Girona was the setting for the closing event of UniAct!, the Catalonia-wide university programme on transformative cooperation and global justice. The University of Girona hosted the event on 3 June 2026 at the Pep Nadal Lecture Hall in the Sant Domènec building.
Nearly 100 institutional representatives, academics and cooperation agents attended. The programme, which began in 2024, was led by the University of Girona within the Technical Network for Cooperation, Volunteering and Refuge of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia. It received funding from the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD) and was coordinated with the Department of Research and Universities.
Gerard Graells del Bas, director of the ACCD, and Josep Vila Subirós, UdG vice-rector for internationalisation, welcomed attendees. They underlined the need to keep building alliances between universities and cooperation actors. For readers following university and civic news across Catalonia, the event marked the end of one phase and the start of another.
The programme developed seven work streams, led by different universities. These covered global justice training, cooperation research, human rights for future professionals, service-learning, tools for development cooperation, emergency response mechanisms and educational content. The interuniversity global justice course was delivered at ten Catalan universities, with 1,394 registrations and 1,066 completions. Participants gave it an average rating of 4.3 out of 5.
Awareness work also formed part of the project. The “Voices of Cooperation” video podcast series includes five episodes and has passed 1,500 views. It features academics, students and representatives from social organisations, and has been used as a teaching and outreach resource. The day also included the conference “Voices that Matter: Women and Freedom of Expression in Nicaragua”, with Nicaraguan journalist and human rights defender Arlen C. speaking on feminism, human rights and freedom of expression in difficult contexts.
At the close of the event, Marta Grau Repullo, head of Communication and Global Education at the ACCD, outlined the next steps and said the aim is to continue and consolidate the programme as a reference point in university cooperation. UdG rector Josep Calbó Angrill said the project reflected both joint work among Catalan universities and cooperation as a tool for transformation, global justice and responses to human rights violations.
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