Catalan university specializing in inclusive science education, RRI, and community health interventions for marginalized groups across Europe.
Fundació Universitària del Bages (FUB) is a Catalan higher education institution based in Manresa that bridges academic research with community-centered practice. Their H2020 work spans two distinct but connected fields: digital health interventions for vulnerable populations and inclusive science education for underrepresented communities. In the health domain they contributed to designing and testing self-management tools for dementia patients and caregivers; in the education domain they led a project promoting science participation among children with disabilities, Roma families, and immigrant communities. Their applied research orientation means they typically work at the intersection of social science, pedagogy, and responsible research and innovation (RRI).
FUB coordinated C4S (2020-2023), leading an effort to bring science education to groups including children with disabilities, Roma, immigrants, and girls, explicitly framed around RRI principles.
C4S positioned RRI and governance as core pillars of inclusive science engagement, reflecting institutional expertise in applying RRI frameworks to community-facing projects.
As a participant in CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD (2016-2019), FUB contributed to developing community-based self-management interventions and mutual-assistance services for dementia patients and their caregivers.
C4S targeted disability, gender, ethnicity, and migration status as explicit dimensions of exclusion to address in formal and informal science education settings.
C4S keywords include awareness, governance, and families, indicating FUB's role in designing engagement strategies that reach beyond institutional settings into communities.
FUB entered H2020 as a junior partner in a health-technology project focused on dementia care, suggesting an early interest in applied digital health for vulnerable populations but without a leadership role. By their second project they had pivoted to a coordinator position in a society-focused initiative centered on science education, inclusion, and RRI — a meaningful shift from clinical health toward educational equity and social participation. The trajectory suggests FUB is deliberately building expertise and leadership credentials in the inclusion and RRI space, moving away from health technology toward science-society relations.
FUB is positioning itself as a coordinator and thought leader in inclusive science education and RRI, making them a strong candidate for future Horizon Europe projects under Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society or Widening Participation calls.
FUB has experience on both sides of the consortium table — as a participant contributing domain expertise and as a coordinator driving project management and strategy. With 17 unique partners across 11 countries from just 2 projects, they work in moderately large international consortia rather than small bilateral teams. This breadth suggests they are comfortable managing diverse partnerships and integrating perspectives from multiple national education and health systems.
FUB has built a network of 17 partners spanning 11 countries through only two projects, indicating they join well-connected consortia with broad geographic reach. Their collaboration footprint is European in scope, likely including partners from Northern and Southern Europe given the cross-national inclusion focus of C4S.
FUB occupies a specific niche as a small Catalan university that has demonstrated capacity to lead European projects focused on the hardest-to-reach populations — Roma communities, children with disabilities, immigrants, and girls in science. Few HES institutions in Spain combine coordinator experience with explicit targeting of these groups in an RRI framework, which makes FUB a credible inclusion specialist rather than a generic education partner. For consortia needing a partner that brings both academic legitimacy and genuine community-facing practice, FUB fills a role that larger research universities rarely can.
