The University and the CUCBA of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) will work together to train Mexican doctoral students. During the autumn the rector of the CUCBA, Carlos Beas, visited the URV and the TecnATox research centre to work on the project for 2017

In September the rector of the University Centre for Biological Sciences (CUCBA) of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) in Mexico, Carlos Beas, visited the URV’s Sescelades Campus and met professors Marta Schuhmacher and Jaume Folch, from the TecnATox innovation centre (Centre for Environmental, Food and Toxicological Technology), Antoni Camins, professor of Pharmacology at the UB and head of the CIBER research group, and Marina Casals and other members of the URV’s International Center.

The idea is to provide Mexican students with the chance to study a double degree, which means the mobility of students, researchers and professors must be strengthened in both directions. Teaching staff from the URV will travel to the CUCBA to train staff at the Mexican university to teach the doctoral stage of the degree, and Mexican students will follow part of the doctoral programme at the CUCBA and part of it at TecnATox.

The UdeG and the URV have been working together since 2002 when they signed a collaboration framework agreement, which was subsequently renewed with a specific collaboration agreement in 2005. Relations between researchers at the CUCBA and TecnATox began over ten years ago. URV researchers travelled to Mexico to attend a series of scientific conferences on neuroscience, and since then there have been continuous exchanges and collaboration. URV scientists also participated in the first Iberian-American neuroscience research network (Red GENIAR- Proyecto CYTED), which has more than 38 researchers in 7 countries and is led by Dr Beas. Throughout this time, collaboration between URV researchers and Carlos Beas has led to dozens of scientific articles in indexed journals in the field of neuroscience.

The new knowledge markets: Mexico, a country in expansion

The UdeG is the second most important university in Mexico, with a total of 265,000 students, of whom 118,000 are studying higher level courses. The country is expanding and generating highly attractive markets for companies. At the same time, this economic expansion is being accompanied by important developments in the field of higher education, which is generating significant demand for teachers, researchers and experts in strategic areas of knowledge. Often, these professionals are from European universities, such as the URV, that have proven levels of research excellence.