Governing and representative bodies

Dr. Cristina Canal Barnils
Full professor
direccio.escoladoctorat@upc.edu

The director represents the Doctoral School and directs, coordinates and supervises its activities.

The functions of the director, outlined in the Regulations on the Organisation and Functions of the Doctoral School, are the following:

To represent and direct, coordinate and supervise the activities of the Doctoral School and its administrative services.
To ensure compliance with the mission, objectives, strategic plan and functions of the Doctoral School.
To draw up the Doctoral School's strategic plan with the assistant director, the secretary and the head of administration and submit it to the Board for approval.
To appoint and dismiss the assistant directors and the secretary.
To convene and chair the Board's and the Standing Committee's meetings.
To execute and enforce compliance with the agreements of the Board and the Standing Committee.
To ensure that the Doctoral School's staff comply with the code of good practice and to take the necessary measures to solve any problems that might arise.
To encourage the dissemination of accounts of good practices in the doctoral field.
To manage the provision of the infrastructure needed by the Doctoral School and ensure that it has the necessary resources.
To authorise expenses and order the payments he is responsible for, in keeping with the limits established by the Governing Council.
To draw up the Doctoral School's annual management report and submit it to the Board for approval.
To inform the Board of the proposals for the appointment of the doctoral programme coordinators.
To promote collaborative work among doctoral programme coordinators and training and continuous improvement activities that address thesis supervisors' and co-supervisors' supervising and tutoring functions.
To promote the Doctoral School's strategic plan.
To propose guidelines for the rules governing the academic committees of the doctoral programmes to the Board.
To perform all of the Doctoral School's functions that are not expressly attributed to other governing bodies of the Doctoral School in the Statutes of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya or in the regulations that develop these statutes.
To propose to the rector that the collaboration agreements referred to in Article 164 of the University's Statutes are signed with public and private bodies.
All the functions attributed to it in prevailing regulations, the Statutes, other UPC regulations and these regulations.

Cristina Canal is a full professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the head of the PlasmaMED Laboratory: Plasmas for Biomedical Applications, part of the Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering Group, which belongs to the UPC’s Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB), of which she is the assistant director. Canal has a doctoral degree in Textile and Paper Engineering from the UPC, a master’s degree in Medicine Research and Development from the UB and a degree in Chemical Sciences from the UAB. She has pursued research in various national and international research centres, including the Laplace Laboratory in France.

She currently leads the APACHE project with a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) and coordinates the network project Acció COST CA20114 PlasTHER, both in the field of plasma medicine. Her research focuses on the therapeutic applications of cold plasmas, particularly for cancer treatment, and on the modification of the surface of biomaterials to control parameters such as adhesion, biological behaviour and drug release.

Her work has led to numerous publications and guest lectures. She has received various awards, among them the 2018 Early Career Award in Plasma Medicine and the 2020 ICREA Acadèmia.

Dr. Lluís Jofre Cruanyes
Full professor
secretari.escoladoctorat@upc.edu

The functions of the secretary, outlined in the Regulations on the Organisation and Functions of the Doctoral School, are the following:

To call the meetings of the collegial bodies on the order of the chairperson.
To organise collegial body elections at the Doctoral School.
To vouch for the agreements and resolutions of the Doctoral School's governing bodies.
To write and keep custody of the minutes and, if necessary, the recordings of corresponding collegial body meetings.
To guarantee the dissemination and advertisement of the agreements, resolutions, regulations and other general rules on institutional functioning among members of the Doctoral School community.
To issue certificates, reports, rulings and approved agreements.
To draw up the Doctoral School's annual report.
To fulfil other functions inherent to the post entrusted to him by the Board, the director or the University's regulations.

Lluís Jofre Cruanyes has a doctoral degree in Fluid Mechanics from the UPC. He is a Beatriz Galindo Professor at the Department of Fluid Mechanics of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), the director of Fluid Science and Engineering Research Group (GReCEF) of the UPC and the principal investigator at the Multiscale Fluid Mechanics Lab. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University's Center for Turbulence Research (USA) and a predoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Sweden).

As a professor of the UPC's Department of Fluid Mechanics, he teaches on bachelor's and master's degrees at the Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE) and also collaborates with the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT). He directs research on topics related to multiscale fluid mechanics, data science, model reduction, uncertainty quantification and computational engineering, with applications in advanced energy systems, propulsion and transport, biomedicine and manufacturing technology.

Since 2022, he has been the principal investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project Turbulence-on-a-Chip: Supercritically Overcoming the Energy Frontier in Microfluidics (SCRAMBLE). The project focuses on achieving turbulent flow regimes in microfluidic conditions using supercritical fluids. The scientific knowledge gained will be used to propose and design microfluidic systems that are highly improved from an energy point of view.

Photo of the School Board at a meeting on 12 December 2019

The Board, which is chaired by its director, is the Doctoral School's highest collegial body. The Board ensures that the Doctoral School adequately fulfils all of the functions attributed to it in the current legislation, the UPC Statutes and the Regulations on the Organisation and Functions of the Doctoral School.

Doctoral School Board decisions

The Board acts as a management committee in accordance with the provisions of Article 9.6 of Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies.

Functions

To approve the Doctoral School's strategic plan, within the framework of the University's strategic planning.
To sanction the Doctoral School's management report, which is presented by the Doctoral School's director.
To promote actions to foster the Doctoral School's leadership and its strategic plan.
To propose the approval of the Regulations on the Organisation and Functions of the Doctoral School and any amendments thereof to the Governing Council.
To propose the approval of internal regulations on the rights and obligations of doctoral students, tutors and thesis supervisors and the composition and functions of the doctoral programmes' academic committees to the Governing Council.
To propose the academic regulations for doctoral studies and any amendments thereof to the Governing Council.
To approve the document outlining the design and implementation of the quality assurance system for doctoral programmes and monitor its progress.
To propose the approval of the creation, modification and withdrawal of doctoral programmes to the Governing Council.
To propose the regulations on the special doctoral awards to the Governing Council and rule on the corresponding calls.
To regulate the academic committees of the doctoral programmes in accordance with the proposals of the school's directors and within the framework of the University's regulations.
To propose the approval of the creation, modification and withdrawal of the Doctoral School's areas of knowledge to the Governing Council.
To present the proposal for a code of good practice (doctoral charter) or any amendments thereof to the Governing Council for its approval.
To approve the proposal for the annual operating budget and the list of human and material resources needed for it to fulfil its functions for its submission to the Governing Council.
To propose initiatives and aspirations and express an opinion on issues that affect the Doctoral School and its environment.

Composition

Ex officio members:

Dr Cristina Canal, director of the Doctoral School.
Assistant director of the Doctoral School (position pending assignment).
Dr Lluís Jofre Cruanyes, secretary of the Doctoral School, who acts as secretary of the Board.
Ana Canales, head of the Support Service Unit to the Doctoral School
Dr Alberto Abelló, coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus doctoral degree in Information Technologies for Business Intelligence.
Dr Carlos Enrique Alemán, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Polymers and Biopolymers.
Dr Maribel Rosselló, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Theory and History of Architecture.
Dr Jasmina Casals, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Mechanical, Fluids and Aerospace Engineering.
Dr Eulalia Planas, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Chemical Process Engineering.
Dr Gonzalo Ramos, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Construction Engineering.
Dr Blanca Roncero, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Textile and Paper Engineering.
Dr Miguel Cervera, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Civil Engineering.
Dr Michelle Chiumenti, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Structural Analysis.
Dr Anna Pagès, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Architecture, Energy and the Environment.
Dr Olga Muñoz, , coordinator of the doctoral degree in Signal Theory and Communications.
Dr Toni Dorado, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Natural Resources and Environment.
Dr Antonio Isalgué, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Nautical and Marine Engineering and Naval Radio-Electronics.
Dr Martí Rosas, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Sustainability.
Dr Pedro Francisco Delicado, acting coordinator of the doctoral degree in Statistics and Operations Research.
Dr Beatriz F. Giraldo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Biomedical Engineering.
Dr Ana María Lacasta, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Architectural, Building Construction and Urbanism Technology.
Dr Àngela Nebot, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Artificial Intelligence.
Dr Ferran Mazzanti, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Computational and Applied Physics.
Dr Álvaro Luna, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Electric Energy Systems.
Dr Manel Mateo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Supply Chain and Operations Management.
Dr Magda Mària, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Architectural Design.
Dr Davide Careglio, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Computer Architecture.
Dr Emilio Jiménez, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Materials Science.
Dr Ernest Redondo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Architectural, Civil and Urban Heritage and Refurbishment of Existing Buildings.
Dr José Rodrigo Miró, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Transport Engineering and Infrastructure.
Dr Jaime Óscar Casas, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Electronic Engineering.
Dr Leandro Navarro, coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus doctoral degree in Distributed Computing.
Dr Carlos David Pérez, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Thermal Engineering.
Dr Sebastià Olivella, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Geotechnical Engineering.
Dr Maria Rubert, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Urbanism.
Dr Marta Casasnellas, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Bioinformatics.
Dr Manuel Espino, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering.
Dr Jordi Pons, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Aerospace Science and Technology.
Dr Alberto Ledesma, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics.
Dr Lluïsa Quevedo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Optical Engineering.
Dr Carlos Marmolejo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Urban and Architectural Management and Valuation.
Dr Enric Ventura, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Applied Mathematics.
Dr Vicenç Fernández, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Business Administration and Management (interuniversity)
Dr José María Sallán, , coordinator of the doctoral degree in Business Administration and Management
D Xavier Hesselbach, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Network Engineering.
Dr César Mösso, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Marine Sciences.
Dr Guillem Pere Cortés, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Nuclear and Ionising Radiation Engineering.
Dr Carlos Andújar, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Computing.
Dr Vicenç Puig, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Automatic Control, Robotics and Vision.
Dr Roberto Villafáfila, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering.
Dr Sergio Zlotnik, coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus doctoral degree in Simulation in Engineering and Entrepreneurship Development.
Dr Marc Alier, coordinator of the doctoral degree in en Engineering, Science and Technology Education.
Dr María Isabel Achaerandio, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Agri-food Technology and Biotechnology.
Dr Robert Sewell, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Photonics.

Elected members:

MªEugènia Miranda, head of the doctoral management unit.

Photo of the Standing Committee of the Doctoral School

The Standing Committee, which is chaired by its director, is the School Board's executive and permanent representative body.

Standing Committee decisions

Functions

To ensure that these regulations and the Board’s agreements are complied with.
To regulate the use of the Doctoral School's name and its corporate identity, within the framework of the University's regulations.
To set up the consultation committees that are deemed necessary.
To draft the Doctoral School's strategic plan, within the framework of the University's strategic planning.
To design and implement the quality assurance system for monitoring activities and the results of the doctoral programmes.
To approve the settlement and distribution of the budget allocated to the Doctoral School every year.
To authorise the economic items needed to cover infrastructure and maintenance costs that are not allocated in the annual operating budget.
To ensure that the Doctoral School's operations are fluid, in accordance with prevailing regulations.
To set doctoral students' cross-disciplinary training activities and also regulate activities that may be of interest in their research training.
To facilitate the recruitment of doctors by companies and promote the internationalisation of the doctoral programmes.
To assess the effectiveness of policies on predoctoral grants and financial aid and, if necessary, make proposals to improve them.
To propose the composition of the examination committees for doctoral theses to the rector for his approval, subsequent to the report of the academic committee of the doctoral programme in question.
To count the votes for the cum laude mention or delegate this task to another body.
To rule on the calls for special doctoral awards.
To establish the procedures for the recognition of training activities and other aspects of training for researchers.
To establish the procedures for conflict resolution in doctoral studies.
To promote actions that enable the Doctoral School to be managed and to execute its strategic plan.
To propose the nomination of an honorary doctoral degree holder to the Governing Council.
To propose initiatives and aspirations and express an opinion on issues that affect the Doctoral School and its environment.
To propose collaborating bodies that may participate in the Doctoral School's activities to the Board.
To participate in the recruitment, training, assessment and promotion of the Doctoral School's administrative and service staff, under the terms established in the Statutes.
To propose items to be included in the agenda for the Board's meetings.

Composition

Ex officio members

Dr Cristina Canal Barnils, director of the Doctoral School, chair of the Standing Committee.
Assistant director of the Doctoral School (position pending assignment).
Dr Lluís Jofre Cruanyes, secretary of the Doctoral School, who acts as secretary of the Standing Committee.
Ana Canales Martínez, head of the head of the Support Services Unit at the Doctorate School
MªEugènia Miranda, head of the doctoral management unit.

Elected members

Dr Miguel Cervera, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Civil Engineering.

Dr Manel Espino, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering.
Dr Carlos Marmolejo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Urban and Architectural Management and Valuation.

Dr Magda Mària, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Architectural Design.

Dr Olga Muñoz, , coordinator of the doctoral degree in Signal Theory and Communications.
Dr Carlos Andújar, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Computing.
Dr Lluïsa Quevedo, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Optical Engineering.
Dr María Isabel Achaerandio, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Agri-food Technology and Biotechnology.
Dr Toni Dorado, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Natural Resources and Environment.
Dr Roberto Villafàfila, coordinator of the doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering.

The Doctoral Student Council is the representation body of the UPC's doctoral candidates that fosters their participation in all aspects of university life.

Doctoral Student Council decisions

Responsibilities

According to the Regulations of the Doctoral Student Council of the UPC, the responsibilities of the Doctoral Student Council are the following:

To draw up a proposal for regulations governing its functions and submit this proposal for approval at a plenary session and to the Governing Council of the UPC.
To act as a representative and means of expressing the aspirations, requests and proposals of doctoral candidates in relations with the UPC's governing bodies and to promote, coordinate and defend their concerns, rights and interests.
To constitute a framework for developing, discussing and defining the position of the UPC'S doctoral candidates.
To carry out its administrative organisation.
To issue reports on any concerns relating to the University's activities.
To make public agreements reached and decisions taken by its representatives, in accordance with prevailing regulations.
To manage its budget.
To coordinate the work of doctoral candidates' representatives at the UPC.
All of the responsibilities stemming from its purposes outlined in its regulations, the UPC Statutes and any applicable regulations.
To appoint and revoke the appointment of its single-person bodies, as provided for in its regulations.

Composition

President: Aniol Martí Espelt, Doctoral Programme on Signal Theory and Communications.
Secretary: Matteo Arioli, Doctoral Programme on Polymers and Biopolymers.

The academic committees are linked to each doctoral programme and are responsible for defining, updating and coordinating them and ensuring their quality. They are also responsible for fostering the progress of research and education and of authorising the deposit of doctoral theses by students on the doctoral programme.

Academic committee decisions

Functions

The functions of the academic committees of the doctoral programmes are the following:

To organise, coordinate, define and update the doctoral programme.
To draw up the regulations on organisation and functions and amend them as appropriate.
To organise, design and coordinate the doctoral programme's cross-disciplinary and research activities.
To promote the quality of the programme and establish appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and improvement.
To participate in the doctoral programme's verification, monitoring and accreditation processes and promote these processes internally.
To draw up the doctoral programme's monitoring and accreditation reports.
To establish requirements and additional criteria for selecting and admitting applicants to the doctoral programme and approve their admission.
To assign a thesis tutor to doctoral students who have been admitted to the doctoral programme.
To assign a thesis supervisor to doctoral students within a maximum of six months from enrolment. The thesis supervisor may or may not be the same person as the thesis tutor.
To authorise the co-supervision of a doctoral thesis in response to such requests from doctoral students and thesis supervisors.
To change the thesis supervisor assigned to a doctoral student in response to such requests from doctoral students and thesis supervisors.
To arbitrate and guarantee the right to intellectual property of the doctoral student and the thesis supervisor in the case of conflict or a change in the supervision of the thesis.
To authorise doctoral students to change doctoral programme should they request it.
To authorise doctoral students to write their theses on a part-time basis should they request it, having received the thesis supervisor's approval.
To authorise a one- or two-year extension of the deadline for defending a thesis should a doctoral student request it, having received the thesis supervisor's approval.
To authorise doctoral students to withdraw temporarily, for a maximum period of one year, which can be extended another year, should they request it, having received the thesis supervisor's approval.
To ensure that the activity report in which the activities that are relevant to the educational development of the student is reviewed and assessed by the tutor and the supervisor every year.
To assess the research plan and doctoral student activity report, which includes the reports of the supervisor and tutor, every year.
To propose the signing of co-tutoring agreements.
To choose, where appropriate, the external experts who report on the quality of the thesis.
To authorise or reject the registration and defence of doctoral theses.
To establish the criteria for the submission of article-based theses and authorise the submissions.
To propose the examination committees for doctoral theses and appoint, from among the committees' members, the president and the secretary.
To assess and decide whether the participation in the examination committee of a member who is the co-author of publications stemming from the doctoral thesis is justified.
To arbitrate conflicts between students and/or thesis supervisors.
To approve the regulations governing the internal operation of the academic committee of the doctoral programme.
To fulfil any other function that current legislation, doctoral regulations or the Doctoral School directors assign or delegate to them.

Composition

The academic committees of the doctoral programmes are composed of the following:

The coordinator of the doctoral programme.
At least two professors of the Doctoral School who belong to the promoting unit.
A representative of the doctoral students enrolled in a doctoral programme, if the doctoral regulations foresee this possibility.
Researchers with doctoral degrees from public research bodies and other national or international R&D institutions.
In the case of doctoral programmes with more than one promoting unit or interuniversity programmes, there must be teaching and research staff members representing them, in accordance with what is established in the collaboration agreement that has been signed.
Each academic committee must have a person who acts as secretary. This person must be a one of the doctoral degree holders.

Consult the composition of the academic committee of each doctoral programme in the section General information / Organising the file.

The Quality Committee of the Doctoral School is a consultative body that manages, coordinates and performs the monitoring and improvement of the Internal Quality Assurance System (SGIQ).

Composition

Deputy director of the Doctoral School: Cristina Canal
Two members of the quality team of the USSED: Ana Canales and Marta Álvarez
A representative of the Doctoral Program's coordinators: Vicenç Fernández
A representative of the Thesis Supervisors: David Artigas
A representative of the doctoral students: Cristina Rovira