•Notícia

The BKC aims to become the primary driver of scientific, social and business activity in the Barcelona region by merging the capabilities of the two institutions. The project is founded on the prioritization of internationalization by the two universities and on plans to introduce changes to the current economic model that will transform the environment in which the UB and UPC-Barcelona Tech work.
The alliance of two Catalan universities with a number of common strengths, and each a leading institution in its own right in specific areas of teaching, research and knowledge transfer, is clearly a strategic opportunity. Both universities are highly regarded by scientific, social and technological sectors throughout the world, which can be harnessed as the foundations of an economic model based on innovation and sustainable development.

The Campus is a university environment that merges the capabilities of two of the most dynamic and influential knowledge centres in southern Europe. The total area of 227 hectares, with 500,000 m² of buildings and facilities, houses 16 teaching centres, 90 university departments and 15 libraries and learning resource centres, which form a knowledge network in constant expansion.

This environment brings together more than 42,000 university students on a daily basis, beneficiaries of the 53 undergraduate degree programmes offered by both universities, which also serve over 6,000 postgraduate students. The student community is supported by approximately 3,700 members of the permanent teaching and research staff and 2,250 administrative and service personnel.


The Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)-Barcelona Tech play a fundamental role in transmitting the results of scientific research to the productive sector and society as a whole, acting as entrepreneurs, knowledge creators and innovators, obtaining patents and promoting technology transfer.

The extensive scientific and technological capabilities of the UB and the UPC-Barcelona Tech are built upon the work of 314 research groups, 6,800 researchers, 23 science and technology centres, and 47 spin-off companies. The prestige of the UB-affiliated Barcelona Science Park (PCB-UB) and the UPC-Barcelona Tech research and Innovation Park (Parc UPC) further strengthen the international dimension of research at the BKC.


Every year, the BKC sends approximately 1,000 students to prestigious universities around the world under a range of academic exchange programs and welcomes a similar number of visiting students to Barcelona. The Campus is one of the most active centres for student exchange in southern Europe, and offers nine master's degrees integrated into the Erasmus Mundus initiative – set up by the European Union to encourage high calibre students from outside the EU to take part in joint academic programmes with universities in Europe – and 20 degree courses taught entirely in English.

Thanks to the quality of its postgraduate and doctoral programs, and the increasing number of synergies between existing international networks and strategic alliances, the BKC attracts academic and research talent from around the world.


The BKC is an inner-city campus, integrated in its urban environment in such a way as to provide a model of how universities can effect urban change. Through the Diagonal Gateway to Knowledge Campus, the UB and the UPC-Barcelona Tech have already generated the blueprint for the BKC, creating a project that can increase the efficient use of shared urban space. The Gateway is based on the Master Urban Plan for the Gateway to Knowledge Campus, as approved by Barcelona City Council in 2001 with the objectives of improving accessibility for this urban sector in relation to the whole metropolitan area of the city, systematizing open spaces, streamlining for initiatives for large organizations and structuring the distribution of new buildings in the campus area.

This mutual readiness to embark upon the project resulted in the collaboration of the UB, the UPC-Barcelona Tech and Barcelona City Council in the development of knowledge areas already present on campus and the strengthening of these areas in the inner-city context: fostering the basic premise that knowledge and innovation now coexist—and will coexist even more intensively in the future—in the public space of a city that opens itself to them.

An accessible and sustainable university model of urban commitment is in the process of bringing together a new design for exchange and communication which will foster activities open to the general public, and the improvement of sports installations in a natural setting tailored to showcase a variety of different public spaces.

The campus is fully adapted to the requirements of students and staff with reduced mobility and aims to become a leading international centre for the development of technologies for mobility assistance, which is one of the specialist research areas of the BKC.


The Barcelona Knowledge Campus (BKC) project is has the official support of the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya), the Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce – through a series of programs to stimulate the relationship between the university and the productive sector – and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), which operates eight research centres in the area of influence of the BKC.

The project is also supported by 20 international associations and networks with which the two universities regularly participate and an extensive network of research centres involved in collaboration and funding agreements with the UB and the UPC-Barcelona Tech.