of vehicle impact in accidents and therefore of injury to vehicle occupants.

  • UPC patents system for cardiovascular pre-diagnosis—in under a minute—based on contact with user’s hands or feet

    The UPC patented an affordable, easy-to-use electrocardiograph that can provide a cardiovascular pre-diagnosis in less than a minute. It is the first system to measure both the electrical activity of the heart (electrocardiogram) and its mechanical activity (arterial pulse wave) based on data collected via two metal sensors in contact with the user’s hands or feet. The prototype has already been granted patents in Spain, the United States and China, and applications have also been filed in Europe, Japan, Korea and India.

  • UPC presents EMPRÈN UPC Terrassa, with support of Terrassa City Council

    The UPC and the Terrassa City Council have signed an agreement to create a facility called EMPRÈN UPC Terrassa—an initiative that will help UPC students make their business ideas a reality, foster entrepreneurial talent, attract investment, and strengthen the business sector in the city of Terrassa.

  • Synchrotron light proves the effectiveness of two new drugs against sleeping sickness

    A team led by researchers from the UPC has unveiled the mechanism of action of two drugs, FR60 and JNI18, that cure 100% of mice with sleeping sickness, also called African trypanosomiasis. Using synchrotron light at the ALBA Synchrotron, the researchers observed how these drugs stacked perfectly on the DNA of Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes the disease, blocking and damaging it specifically. The result is that the parasite cannot reproduce and finally dies after 4-5 days. Scientists conclude that the drugs are effective potential treatments against sleeping sickness, which threatens over 55 million people in sub-Saharan Africa countries. These drugs remain patent-free to attract the interest of pharmaceutical laboratories.