We inaugurate the new CT BETA headquarters in Roses!

The University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) and Roses Town Council this morning inaugurated the new headquarters of the UVic-UCC’s BETA Technology Centre at Ca l’Anita, an emblematic municipal space in this town in the Empordà region of the Empordà region.

The new headquarters will be dedicated to the activities of the BETA Technology Centre related to the management and conservation of sea turtle nests in Catalonia, an area in which the centre has established itself as a benchmark. It will also open up new opportunities for research, dissemination and training in this field and in other areas of expertise linked to the sustainability and conservation of the natural environment.

The presentation ceremony was attended by the Catalan Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque; the mayor of Roses, Josep Maria Martínez; the parish priest of UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños; the general director of the Balmes University Foundation (FUB), Jordi Baiget; and the director of CT BETA, Sergio Ponsá.

During the event, the institutional representatives highlighted the importance of this project for applied research and the preservation of the natural heritage of the Costa Brava and the Catalan coastline as a whole.

Being useful to the citizens and the country

The Catalan Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, stressed in her speech that the new headquarters of the CT BETA in Roses is an example of collaboration ‘where institutions, academic and scientific knowledge and the projection of this knowledge to the public come together’ and ‘rich’, said Paneque. The councillor was convinced that projects like this reaffirm the need that ‘knowledge should not only remain in university classrooms and technology centres, but should reach institutions and citizens’.

The rector of the UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños, wanted to highlight the social commitment that universities should have, and have, which, he said, “must establish a close link and provide knowledge to the territories where they are rooted, to contribute in all those areas that need knowledge-based solutions. Regarding the new headquarters of CT BETA in Roses, the rector considered that ‘it is the knowledge accumulated by the technology centre over the last ten years that has allowed it to reach parts of the country, outside the natural area of influence of the UVic-UCC, where its experience can be very necessary’ which, he said, also contributes to ‘promote the Barcelona’ environment.

In the same vein, the general director of the Balmes University Foundation (FUB), Jordi Baiget said that the presence of CT BETA in Roses responds to its desire to be, ‘a technology centre that solves specific problems of the territory and citizenship’ and that, like the rest of the UVic-UCC, ‘is useful for society and for the country’. This link between research and territory, he said, ‘is what has made BETA become a benchmark in the design of solutions that respond to real challenges’. The Roses project, said Baiget, ‘we see it as the beginning of a relationship that should lead to more collaborations in the future’.

The mayor of Roses, Josep Maria Martínez, stated that ‘research must be the driving force behind the progress of Roses, which has always stood out as a tourist destination, which will be maintained and in which we want to excel, but we must open up to other areas’. This, he said, is one of the challenges for the future of the municipality, along with the commitment to human health related to the health of the sea, and the blue economy. He also defended the council’s desire to bring a university to Roses, a project for which the agreement signed with UVic-UCC is a first step.

The director of CT BETA, Sergio Ponsá, claimed, in his speech, the will to ‘demonstrate that research should not be concentrated exclusively in the metropolitan area of Barcelona or in the provincial capitals’ but that ‘it should also be done in medium-sized cities and towns throughout the country’. In relation to the agreement formalised with the Roses City Council, Ponsá assured that ‘at CT BETA we believe that progress is built by joining forces, not by competing; this open and collaborative way of doing things has been one of the main driving forces behind the growth of the centre in our first ten years’. In context, he was convinced that ‘we are the first to set up in Roses, but we hope that soon other universities and research centres will come and find in this area a place where they can add value’.

Sea turtle nesting, a growing problem

In recent years, the coasts of the western Mediterranean have experienced a significant increase in the nesting of the endangered Caretta caretta turtle (Caretta caretta). This phenomenon, possibly linked to climate change, has led to the appearance of nests in areas with a high human presence, such as Catalan beaches, posing new challenges for the conservation of the species and the sustainable management of coastal areas.
The BETA Technology Centre participates in the programme for monitoring the nesting of the hawksbill turtle on the coasts of Catalonia promoted by the Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition. It carries out management activities, with initiatives that include detecting and protecting nests, raising public awareness and training technicians.

‘Having an operational base in Roses will allow us to carry out this work more efficiently, more quickly and with greater capacity to connect with the territory,’ said Sergio Ponsá at the inauguration of the new headquarters. This opening represents an important milestone in the tenth anniversary of CT BETA and marks the beginning of a territorial expansion project that foresees the creation of new offices in other parts of Catalonia, to strengthen its research and knowledge transfer work in the service of sustainability.

CT BETA’s space at Ca L’Anita also opens a window of opportunity for Roses, as it will facilitate the arrival of activities linked to university research and reinforce its role as a municipality committed to coastal conservation and sustainability.