Research news

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

  • An app to assess wildfire risk to homes

    A European research team led by the UPC has created a web application that assesses the vulnerability to fire of homes located in forest areas. The app, which is part of the European FIREPRIME project, has been designed and tested with the collaboration of citizens, local authorities and emergency services.

  • University spin-off Virmedex strengthens its international presence

    Founded by the UPC and the UB three years ago, Virmedex Virtual Experiences SL specialises in training healthcare professionals through simulators based on video games, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The company has consolidated its international position in Europe, Latin America and the United States, and is now preparing for a second funding round. It received the 15th UPC Research Valorisation Award, organised by the Board of Trustees with the support of Fractus and the Fractus UPC Deep-Tech Hub, among other accolades.

  • 13 UPC researchers distinguished in the 2025 Academia Excellence programme

    UPC research took centre stage in the latest call for the Government of Catalonia’s Academia Excellence programme (formerly ICREA Academia), securing 13 of the 50 grants awarded. The UPC thus becomes the institution with the most selected faculty members, who will be able to intensify their research for five years. Also, Claudio Cazorla Silva, a researcher at the Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering (CCEM), has been named a new ICREA Research Professor.

  • A researcher from the UPC’s ESEIAAT leads a European project to create four advanced support centres for the textile industry in Morocco and Jordan

    Mònica Ardanuy, a professor of textile engineering at the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT) and a researcher in the TECTEX research group at the UPC, is leading the European project FOSTEX, which aims to create four advanced support centres for the textile industry in Moroccan and Jordanian universities. FOSTEX received one million euros in funding from the European Commission and aims to have these centres operational by 2022.

  • The UPC leads a project to develop faster, lower-power processors for artificial intelligence

    The European Commission grants three million euros in funding to the WiPLASH project within the framework of the FET-Open call. It aims to prototype miniaturised wireless graphene antennas in the terahertz band to provide future computing platforms with plasticity and reconfigurability. The project involves seven European universities and companies, under the supervision of Sergi Abadal, a researcher at the UPC’s Department of Computer Architecture.

  • UPC students set for first in university space rocket

    The Cosmic Research team, made up of students from three schools of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Terrassa and Barcelona are carrying out a series of trials in order to become the first university students to launch a rocket into space. By 2022 they expect to be able to cross the 100-km barrier.

  • Sustainable 3D printing resins developed from plant-based materials

    A team from the UPC and the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia has developed polymeric resins derived from plant-based materials aimed at reducing 3D printing’s reliance on fossil fuel-based resins. The research findings have been published in 'RSC Applied Polymers', a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

  • First tests of a subsea robot set to be integrated into the OBSEA observatory to monitor the seabed and create a digital twin

    On 19 November, researchers from the UPC’s Technological Development Centre for Remote Acquisition and Data Processing Systems began the initial testing of a robot designed to monitor the seabed at the port of Vilanova i la Geltrú. They aim to develop a digital twin of the Vilanova coastline to characterise species, monitor large predator communities and understand how they interact with the rest of the marine ecosystems for the purpose of better managing and restoring these ecosystems.

  • UPC technology and capabilities at the ISE audiovisual trade fair

    The UPC will participate for the first time in the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the world-renowned tech show for the audiovisual industry. The 2026 edition will be held in the Gran Via venue of the Fira de Barcelona from 3 to 6 February.

  • The UPC launches #looopers, a science outreach series on YouTube

    “Nanoquè? Nanosatèl·lits!” (Nano-what? Nanosatellites!) is the first video in the series that the UPC has launched on its YouTube channel. Teaching and research staff and students have collaborated to reach out to young people and encourage them to take up STEAM vocations.

  • The new European university UNITE! takes off

    The first joint meeting of UNITE!, the University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering, will be held in Darmstadt (Germany) on 5 and 6 November. UNITE! is the new technological university campus promoted by the European Commission with the participation of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the Grenoble Institute of Technology, the Politecnico di Torino, TU Darmstadt, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Aalto University.

  • 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.

  • The UPC, leader in Knowledge Transfer and Regional Engagement in the latest edition of the CYD Ranking

    In the 2023 edition of the CYD Ranking, the UPC is once again the top Spanish university in Knowledge Transfer. It also shares the top position in Regional Engagement and achieves outstanding results in International Orientation. In the ranking by field, the UPC stands out in Earth Sciences, in which it is ranked among the top 3 universities.

  • A nanophenomenon that triggers the bone-repair process

    The researcher Amir Abdollahi of the UPC’s Numerical Calculus Laboratory (LaCàN) participated in a study that found that flexoelectricity may be responsible for regenerating bone tissue damaged by microfractures.

  • Quantum mechanics explains how superfluid helium films grow in carbon nanotubes

    Research by an international team of researchers led by scientists from the ICFO, with the participation of Jordi Boronat, a researcher at the UPC’s Department of Physics, reports on the controlled, layer-by-layer growth process of superfluid helium on the surface of carbon nanotubes. The experiment opens the door to studying new phenomena at the nanoscopic scale and, in particular, in topological phase transitions.

  • Artificial intelligence for the diagnosis of rare diseases related to collagen VI

    Researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics—a joint centre of the CSIC and the UPC—and the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital have developed a system for helping diagnose rare diseases related to deficiencies in the structure of collagen VI.

  • The BSC inaugurates its new corporate headquarters, the BSC-Repsol Building

    The minister for Research and Universities, Gemma Geis; the secretary general for Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Raquel Yotti; the rector of the UPC, Daniel Crespo; the president of the Repsol Foundation, Antonio Brufau, and the director of the BSC, Mateo Valero, participated in a brief ceremony celebrating the inauguration of one of the largest scientific and technological facilities in the city of Barcelona. The new 12,000 m2 facility, at which 530 BSC employees work, is preparing to receive the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer.

  • The UPC among the three best Spanish universities according to the 2021 U-Multirank

    In the 2021 edition of U-Multirank, a European Commission initiative to provide a multidimensional view of universities, the UPC moves up and is ranked as one of the top three Spanish universities.

  • UPC rises 46 places in QS World University Rankings 2018

    Once again, the UPC ranks amongst the world’s top 300 universities as it did two years ago. It holds 275th place on the QS World University Rankings 2018, published on 8 June. The UPC ranks 120th in Europe, in Spain it is the sixth ranked university overall and the top technical university, and in Catalonia it holds third position.

  • Terrassa hosts the AMBER laboratory for ultra-high-voltage electrical tests

    The AMBER laboratory is a research centre equipped with cutting-edge technology for electrical energy analysis and testing. Inaugurate by the Motion Control and Industrial Applications (MCIA) research group of the UPC and the company SBI CONNECTORS, AMBER has the capacity to perform very high voltage testing. It has two machines that are unique in Europe and can work with a voltage of up to 1.5 million volts (MV) DC.

  • Testing a drone to save lives in the Mediterranean

    Three students from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) are participating, together with the Hemav Foundation, in the FREEDA project, in which they are developing an offshore reconnaissance drone to search for people and boats. The aim is to improve Proactiva Open Arms rescue missions. The first test to check the operation of the drone on the NGO’s ship was recently carried out offshore from Borriana (Castellón).

  • Two researchers from the UPC’s ESEIAAT simulate polar storm formation on Saturn

    The research is part of an international scientific collaboration that has observed multiple storms at different latitudes on the second largest planet in the solar system

  • The BSC-CNS will be home to one of the largest European supercomputers: MareNostrum 5

    The Barcelona Supercomputing Center–Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) will host one of the pre-exascale supercomputers in the high-performance computer network promoted by the European Commission, namely MareNostrum 5. It will be a heterogeneous supercomputer adapted to the new requirements of supercomputer users that will emphasise artificial intelligence and will have a peak performance of 200 petaflops

  • Inauguration of Thinx | 5GBarcelona, an open laboratory for testing 5G technologies

    The initiative 5GBarcelona and Telefónica have inaugurated their Thinx | 5GBarcelona laboratory, a facility at startups, SMEs and corporations and designed to test and validate new services and applications with 5G technology.

  • The UPC’s NanoSat Lab demonstrates the feasibility of using nanosatellites to observe the Earth and monitor climate change

    The FSSCat is ESA’s first mission that relies on CubeSats to support the Copernicus monitoring services for land and marine environment of the European Earth Observation programme. The mission won the Sentinel Small Satellite (S^3) Challenge Award of ESA and was honoured as the Copernicus Masters Overall Winner in 2017.

  • Light and nanotechnology combined to prevent bacterial contamination on medical implants

    An ICFO and B. Braun Surgical, S.A. study published in Nano Letters and highlighted in Nature Photonics reports on a new technique that could prevent bacterial contamination and infection in medical implants by using light combined with gold nanoparticles.

  • The ICFO and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute create a joint laboratory

    The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute have created a new joint laboratory that focuses on advancing the use and development of photonic technologies to understand, diagnose, monitor and treat paediatric diseases. The alliance seeks to provide innovations that improve the quality of life of children with severe pathologies and is made possible thanks to the support of the Joan Ribas Araquistain Foundation, the Cellex Foundation and the Torró Solidari RAC1 by Torrons Vicens.

  • International cooperative agreement aims to fast track advanced material solutions to solve global challenges

    ICFO and Advanced Material Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce sign MoU to facilitate solving global challenges using advanced materials.

  • Researchers from UPC, Brazil and Australia get the first images and sounds of an observatory installed in the Amazon

    The Applied Bioacoustics Laboratory (LAB) of UPC and scientists from Brazil and Australia have installed in the Brazilian reserves of Mamirauá and Amanã the first two sensors for real-time monitoring of biodiversity in the Amazon. In the framework of the Providence project, this action will help fight the extinction of species in the rainforest.

  • Photonic snakes, a new instrument for revealing the secrets of light

    Researcher Salim B. Ivars, a doctoral student at the UPC’s Department of Physics, has collaborated with researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences and the Universitat Politècnica de València in the discovery of the so-called photonic snake states, a novel instrument that can greatly assist in unravelling the mysteries of light. The results of this research, led by the UPV, have been published in the scientific journal Nature Photonics.