These recognitions reinforce the University's commitment to international research and highlight its active role in the Aurora European alliance

Four researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) have been selected in the framework of the First Aurora Call for Incentive and Collaborative Research Projects. This initiative aims to promote collaborative research and strengthen ties among universities within the Aurora network. This achievement reinforces the URV’s commitment to international research and highlights its active role in this European network.

In the Key Action 1 category, which supports innovative research projects, Erika Amparo Torres Reyes and Ilia Chalimourda were recognised for their proposals developed in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, respectively.

On the other hand, URV researchers Sandra Contreras Iglesias and Maria Isabel Gracia participate in two projects selected under Key Action 3, which promotes broader collaborations between various Aurora institutions. Their projects, carried out with universities such as the University of Iceland, Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic), and the Université Paris-Est Créteil (France), address relevant issues in the field of applied and multidisciplinary research.

“This call allowed us to continue research started three years ago on the relationship between environment, diet, and health in older adults. NutriAge24 is an interdisciplinary and comparative study involving researchers from the social and biomedical sciences at URV, Palacký University, and the University of Iceland. Our goal is to understand how lifestyles and social determinants influence access to adequate nutrition in this group across different countries,” explains Maria Isabel Gracia.

These grants not only represent a recognition of the talent and dedication of the URV researchers, but also provide an opportunity to establish stronger links with other Aurora member universities, expanding future collaboration opportunities.

The researchers highlighted the importance of this call to strengthen international networks and to add value to their respective areas of research. According to another of the awardee, Ilia Chalimourda, participating in the call has been a very rewarding experience that has provided essential support for her doctoral research and has helped her to establish new connections. “I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to share my project with other researchers from the Aurora network, as I believe that this collaboration will be enriched with new perspectives. I look forward to continuing this collaboration and sharing the results with a wider audience as my project progresses,” says Chalimourda.

For more information on the selected projects, please visit the Aurora alliance website.