Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelonatech

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech, is a public institution dedicated to higher education and research, specialised in the fields of architecture, engineering and technology. It is one of the biggest universities in Spain, with over 33.000 students, 30 departments and 216 research groups (academic year 2016-2017).
According to the H2020 country profile and featured projects for Spain, published in October 2017 by the European Commission (EC), UPC is the top university and third institution in Spain in terms of funding from H2020 projects.
Under the current Horizon 2020 programme (2014-2020), to date UPC has been granted 136 projects, coordinating 39 (8 of them are funded by the European Research Council). UPC also participates in 23 projects (coordinating 4) funded by other European programmes. All of these projects have a total EU financial contribution of EUR 52.5 million. UPC has a dedicated unit specialised in contractual, legal and financial issues of European projects called European Projects Office (EPO), which also provides assistance in drafting and submitting proposals. The EPO has wide-ranging management experience dating back to the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5).
The UPC staff has at their disposal communication and dissemination services offered by its Media Office whose principal services are dissemination of scientific activity and development of communication campaigns.
The aim of UPC Open Access policy is to guarantee safeguarding and improve the transfer and generation of knowledge, as well as enhance visibility and impact of research worldwide. To make this possible UPCommons, UPC’s institutional repository, is available for collecting and preserving UPC’s teaching and research output in open access. With regard to the UPC Gender Equality Policy, currently III Plan for Equal Opportunities (2016-20) is being implemented by the UPC Equal Opportunities Office created in 2007.
The Department of Chemical Engineering (EQ) is a Spanish reference in scientific development and educational excellence with 117 permanent staff (professors and researchers) and over 80 PhD students. Research encompasses separation and material science, polymer synthesis, risk engineering, reactor technology, etc. The group of Recovery of Resources and Environmental Management (R2EM) has extensive expertise in various membrane processes (nano-filtration, electro-dialysis, bipolar electro-dialysis, ultra-filtration) and ion exchange/adsorption.
The Micro and Nano Technology Group (MNT) is a part of Electronic Engineering Department of the UPC. MNT has currently 20 staffs, including faculty members, researchers, PhD students and technical personnel doing research to understand how advanced devices work and how they can be improved. The main research activities focus on nano and microelectronics, photonics and photovoltaic cells technology development.
The consortium and the project will be managed by Prof. Andriy Yaroshchuk. He has rich experience in managing projects funded by various agencies (European Union, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). In administrative matters, he will be assisted by an experienced technician from the European Project Office of UPC.

Role in the project:

UPC will carry out scientific and administrative coordination of the project (12PM). It will also play a crucial role of facilitator of information flows and knowledge exchange between partners of this multidisciplinary consortium. It will be the leader of WP1. Its main technical tasks will be planning and implementation of particle-by-particle deposition methods (electro-spraying, electrophoretic deposition), electrochemical characterization of nanoparticles and nanoporous layers using impedance spectroscopy and current switch-off method, advanced interpretation of electrokinetic and electrochemical properties of nanoparticles and optimization of particle-by-particle deposition methods (WP3). It will also take part in the development and testing of bench-scale integrated system (WP5).