University of Almeria (https://www.ual.es) is one of the two Spanish partners in the #AGRI&TOUR consortium.
The University of Almeria, one of the youngest and most dynamic universities in Spain, was created by The Andalusian Parliament in 1993 as a proposal of the Governing Council of the Andalusian Regional Government, acting on behalf of the National Government. Since then, the total number of students has doubled from 6,600 in 92/93 to the current academic year (more than 14.000 students). Our institution also has nearly 600 PhD students. The faculty staff has increased to over 800 today, organized in 13 departments, and the administrative and technical staff has grown to over 500. A total of 13 departments (140 research groups) are devoted to research and training.
In addition to the research work of the departments, the UAL has 7 research institutes, owned by or attached to the UAL that are dedicated to research in such varied areas as Agrifood, Global Change, Migrations, Solar Energy, Neuroscience, Big Data, Intensive Mediterranean Agrosystems or Production Systems in Plasticulture.
Our university currently has five classroom buildings full equipped, which offer students the opportunity to study more than 34 degree courses, 14 doctoral programmes, 44 official master’s degree programmes, and 14 own master’s programmes.
Additionally, the University of Almeria has been always concerned about the increase of its international character. It has over 1,200 international students from 50 different countries from all continents to undertake a mobility period. These numbers are the result of a long tradition of cooperation with higher education institutions and research organizations, not only from Europe through the Erasmus programme, but also with the USA, Africa and Asia and especially with Latin American and Maghreb countries through mobility and cooperation programmes and networks such as: ERASMUS MUNDUS, ERASMUS+ KA171, ISEP, PIMA, PABLO NERUDA, ANUIES or CONAHEC.
In 2015 we started participating with the same regions as we used to cooperate through Erasmus Mundus Action 2, in KA107 ICM projects, adding regions and universities every year. Currently, we are cooperating with 7 different regions, 22 countries and more than 60 institutions in this project (224 mobilities), ranking in the top ten Spanish Universities in terms of number of mobilities and funding. Also, in 2018 UAL was awarded with the Erasmus+ Quality Award by the Erasmus+ Spanish National Agency. This provided UAL with relevant experience and expertise in project management.
Also, UAL is a proud member and coordinator of the UNIgreen European Alliance (The Green European University) one of the 50 European Alliances currently existing in Europe and that was selected for funding under the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme by the European Commission in July 2022. UNIgreen is an Alliance of eight Higher Education Institutions committed to promoting excellence in education, research and innovation in the fields of Sustainable Agriculture, Green Biotechnology, and Environmental and Life Sciences.
