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systems in real conditions before they are tested in the field, which makes it possible to improve development time and adapt them to market needs as quickly as possible.” He also points out that the new laboratory “enables companies to adapt their products to the specific climatological conditions of our region.” The presentation was held on 7 February and was attended by the URV’s vice-rector for Teaching and Research Staff, Josep Pallarès, and the director of the ICAEN, Maite Masià. The president of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling, Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, opened proceedings with a talk on the importance of renewable energies for the sustainability of the energy system. Also present were the director of the IREC, Antoni Martínez; the head of IREC’s research group in Thermal Energy and Building, Jaume Salom; the head of the laboratory, Elena Fuentes; and the laboratory technician Detlef Schaefer.
Energy reference IREC, which has its headquarters in Barcelona and Tarragona, is the leading research centre in the energy sector in Catalonia. Founded in 2008, its aim is to contribute to sustainable development and increase the competitiveness of the industry in the energy sector, all in a framework of excellence in research and engineering of the highest technological standard. The Institute’s research takes place in two main fields: applied research, which focuses on advanced materials for energy, bioenergy and biofuels, and technological development in offshore wind power and the energy efficiency of systems, buildings and communities. In this regard, IREC is working to integrate renewable energies into cities (smart grids) and has initiated projects on electric vehicles, lighting and energy regulation.
ICIQ: the research centre in Spain with most ERC grants The Catalan Institute for Chemical Research (ICIQ) is the Spanish research centre that has the highest percentage of researchers who have received grants from the European Research Council (ERC). The 18 research groups that make up the centre have been awarded two advanced grants and five starting grants. The most recent was awarded to Antonio M. Echavarren, deputy director for academic affairs of the ICIQ, who was awarded an advanced grant of 2.4 million euros for a five-year period. This prestigious European recognition is awarded to researchers who have become exceptional leaders in their research fields. Echavarren
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is a leading researcher in the catalysis of gold and his team has become one of the pioneering research groups in this field. Echavarren has played an important role in the development of the homogeneous catalysis of gold and it is this that the award of the European grant is recognising. “The ERC advanced grant will enable us to exploit new areas of the chemistry of gold, because we will develop new types of catalyst that can access more ambitious synthetic objectives, both in new methods of constructing complex molecules and applications in the chemistry of materials,” he points out.
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European project with depressed city areas
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Several children aged between 8 and 12 years old from the district of Campclar (Tarragona) took part in the European project Expéditions, during which they lived alongside artists, educators and social researchers. The aim of this initiative, in which the URV’s research group Social and Organizational Analysis (ASO) participated, was to bring together art, research into the social sciences and popular education to transform the images that people have of depressed city areas. During the experimentation, ideas and objects (the “expeditions”) were collected from the children who lived in these areas. By staying for a time in Tarragona, the project’s team attempted to rediscover the area and monitor the tales of the explorations, reflections and doubts that the
children had about the place. The team members analysed not only the physical dimension of the district, but also the images that the children have of their neighbourhood and how they are affected by them. The project can be monitored at the website http://expedition-s.eu, where the artists, researchers and pedagogues who stayed in Campclar have reported the activities they did with the children who live there and their resulting reflections. Part of the project was filmed. The recordings can be seen at the following website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqYuIC9wlFU&list=PLD252B9AB 2635E87B&index=4
Analysis of the lack of social and political participation in the EU A study has examined the lack of social and political participation of the citizens of the European Union who live in countries that are not their own. David Dueñas, lecturer in Sociology at the URV, took part in the research, and presented his report on 28 January in Brussels, as a speaker at the Forum on Civil Dialogue and Participation on the occasion of the opening of the European Year of Citizenship 2013. On the basis of the needs and demands detected during the process of collecting information, the project, which was funded by the EU’s Programme of Fundamental Rights linked research and action to
organise, implement and develop training processes that facilitate social and political participation. The study “Access to Rights and Civil Dialogue for All” was carried out at the same time in France, Italy, Belgium, Greece and Spain. In Spain, work was done with the Romanian community, and associations, political parties and citizens were consulted individually in order to understand the existing participatory structures and how they are used. Analyses were made of social participation, the role of networks of relations within and outside the community, and the gender differences that arise.
The URV will make an historical study of Deltebre The Deltebre Town Council has asked the URV to make an historical study of the town and, in order for it to do so, has provided a grant to the student Josep Sauro. The URV’s Department of History and the History of Art has been involved in the project and has selected the student and coordinated the advisory research committees of the grant. The committee that provides advice on the different historical
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periods of the study is made up of lecturers from the department: Jordi Diloli, from Ancient History; Maria Bonet, from Medieval History; Josep Fàbregas, from Modern History; and Josep Sánchez Cervelló, from Contemporary History. The student has already begun work at the Terres de l’Ebre campus on the period of contemporary history.
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A Mediterranean diet with nuts or olive oil reduces cardiovascular risk by up to 30% A Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts (almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts) or virgin olive oil can decrease the risk of suffering important cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents and cardiovascular mortality by up to 30%. This is one of the findings of a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the pioneering international journals in the field of medical research. The lecturers Jordi Sales-Salvadó, director of the Unit of Human Nutrition of the URV and head of Nutrition of the Sant Joan Hospital in Reus, and Dr. Josep Basora, coordinator of Primary Care Training and Research of the Catalan Health Institute, both of whom are engaged in research in the PREDIMED project and coordinate the Reus-Tarragona node, state that “for the first time and with a considerable amount of evidence, a scientific study has evaluated this dietetic pattern for the primary prevention of important cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality” (see details of the study in the box on the next page). They draw the following conclusion: “This study’s main message is that vegetable fats are healthy. Nuts or extra-virgin olive oil are foods that provide us with this type of healthy fat, and they often protect the heart and prevent other cardiovascular diseases. Current international nutritional guidelines should be reviewed bearing these results in mind. The low-fat diet that has been used in recent years does not seem to have the same benefits as the Mediterranean diet.” This research is part of the PREDIMED study, a lengthy, wide-ranging clinical trial carried out by 16 research groups from 7 autonomous communities between 2003 and 2011. It evaluated the effects of a Mediterranean diet on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in people at high risk. Dr. Ramon Estruch, from the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, led the project in which numerous researchers of international prestige in the field of nutrition and health also took part: Jordi Salas-Salvadó (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus), Dr. Miguel Ángel Martínez (University of Navarre, Pamplona), Dr. Emilio Ros (Hospital Clínic, Barcelona), Dr. Maribel Covas (Municipal Institute of Medical Research, Barcelona), Dr. Rosa Lamuela Raventós (University of Barcelona), Dr. Miguel Fiol (University of the Balearic Islands), Dr. Dolores Corella (University of Valencia), Dr. Lluís Serra-Majem (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), all of whom belong to CIBERobn of the Carlos III Health Institute. This study was carried out thanks to the implication of hundreds of primary care doctors and the funding provided by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), of the Ministry of Health, through initiatives such as the setting up of the Thematic Network of Cooperative Research, the Biomedical Research Centre Network in the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn) and the PREDIMED Network. The Foundation Patrimoni Comunal Oliverer and the company Hojiblanca
SA supplied the olive oil used in the study, and the California Nut Commission and Morella Nuts SA supplied the nuts. More than 7,000 participants In the randomised, controlled, multi-centre clinical trial, a total of 7,447 people between 55 and 80 years of age took part. They were at high cardiovascular risk (877 were from the Reus-Tarragona node) but they had no previous cardiovascular disease. They were randomised into one of the following dietetic interventions: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a low-fat control diet following the dietary guidelines of the American Heart Association. The two Mediterranean diet groups managed to adapt better to the dietetic intervention, based on the dietary intake mentioned and blood biomarkers. The results obtained once the data obtained had been analysed led to the study finishing after a mean follow-up period of 4.8 years. Over this period of time, 288 participants suffered a major cardiovascular episode of the type described. The participants who were in the Mediterranean diet groups supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil (96 people) and nuts (83 people) had, respectively, a 30% and a 28% lower risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality than the patients assigned to the low-fat control diet. During the study, no adverse effects of the diet were observed and neither was there any weight gain. PROFILE Unit of Human Nutrition The Unit of Human Nutrition was set up in 1991, was recognised by the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the URV in 1992 and is made up of researchers from a variety of professions (doctors, pharmacists, biologists and dieticians). Since June 2005, this unit has been run by the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology. In recent years the researchers have belonged to various research networks recognised by the Carlos III Institute. At present the research group is part of the Biomedical Research Centre Network on Nutrition and Obesity, also funded by the Carlos III Health Institute. It has also been integrated into the Catalan Centre for Nutrition (CCNIEC) since 1994, an entity that brings together all the official research groups in nutrition in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, under the auspices of the Institute of Catalan Studies. The group’s lines of research are epidemiology and public health connected to nutrition or nutritional diseases; intervention studies to understand the effect of diet or dietary constituents on health and the mechanisms involved; the study of the relation between obesity, inflammation and the various obesityassociated comorbidities; and the effect of the interactions of genetics and nutrition on public health.
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