-Sergi Saurí received the award at a ceremony held yesterday at the UPC and chaired by Manel Nadal, Secretary for Mobility of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

-A work by Anabelén Casares, analysing the Public Works Tender Agreement Act, was runner-up.

The doctoral thesis Modelling and optimal regulation of container port terminal concessions, by Dr. Sergi Saurí Marchán, a civil engineer, was the research work that won the IV abertis award, which aims to promote research into transport and telecommunications infrastructure.

Against a backdrop of calls for increasing port competitiveness, due to globalisation and the restructuring of world trade routes, that has particularly affected container terminals, the winning thesis applies a macroeconomic focus to model, analytically and quantitatively, relations between the public administration (the port authority) and private “agents” (the container terminal concession operator and the stevedoring company).

The model takes into account variables which permit the optimisation of the relationship between the three parties, such as incentives (payment based on results), risk scenarios (investments whose return is subject to future trends in demand), hidden information (cost structure and operational organisation) and the dominant market position of the concession operator and the monopoly of the stevedoring company.

The jury took into consideration the conceptual level and scientific rigor of the work in modelling the overseeing of container port terminal concessions by means of Principal-Agent Theory, a variant of Game Theory. According to this theory, the motivation of the “agents” (the terminal concession operator and the stevedoring company) is affected by the goals of the “principal” (the port authority). Additionally, the jury took into account possible extensions of this model to other relationships between the public administration and concession operators, within the framework of public-private partnerships.

The Generalitat de Catalunya’s Secretary for Mobility, Manel Nadal, awarded the prize to Sergi Saurí at a ceremony held yesterday at Barcelona’s Upper Technical School of Civil Engineers (ETSICCPB), part of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). During his speech, Manel Nadal stressed the importance of training and research, which he referred to as the “soul” of infrastructures, in contrast to the “cement”, or the construction of public works.

The ceremony was also attended by abertis Director-General of Corporate Management, Josep Martínez-Vila, the UPC Vice-Rector of University Policy, Josep Casanovas, the Director of the ETSICCPB, Antonio Huerta, and the Director of the abertis chair, Francesc Robusté.

Josep Martínez Vila highlighted the need for research projects such as those submitted for the abertis to have an “application in society and an impact to the benefit of all”. For his part, Antonio Huerta noted that initiatives such as this made clear “abertis’s interest in supporting R&D”.

The abertis Award is an initiative promoted by the abertis chair in Transport Infrastructure Management and is one of its key initiatives to encourage research in the field. It consists of 4,000 euros plus the publication of the work. The abertis chair, created by abertis in collaboration with the UPC in 2003, has as its objective to encourage training and research in the field of transport and telecommunications infrastructure management.

Second place for an analysis of the Public Works Concession Contract Act

In these fourth awards, the jury granted second place to the work Contractual guarantees for quality in the construction and concession-based management of private-initiative transport infrastructures for the broad-ranging analysis of the Spanish concession system from a legal viewpoint.

This thesis, by Anabelén Casares Marcos, doctor in Law and professor at the University of León, analyses Spain’s Public Works Contract Concession Regulation Act 13/2003, of 23 May. This law backs the involvement of private initiative in this field, not only in sectors traditionally reserved for the private sector, such as the construction, operation and financing of public works, but also in their design and conception.

Anabelén Casares places special emphasis on the legal innovation that permits private initiative to promote the creation of a new transport infrastructure and the awarding of a public works concession agreement. The author highlights the need for the development of regulations for this law, to provide a response to conflicts of interest between the public administration and the private sector.

Two special mentions

In addition to the winning and second-placed studies, the jury also agreed to give special mentions to the works Road paving management systems, by Clara Martínez, and Traffic-backed securities, by Carles Vergara. A total of ten works were submitted to this, the fourth edition of thee awards.

abertis Managing Director Salvador Alemany chaired the jury, whose other members were Josep Martínez-Vila, José Vicente Solano, Toni Brunet and Ricard Maxenchs, for abertis and by Andrés López Pita, Rodrigo Miró and Francesc Robusté, for the UPC.