The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) is a public institution dedicated to research and higher education, specialized in the fields of architecture, science and engineering. Every year over 31,000 undergraduate and master's degree students and nearly 3,000 doctoral students enrol at the UPC. With a high degree of mobility among its students, the UPC is one of the European universities that receives the greatest number of international students; in fact, it has the highest intake of international master's and doctoral degree students in Spain. The UPC is also the European university with the highest number of Erasmus Mundus programs: thirteen master's degree courses and five doctoral programs. The UPC’s leadership is attested to by the latest university rankings: it is the top Spanish university in engineering and technology in the latest QS World University Ranking and in engineering (2002-2011) and architecture (2007-2011) in the I-UGR Ranking. According to the SCIMAGO Ranking 2013, it is the top technical University in Southern Europe. The UPC has a long track-record of collaboration with companies, increasing their competitiveness and capacity for innovation and working to promote research transfer and valorisation. In 2011, the UPC’s related turnover was € 78,3 million, one third coming from agreements with companies and institutions, one third from national calls for proposals and programs and another third from European programs. Regarding international research collaborative projects, the UPC is a major player in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), where it participated in 151 FP7 projects (of which 35 coordinated) and has had a long track of successfully coordinated projects for many years. The UPC Technology Center (CIT UPC) is a non-profit entity, attached to the UPC, but with its own legal personality. It is dedicated to applying university research capabilities to innovation in business. The mission of CIT UPC is to promote economic and social development and, in particular, to improve business competitiveness by generating technological knowledge and carrying out and applying R&D activities. CIT UPC comprises 20 UPC Research Centers, accounting for 532 researchers (55% of them PhD) and a total income of €12 million. CIT UPC furthers the goals of the UPC by fostering research and innovation, while helping to bring new developments to the wider world and providing scientific and technological services to companies.
