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Research news

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

• CREB researcher Maria Pau Ginebra selected as a finalist for the EU Prize for Women Innovators

  Researcher Maria Pau Ginebra, full professor of Materials Science and director of the Biomaterials Division of the UPC’s Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB), has been selected as one of the 12 finalists for the 2018 EU Prize for Women Innovators.

• ICFO researchers try out a stroke device at the Hospital de Sant Pau

  A non-invasive bedside optical device has been used for the first time at the Hospital de la Santa Creu and Sant Pau in Barcelona to monitor the treatment of patients with acute ischaemic stroke in real time. The mechanism, developed by ICFO researchers led by ICREA professor Turgut Durduran, has the potential to become a future tool for non-invasive medical monitoring.

• UPC project receives ESA’s Sentinel Small Satellite Challenge award and is overall winner of the Copernicus Masters

  An initiative presented by UPC researcher Adriano Camps and Alessandro Golkar, a visiting professor from the Skoltech Institute of Science and Technology in Russia, in collaboration with the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has won the Sentinel Small Sat (S^3) Challenge of the European Space Agency (ESA), the most important category of the Copernicus Masters awards, which have a reputation for being the ‘space Oscars’. The project also received the Overall Winner Award for the best initiative in the Copernicus Masters.

• The UPC joins the EIT Manufacturing knowledge and innovation community

  The UPC has joined EIT Manufacturing, Europe’s largest manufacturing innovation network. Promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), it pursues the digitalisation of industry in the context of circular economy.

• The UPC is still the top Spanish university in obtaining funds from the H2020 programme

  The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) continues to be the first Spanish university in raising funds from the European framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 (H2020), according to the provisional results of the latest reports by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) for the period 2014–2018.

• A unique hybrid device to generate electricity and store thermal energy in an efficient and sustainable manner

  An international research team led by the UPC has created a hybrid device that combines, for the first time ever, molecular solar thermal energy storage with silicon-based photovoltaic energy. It achieves a record energy storage efficiency of 2.3% and up to 14.9% total solar energy utilisation.

• Airgilab, the first living lab that regenerates building air with horticultural crops, is presented at the UPC’s ESEIAAT

  A greenhouse for urban agriculture, connected to classroom 3.07 and an office at the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT), absorbs CO2 from these spaces and transforms it into oxygen through photosynthesis. The clean air is recirculated back into the classroom if the conditions are suitable. This is how the Air quality & Green Infrastructure Living Lab (Airgilab) works, it is the first living lab to regenerate building air using agricultural crops. It was created by the Construction Research and Innovation Group (GRIC) of the UPC.

• The UPC and the BSC-CNS on the first Spanish map of technological capacities in artificial intelligence

  The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has drawn the first map of artificial intelligence capacities in Spain, with public and private institutions that work and conduct research on this area. The map features both the UPC and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).

• The UPC participates in a €25-million European project to improve the response to climate change-related emergencies

  The UPC’s Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology participates in the European project RESIST, which aims to improve preparedness for weather emergencies and thus increase resilience to climate change. RESIST receives EU funding under the Horizon programme.

• UPC researcher Corrado Altomare receives a Leonardo Grant to study how heavy swell can affect seaside promenades

  Corrado Altomare, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the UPC’s Maritime Engineering Laboratory, has been awarded a Leonardo Grant from the BBVA Foundation to study how episodes of heavy swell, caused by climate change and rising sea levels, can affect seaside promenades.

• UPC performing well in the latest international rankings

  In the 2019 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, the UPC remains in the 601-700 range—in which it has been ranked since 2017—in the Top 1000 list. In the recently published 2019-2020 CWUR World University Rankings, the UPC ranks 443rd out of nearly 20,000 universities analysed around the world. Additionally, in the SIR Iber ranking it takes 16th place among the best Ibero-American universities. In the Ranking Web of Universities (Webometrics), the UPC climbs from the 297th to the 275th place worldwide and is the top Spanish technical university.

• Transforming the construction sector towards a circular economy: DISCOVER, a new project led by the UPC

  The UPC leads the European project DISCOVER, an innovative initiative to reduce construction and demolition waste through artificial intelligence technologies, advanced robotics and building information modelling (BIM). With the aim of transforming the sector into a more sustainable and efficient model, DISCOVER focuses on material reuse and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

• A new H2020 project led by the UPC aims to improve the production of hydroelectric power

  Xavier Escaler, a researcher at the UPC’s Centre for Industrial Diagnostics and Fluid Dynamics, is leading the European project AFC4Hydro, which aims to design and validate an active flow control (AFC) system for hydraulic turbines to monitor the structural health of turbines in real time and improve their performance. The idea is to develop technologies that allow the growth of renewables in the European integrated electricity generation system.

• Algorithms for cancer diagnosis, a greenhouse gas catalyst and the spin-off Virmedex receive awards

  The jury of the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Award has recognised DigiPatICS as the best technology transfer project, Permanently Polarized Hydroxyapatite as the best market-ready invention and Virmedex as the best technology-based company. A special mention has also been given to the collaboration between the CDEI and Girbau, focused on the design and simulation of industrial laundry machinery.

• European award for the ANYWHERE project, coordinated by the UPC’s CRAHI

  The 2022 Resilience Award of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs went to ANYWHERE, a project coordinated by the UPC’s Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology (CRAHI) that strengthens societal resilience to extreme climate-induced events through innovative technology.

• Reusing 1 kg of clothing saves 25 kg of CO2 according to a study by INTEXTER

  The UPC’s INTEXTER has conducted a pioneering analysis to calculate the share of fibres used in the clothes that are dumped in textile collection bins. The study uses an innovative methodology and is therefore more accurate than other approaches so far. It is part of a report by Cáritas cooperative Moda re- and the consulting company LAVOLA on the collection of used clothing in Spain.

• A declaration to transform the monitoring and protection of Amazonian biodiversity is presented at COP30

  On 15 November, the UPC together with Indigenous communities, Amazonian scientific institutions, NGOs, governments and international organisations presented the Mamirauá Declaration at COP30. It is an innovative collective commitment to transform how biodiversity is monitored, governed and protected throughout the Amazon Basin.

• Researchers design a catalyst to produce industrial chemicals from greenhouse gases

  A UPC team has developed a ceramic, biocompatible catalyst that captures greenhouse gases and converts them into useful chemicals in a more sustainable and cost-effective way than current technologies. So far, it has successfully passed the pilot phase through joint projects with companies from several sectors. The technology has won the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Award, organised by the Board of Trustees with the support of Fractus and the Fractus UPC Deep Tech Hub, as the best market-ready invention.

• First light captured by the 4MOST telescope: observation begins of 77,000 stars in an international project led by the UPC

  The 4MOST telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile captured its first light on 18 October, marking the start of new scientific programmes around the world. An international research team led by Alberto Rebassa, a researcher at the UPC and member of the IEEC, and Odette Toloza from the USM in Chile, will observe and analyse the spectra of 77,000 binary stars to shed light on how the Milky Way formed and evolved.

• DigiPatICS consolidates the use of AI to improve cancer diagnosis and share results

  The eight hospitals of the Catalan Institute of Health have optimised breast cancer diagnosis thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms developed by the UPC as part of the DigiPatICS project. These algorithms automate the analysis of tissue samples, enabling earlier and more accurate detection of the disease. Results and diagnoses are shared in real time across the eight centres, creating Europe’s largest digital pathology network. The project received the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Award on 19 November.

• Oriol Vinyals, honorary doctoral degree holder by the UPC: “AI allows us to focus on asking the right questions to advance science”

  On 26 November, the UPC conferred an honorary doctoral degree on researcher Oriol Vinyals, vice-president of Research at Google DeepMind. Professor Eduard Alarcón delivered the oration in praise of Vinyals’s achievements at an event held in the Auditorium of the Vèrtex building on the North Diagonal Campus.

• UPC professor Antonio González receives the IEEE Computer Society B. Ramakrishna Rau Award

  Antonio González, a professor at the UPC’s Barcelona School of Informatics (FIB) and a member of the Department of Computer Architecture, has been honoured with the 2025 B. Ramakrishna Rau Award from the IEEE Computer Society. This is one of the most prestigious international awards in the field of computer architecture.

• Last days to register for the 1st UPC Artificial Intelligence Competition for bachelor’s and master’s students

  The UPC Artificial Intelligence Challenge (IA Challenge) will recognise the best projects applying this technology in any of the University’s fields of knowledge. The competition is open to more than 30,000 UPC bachelor’s and master’s students, who can submit their proposals until 15 November. In addition, partner companies have introduced six new industrial challenges.

• The UPC inaugurates the first monitored agrivoltaic plant for comprehensive horticultural crop control at the Agròpolis

  On 24 October, the UPC inaugurated the first fully monitored agrivoltaic plant for comprehensive horticultural crop control at its Agròpolis facility in Viladecans. This new infrastructure is being used to study the impact of two types of photovoltaic panels on various vegetable crops, with the aim of generating clean energy for Europe’s agricultural sector.

• UPC researchers Maria Pau Ginebra, Jezabel Curbelo and Sergi Abadal win 2025 National Research Awards

  The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has named three UPC researchers among the winners of the 2025 National Research Awards. Maria Pau Ginebra received the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Award for Engineering and Architecture, while Sergi Abadal and Jezabel Curbelo were recognised in the Youth Research category.

• The UPC, a driving force for deep tech innovation in Catalonia

  According to the report The Deep Tech Spin-off Ecosystem in Spain 2025, the UPC is the third institution in Spain and the first in Catalonia for the creation of deep tech companies emerging from universities and research centres, accounting for 5.3% of the total in an ecosystem that now includes over 1,000 active spin-offs.

• The UPC leads a Unite! project to restore urban rivers and prevent flooding in European cities

  Coordinated by a research team from the UPC’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and involving researchers from the University along with other Unite! partners, the initiative has received funding from the alliance’s seed fund.

• Stabilising the power grid through grid-forming loads: the challenge of a European project led by CITCEA-UPC

  The UPC’s Centre for Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives (CITCEA) is leading a European project to redesign the current energy system in order to stabilise the power grid in the face of growing renewable energy integration. The proposed solutions involve using the very devices that consume electricity to help balance the grid.

• Leonardo Grants awarded to UPC researchers Inés Aquilué, Gissell Estrada and Juan Murcia

  The 2025 call for BBVA Foundation’s Leonardo Grants has selected the projects of Inés Aquilué, Gissell Estrada and Juan Murcia to study, respectively, the reconstruction of cities after armed conflicts, the mathematical modelling of cell migration and the resilience of infrastructure in the face of extreme climate events.

• Patents and international mobility: the UPC’s standout indicators in the new THE WUR edition

  In the 2026 edition of the THE WUR, the UPC achieved its best results in the pillars industry and international outlook, standing out for its strong performance in patents and international mobility.

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