Next Tuesday, September 22, the Uriach Chair of Nutraceuticals will be presented at the Rectorate of Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. Attending the presentation will be the Rector of the University, Dr. Maria José Figueras; the Vice-Rector for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, Dr. Francisco Medina; Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology and Director of the Chair, Dr. Begoña Muguerza; Uriach’s Consumer Healthcare Director, Dr. Javier Navarro; and Uriach’s Consumer Healthcare R&D Manager, Ms. Rosa Raventós.
This Chair is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Uriach Foundation and Rovira i Virgili University to promote knowledge of nutraceuticals in the educational, professional, and social spheres through the dissemination, teaching, and research activities that foster the progress and development of this discipline in our country. The Chair will be attached to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, which coordinates the official Master’s in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB), offered in collaboration with the University of Barcelona. Its director will be Dr. Begoña Muguerza, Associate Professor in this department and head of the Nutrigenomics Research Group at URV.
The objectives of the Chair will be to contribute to the training of students so that they can face new challenges in the field of nutraceuticals, facilitate their entry into the business and industrial sectors, promote the training of healthcare professionals in this discipline, foster scientific meetings to disseminate nutraceuticals, and create new lines of research in this innovative field of study.
The generation and dissemination of knowledge on nutraceuticals, from different but complementary perspectives industrial, professional, and educational, will support the creation of future spaces for debate, collaboration, and development in this field.
To achieve this, the Chair will organize various activities such as courses and specialized workshops for professionals and students, the awarding of scholarships to students of the official Master’s in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB), and the establishment of an annual prize for the best Master’s Thesis related to nutraceuticals. In addition, Uriach professionals will participate as lecturers in this master’s program to provide an industrial and professional perspective on nutraceuticals.