UNIVERSITAT DE GIRONA

Their core work

The University of Girona is a mid-sized Spanish university with concentrated research strengths in computational chemistry and enzyme design, marine robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles, and environmental engineering including water treatment and nature-based solutions. Their chemistry groups design enzymes and catalysts using computational modeling and molecular dynamics, while their robotics labs develop autonomous underwater systems for mapping and inspection. They also contribute significantly to energy management systems for buildings and distributed grids, and to lightweight composite materials for the aerospace sector.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2014–2018), UdG focused heavily on fundamental computational chemistry, science communication outreach, social innovation concepts, and building energy performance tools. From 2019 onward, their work shifted decisively toward applied environmental themes — ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, water reuse, and deep-learning methods applied to marine robotics and environmental monitoring. The university has moved from discipline-specific basic research toward interdisciplinary, AI-enhanced environmental and sustainability applications.

UdG is converging its computational, robotics, and environmental expertise toward AI-powered sustainability applications — expect them to pursue digital twins for ecosystems, smart water management, and autonomous environmental monitoring.

How they like to work

With 26 coordinated projects out of 58 (45%), UdG leads nearly half the time — unusually high for a mid-sized university, indicating strong project management capacity and initiative in writing proposals. Their 501 unique partners across 50 countries show a hub-style network rather than a closed circle of repeated collaborators. They are comfortable in both large Innovation Actions (11 IAs) and smaller MSCA fellowships (13), suggesting flexibility in consortium scale.

UdG has built an exceptionally broad network of 501 unique consortium partners spanning 50 countries, making them one of the more internationally connected mid-sized Spanish universities. Their reach extends well beyond the Mediterranean region into Northern Europe and globally.

What sets them apart

UdG's rare combination of computational chemistry, marine robotics, and environmental engineering under one roof makes them an unusually versatile partner. Few universities of their size coordinate 45% of their projects — they punch well above their weight in proposal leadership. For consortium builders, they offer both deep technical specialization (enzyme design, AUV control) and the cross-disciplinary breadth to bridge chemistry, AI, robotics, and environment in a single partnership.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NetMoDEzyme
  Their largest project (EUR 1.45M, 2016–2022) as coordinator, representing their flagship computational enzyme design research line over six years.
• E-LAND
  Coordinator of a multi-vector energy management system for energy islands (EUR 449K), combining energy storage, community engagement, and decarbonisation — showing their applied energy capability.
• EUMarineRobots
  Part of the EU's marine robotics research infrastructure network, confirming their recognized role in the European underwater robotics community.