The President of the Generalitat recognises the successful trajectory of the BETA Technological Centre at the ceremony celebrating its tenth anniversary

The President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Salvador Illa, has inaugurated this morning the new facilities of the BETA Technological Centre of the UVic-UCC, coinciding with the 10 years of activity of this centre. The president was accompanied by the Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Òscar Ordeig, among other political representatives and civil society, and by the highest authorities of the University, including the president of the Balmes University Foundation and mayor of Vic, Albert Castells; the rector of the UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños; the general director of FUBalmes, Jordi Baiget, and the director of CT BETA, Sergio Ponsá.

President Salvador Illa visited the current facilities and inaugurated the new spaces, with which the BETA Technological Centre has gained 1,700 m². During the visit, he was able to see first-hand its activity in research and knowledge transfer in the field of circular bioeconomy and sustainability. During the institutional speeches, Salvador Illa expressed the commitment of the Government of the Generalitat ‘to help and accompany CT BETA on the road to becoming a pioneering centre and to have the necessary resources to continue developing its project’, he said.

The president of the Generalitat referred to ‘the attitude of perseverance and tenacity’ with which CT BETA was created and which has led it to success, just as UVic-UCC has achieved with its specific governance model. Illa said that ‘it is necessary that there are leading technology and research centres outside Barcelona, providing territorial balance’ and, referring specifically to the CT BETA, he said: ‘You are an example of how top-level research is done outside the capital’. According to him, this is in line with the Government’s aim, which is to ‘generate prosperity and for it to be shared, not reduced to specific territories or to specific social strata’.

To have more resources and to become a CERCA centre

Albert Castells contextualised the existence of CT BETA in a model of federal university and unique governance, and said that today Central Catalonia would not be the same without this technology centre. For this reason, he claimed the need for more resources to expand the activity of CT BETA. ‘It is necessary a more solid and stable financing to be able to enter a new stage, which must be specified in the creation of a foundation with its own legal personality and to become a CERCA centre, the first in Central Catalonia’, he said, since “being a CERCA centre allows to consolidate the growth and to look for new ways of financing”. Castells ended his speech by saying that ‘the future of CT BETA is guaranteed by its innovative vision, the real impact of its research, international contacts, the ability to attract and retain talent, and the great team it has’.

Josep Eladi Baños pointed out that CT BETA represents the success of the commitment that the University made ten years ago to research, knowledge transfer and social commitment, which has become ‘one of the “jewels in the crown” of the University and an internationally recognised centre’. Baños emphasised the centre’s interest in ‘applying solutions to real problems and contributing to the wellbeing of people and society’. In this sense, he valued the help offered to the rural world to be ‘more sustainable and competitive’ and the fact that the CT BETA has become ‘a reference for companies in our territory, taking into account that its projection has already exceeded the region of Osona’.

To have a real impact on society

Sergio Ponsá explained that the initial objectives set by the centre were ‘to try to respond to the needs of the territory and to have a real impact on society’. With the passing of the years and the work carried out, according to him, it has been demonstrated that ‘CT BETA is a successful experiment in building a fairer and more sustainable world’, and he added that its main value is the people who are part of it. This centre, said Ponsá, ‘has done everything possible to offer a working environment without internal competition, and in which people have been able to consolidate, stabilise and grow professionally’.

In his speech, Ponsá reviewed the main projects and achievements of the technological centre and stressed that it has been done ‘without any external financial support, which makes it even more meritorious, because getting this far has not been easy’. That is why he thanked UVic-UCC for its support from the beginning and the trust of administrations, companies and people who have been part of the project. Looking to the future, the director of the centre explained that the intention is to become, by 2025, a private non-profit foundation, ‘which will allow us to be more efficient and aspire to become a CERCA centre’.

During the event, which brought together around 300 people, including representatives of companies, organisations and clusters in the environmental sector and members of the university community, a video commemorating the 10th anniversary of CT BETA was shown. In addition, several researchers from the centre explained, from their professional and personal experience, the evolution that this institution has undergone.

A facility for the future

The new space inaugurated today by the CT BETA of the UVic-UCC has 1,700 m² more surface area, in addition to the 1,260 m² it has occupied since July 2021 in the Can Baumann building in Vic. Therefore, from now on, it will have almost 3,000 m² of work area. The new facilities, annexed to the current ones and distributed on two floors, will have a part destined to offices and another to pilot plants and research laboratories. The current building will remain for research use, housing the offices of some scientific units and the laboratories, which will be able to expand their capacity.

The new facilities will allow CT BETA to continue its consolidation and growth, from a national and international point of view, in its areas of expertise, such as environmental technologies and circular bioeconomy, applied ecology, green and digital transition, and sustainability optimisation, among others. So far, CT BETA has participated in 62 European projects -45 of them ongoing- and more than twenty national ones, and has collaborated with more than a hundred companies, either in the form of direct contracts or by including them in international competitive project consortiums. This centre currently has a staff of 110 professionals and a budget of 6 million euros, a figure thirty times higher than in 2014.

New synergies in the territory

CT BETA is working to expand its activity to be more competitive and increase its impact on the territory. On the one hand, it has established a dynamic of collaboration with the BiBio research group of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers, which so far has allowed sharing some projects related to the study of biodiversity, the development of bioindicators and citizen science.

On the other hand, CT BETA has reached an agreement with the company Fertilizantes del Ebro (FERTIEBRO) and the Tervalis Group to have both offices and laboratories at FERTIEBRO’s facilities in Soses (Segrià). In fact, the technological centre already has today the financing of three European projects in Lleida (Balaguer, Menarguens and Soses).

In addition, within the framework of the activity related to the management and conservation of sea turtle nesting sites in the western Mediterranean, it is also working with the Roses Town Council to have, in the short term, a space of its own in this municipality.