The British minister Angela Eagle visits the UPC to strengthen international cooperation.

The United Kingdom Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Angela Eagle, has today visited several facilities of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) on the Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels, with the aim of experiencing first-hand its potential in the field of agri-food technologies (Agrotech) and exploring new opportunities for international cooperation.

The British delegation, comprising representatives from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the British Consulate in Barcelona, was received by the UPC Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Jordi Berenguer; the Director of the Escola d’Enginyeria Agroalimentària i de Biosistemes de Barcelona (EEABB-UPC), Xavier Fàbregas; the Rector's Delegate for the Baix Llobregat Campus, Jose Yúfera; the Director of the Departament d’Enginyeria Agroalimentària i Biotecnologia (DEAB), Isabel Achaerandio; and the Deputy Director of the Agrotech-UPC research centre, Josep Paradells.

During the visit, the delegation toured several key spaces, such as the algae production, food processing and biotechnology laboratories; the germplasm bank; the agricultural robotics laboratory; the 6GLabNet laboratory, and the DroneLab UPC, where advanced applications of digital and robotic technologies applied to the agri-food sector were showcased.

The visit also included a meeting with the British company Earth Rover, located in the RDIT building, which develops innovative robotic solutions for agriculture. This meeting highlighted the potential for collaboration between academic institutions and international technology companies, as well as the role of Agròpolis as a benchmark infrastructure for testing technological solutions applied to the agricultural sector.

The meeting served to highlight the UPC's potential in the Agrotech field and to identify priority areas for collaboration between both parties. In this regard, four strategic areas were highlighted: sustainable crop production, precision agriculture and the digitalisation of the sector, the development of shared data spaces, such as UPCDataSpace, and the valorisation of agricultural by-products within a circular economy model.

This visit strengthens the ties between the United Kingdom and the UPC and consolidates the university's positioning as an international benchmark in the development of innovative agri-food technologies.