Winners will have the chance of opting for the III International Prize which will be awarded in Puerto Rico on July 9

The doctoral thesis Statistical and mathematical tools for traffic modelling, by Dr. Aida Calviño Martínez (Civil Engineering School of Santander), has won the XI Abertis Prize for Research on Transport Infrastructure Management awarded by the Abertis-UPC Chair. This award goes to the best doctoral thesis presented in different Spanish universities.

The general director of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has today inaugurated the new UNESCO-abertis foundation centre for the Biosphere Reserves of the Mediterranean Ecosystems, located at the headquarters of the abertis foundation, Castellet Castle. This designation, which was ratified today with the signing of the accord between UNESCO and the Kingdom of Spain, was announced last November at UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris, and represents the first public-private partnership developed in this sphere.

The abertis foundation, in partnership with the Catalonian regional government’s Department of Social Welfare and Family and the Catalonian Down’s Syndrome Foundation (FCSD), today signed an agreement to carry out a pilot project. Under this agreement, people with Down’s syndrome or other intellectual disabilities will help older people with mobility problems in Barcelona’s Trinitat Vella District. More specifically, these individuals will help users of the Department of Social Welfare and Family’s local senior citizen centre to reach this facility from their homes.

Castellet Castle, the abertis foundation headquarters and Mediterranean Ecosystem Biosphere Reserves centre, has hosted its first conference since its recent selection by UNESCO. Dr Martí Boada, a scientist from the ICTA (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the environmental adviser to the abertis foundation, participated in the conference, which was entitled Forest products in viti-viniculture. Oenology and cork experts also attended.

The abertis foundation has given 21 scholarships, a total of €10,000, to university students from Castellet i la Gornal. This town in the Alt Penedès region of Barcelona is home to Castellet Castle, the abertis foundation headquarters, which has recently been named a UNESCO centre for the Mediterranean Ecosystem Biosphere Reserves. 

These scholarships strengthen the involvement of the abertis foundation with the community where the abertis group operates.

abertis is the only Spanish company from its sector, infrastructure management, to be included in the prestigious RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook. Included in the Bronze Class category, abertis has achieved this thanks to its extensive Corporate Social Responsibility policy which is in place in all the countries where the Group operates. A total of 818 companies from 39 countries were assessed.