The Board of Trustees of the Balmes University Foundation approves a budget of 65.5 million Euros, 10% more than the budget for the previous academic year

At its meeting on Monday afternoon, the Board of Trustees of the Balmes University Foundation approved the clearance of the budget for the 2023-2024 academic year, and gave the green light to the budget for 2024-2025. The forecast for the current academic year anticipates revenue amounting to 65.5 million Euros - a figure that represents an increase of 10% compared to last year. Last year's budget was once again balanced as it closed at 59.4 million Euros.  

The meeting of the Board of Trustees took place in the Auditorium of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), and was chaired by its president and the mayor of Vic, Albert Castells. At the meeting, the Catalan Minister of Research and Universities Núria Montserrat took office as a trustee and the vice-president of the Balmes University Foundation, replacing her predecessor as minister, Joaquim Nadal. The company Avinent Science and Technology was also appointed as a trustee designated by the Bages University Foundation, and it will be represented by its general manager Albert Giralt.  

The general manager of the Balmes University Foundation Jordi Baiget and the rector of UVic-UCC Josep Eladi Baños presented their reports.  

Investments in new spaces 

The budget for the last academic year, 2023-2024, has been settled, and was once again balanced. Of the 59.4 million Euros in the closed budget, 2.5 million Euros were allocated to investments, and 711,000 Euros of that figure came from financing research projects.  

The most significant investments include the new building at the University's Granollers facility, which will contain laboratories for use on the bachelor's degree course in Automotive Engineering, which was launched at the beginning of last year; the new Remei space, which consolidates the University's presence in the south of the city of Vic, and which houses coworking spaces and the offices of various services, chairs and research centres; a new base for the Postgraduate School in the Miramarges building, and the upgrading of the Masia de la Torre dels Frares as a building dedicated exclusively to teaching and educational research. The area covered by UVic now exceeds 59,000 square metres with all these new spaces, in thirty buildings in Vic, Granollers and Manlleu.  

The Investment Plan for this academic year stands at 1.8 million Euros, and includes projects like the launch of new spaces dedicated to research at the BETA Technology Center in the Can Baumann building, which will be inaugurated in January; the creation of a new teaching space located at the University Hospital of the Hospital Consortium of Vic, which will be used by students on various bachelor's degree programmes related to health, including Medicine and Nursing, and the creation and upgrading of classrooms and other facilities in the Miramarges building. Investment in air conditioning and heating and the installation of solar panels has continued in both the previous and the current academic year, within the framework of the energy self-consumption project that the University is implementing.  

Ratification of positions and appointments 

The appointments to several positions approved in previous executive committee meetings were ratified at the meeting of the Board of Trustees last Monday. Those appointments were Marina di Masso as the new director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CEIG), replacing Gerard Coll Planas, who has left the position after completing two terms of office; Feliu López, as co-director of the Chair in Agroecology and Food Systems, who is replacing Marina di Masso, and Mar Binimelis, who has to date been director of the Equality Unit, and whose position has been augmented to include the role of director of the now expanded Equality and Diversity Unit.