The new UPC engineering campus, the Escola d’Enginyeria de Barcelona Est (EEBE), will be operational for the 2016-2017 academic year. Located next to the Fòrum zone, the facility means a boost for the Besòs area, one of the objectives of City Council’s Neighbourhood Plan. Work will also go into helping change the area from a point of division into a more central urban zone.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, was accompanied by the Mayor of Sant Adrià de Besòs, Joan Callau, and other officials for today’s visit to the Escola d’Enginyeria de Barcelona Est (EEBE), belonging to the UPC. The new centre, located by the Fòrum zone and forming part of the Campus Diagonal-Besòs, will become operative for the 2016-2017 academic year with 3,500 students on degree, post-graduate, masters and doctorate study programmes, as well as 400 teaching staff and researchers. The aim is to convert the facility into a centre for research, innovation and knowledge in the industrial engineering sphere.

Located on the boundary between Barcelona and Sant Adrià de Besòs, the new metropolitan facility will provide a boost for a little-known area: “The Besòs we’re defending is a Besòs which no longer becomes a limit, a fracture, and takes on urban significance as a civic, cultural and educational zone”, asserted Ada Colau during her speech. The centre is a first step in applying measures to invigorate the economy in the area, one of the main aims of Barcelona City Council’s Neighbourhood Plan.

Colau also made reference to the connection of the tram systems in Av. Diagonal, which should connect the two extremes of the city: “It’s one of the most important mobility projects we want to push. The infrastructure will link the two UPC university campuses with each other and with the centre of Barcelona” assured the Mayor.

The construction of the Campus Diagonal-Besòs, involving an investment of 96.5 million euros, was promoted by the UPC, along with the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, Sant Adrià City Council and Barcelona Provincial Council. Support was also given by the Barcelonès County Council, the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) and the Besòs Consortium.