“The commitment of the Galician government will be unalterable with this project. Because we have agreed to it, because we have agreed to it, because we are going to fulfill it and because we are aware that it is a project that we must materialize urgently”. In these terms, the president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, referred to the development of the Campus do Mar project on ETEA land, during his first institutional visit to the University of Vigo, where he met with the rector, Salustiano Mato, and his government team, as well as with the commissioners of the academic institution. In his appearance before the media, the head of the Galician Government detailed the investment that will be allocated to the development of the project, which amounted to eight million euros, “between the funds of the Xunta de Galicia and the Free Zone”, funds that, however, Feijóo recalled, require the prior unblocking of the Campus do Mar facilities at ETEA in order to be applied. “We are talking about two million euros of Poptec funds, the Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Operational Program, which we will close at the meeting that will take place in Faro on April 6. We are talking about another three million euros, which the Finance Minister notified the rector a few days ago to commit the Xunta de Galicia’s own funds. And we are talking about another three million euros from the Free Zone to rehabilitate the Siemens Building. Ultimately, we are waiting to execute eight million euros immediately on the Campus do Mar at ETEA”, detailed Feijóo, who reiterated that the Xunta de Galicia’s commitment to the Campus of International Excellence “has no turning back, it is in the budget”. Feijóo expressed his confidence that together “we will be able to chart this path soon and safely so that the Campus do Mar is what it needs to be, a campus for research, to internationalize our university and to make Galicia one of the most important areas in research in the field of the sea and offshore wind in Europe. Modernity, unity and collaboration is what we have come to propose” said the head of the regional executive.
Núñez Feijóo also stressed the need to leave isolation, smallholdings and localism behind and replace them with “collaboration, cooperation and internationalization” and recalled that administrations “are not mere appendages of the versatile will of the politician in charge”, so it is necessary to establish the principle that they belong to everyone and respond to the permanent interest of everyone, appealing, in this sense, to the obligation to collaborate, cooperate and internationalize “as an indispensable mission of any Galician politician”.
For his part, the rector of the University of Vigo thanked the institutional visit of the head of the Xunta, who, although, Mato recalled, “participated in many academic events, had not had the opportunity to get to know the university campus, as well as the details of the Vigo Tecnolóxico specialization project until now”. After signing the University’s Book of Honor and meeting with the Government team and the commissioners of the Vigo academic institution, the president of the Xunta traveled on foot, together with the Minister of Culture, Education and University Planning, Román Rodríguez and the Secretary General of Universities, José Alberto Díez de Castro, from the Rectorate to the new Center for Scientific and Technological Support for Research, Cacti.
Universities at the forefront of a quiet and progressive revolution
Feijóo began his speech to the media by highlighting that Galicia has been able to overcome isolation, smallholdings and localism, becoming “a country, grouped around common objectives and which is gradually turning localisms into a vestige of the past or a mere political resource with short horizons”. The president of the Xunta placed the universities at the forefront of this “quiet and progressive revolution”, assuring that the University of Vigo is “at the forefront of that modern Galicia that we want and that says no to isolation, smallholdings and localism”. Feijóo then recalled some of the most important agreements reached by the three Galician universities and the Xunta as a plan agreed upon a few days ago to specify the future degree map, the last two financing systems or that referring to the teaching of the Medicine degree.
“The University of Vigo becomes great because it accepts the outstretched hand and reaches out to others”, assured the President of the Xunta, who referred again to Campus do Mar as an example of collaboration between the three Galician universities, as well as research centers and groups in Galicia and northern Portugal, which has become an international reference in marine research. The head of the Xunta also alluded in his speech to the Biomedical Research Center, which he said “represents the Galicia of the future that we want to build” and which, he recalled, is one of the seven excellent units accredited by the Xunta, along with Ecimat and AtlantTIC, in the case of the University of Vigo. Feijóo praised the work developed by Professor África González at the head of the center and pointed out that around four million euros will be invested in a center, which he considers to be defined by the word “multidisciplinary” and which, with its work in areas such as cancer, immunity, neuroscience, active aging or obesity, “represents the model of research center that Galicia wants”.
Source: DUVI
A solvent institution capable of weathering the economic recession
Feijóo concluded his speech by acknowledging the work carried out by the current and previous Government teams of the Vigo academic institution in favour of a university model that is “solvent; that has been able to weather the economic recession; that is capable of multiplying by two and even three each public euro it receives and of a very high level and that despite its short age, the University System would not be understood from the perspective of modernity, unity and collaboration”. The President of the Xunta was convinced that there is no turning back from the Campus do Mar at ETEA and that “those eight million euros are knocking on the door to be executed and I hope that the time we have lost so far will be recovered immediately to execute that budget quickly and be able to be at ETEA in a very short time”, he assured.
