In a move to promote research and innovation and provide new responses to the issue of access to housing, an agreement has been established between the Government of Catalonia, the Spanish state and four public universities: the University of Barcelona (UB), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Polytechnic University of Barcelona (UPF) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The agreement will create the Barcelona Chair for Housing Studies, a multidisciplinary inter-university chair with an international vocation.
The Barcelona Chair for Housing Studies is being created to bring together academic talent from different disciplines linked to the issue of access to housing, such as law, economics and architecture. At the same time, the body has the purpose of driving research and teaching on public housing and renovation policies which address the main challenges for the present and the future.
The chair will create the first official master’s degree in housing in the state, organise post-graduate degrees, courses and workshops, as well as taking part in research projects on a national and international scale. Other goals for this new university body include advising public administrations and organising academic congresses.
Funded entirely with public money from three administrations, the chair will also work with different disciplines relating to housing and get the city’s four public universities engaged.