What is the Campus e-MTA?

The Euro-mediterranean Tourism and Water Campus (Campus e-MTA) is the Campus of International Excellence formed by the University of Gerona (UdG), University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

In the strategic fields of Tourism and Water, no other knowledge institution in Spain has a track record as solid or committed as the UIB or the UdG, since the characteristics of its geographical, environmental, cultural and economic surroundings have given rise to this. The common denominator in their regional surroundings stems from the application of knowledge to a resource as valuable and necessary for living as water. Similarly, tourism has become their main source of activity and economic wealth and generates opportunities for people. Tourism and water are, therefore, the common denominators, shaping their ability to make significant contributions within the framework of the global society, and providing also a lever towards the future, supported on the basis of the Specialisation Lines of both universities.

Thus, Tourism and Water are the strategic fields on which the innovating efforts of the Campus e-MTA are focused, whose mission is tackling global challenges related to Tourism and Water.

The objectives of the Campus e-MTA

• To respond to local and global challenges in tourism development and sustainability and water management and ensure that, in the future, both sectors will continue being drivers for growth, generation and spreading of wealth, bringing about new opportunities.

• To consolidate the Campus’ international scope in teaching, research and knowledge transfer in its four Lines of Specialisation: Tourism sustainability; Water; Physics, computing and applications; and Food and health.

• To increase possibilities for creating jobs in the economic sectors related to services and to the new technologies of Tourism and Water.

• To enable networking among those players in the region that are to respond to the challenges posed.

Aggregated members

In this campus model, the UIB, the UdG, the CSIC and the ICRA become the driving forces for the development of their regions, along with institutions, companies and other social and economic players; promoting and supporting training, innovation, research and transfer of knowledge within the framework of a sustainable economic model. Since they were set up in 1978 and 1991 respectively, the UIB and the UdG have activated the social and economic situation in their respective regions (Balearic Islands and Gerona) thanks to their ability to train postgrads and conduct R&D&I programmes, increasing their technological capital, qualified staff, entrepreneurial skills and ability to create wealth and employment. The Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) and the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex (IFISC) are both joint CSIC-UIB centers. The CSIC is also present through its Blanes Advanced Studies Centre (CEAB), in Gerona. The Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), a major research centre of reference in the field of water, is the 4th founder of the Campus e-MTA.

At the second level, the associates in the project, the Campus e-MTA involves more than 80 companies, organisations and institutions that are leaders in the Campus’ expertise areas. Along with these we should also include a significant number of companies of a smaller size and scope, which, however, show the links between the campus and the industry on every level. Associates companies include, in particular, Agbar (The Water Industry), Meliá Hotels International, Riu, Barceló, the TurisTEC Cluster of businesses (Tourism Technology), and the Gerona Costa Brava Trust, among others.

See here the complete list of associated members.

Internationalization 

PRES-PM 

The Campus e-MTA stands out for its already consolidated progress in setting up a Pyrenees-Mediterranean Cross-Border Group. It also stands out for its aim to reinforce it by including courses, aligning strategic research fields and transfer, student and teacher exchanges, and the bet on a common vision of the role the university must play in the region. The Campus e-MTA universities, for the Spanish side, and, for the French side, the universities of Perpignan Via Domitia and Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), the latter through its Banyuls-Sur-Mer Oceanological Observatory, signed in 2010 a framework collaboration agreement. They signed the agreement with the aim of systematising, consolidating and strengthening an already existing cooperation between the universities. For that purpose, the universities created the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Cross-Border Research and Higher Education Group (PRES-PM) in Spain, and a cross-border Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur in France.