The Cantoblanco and Chamartín campuses of the UAM+CSIC CEI
The UAM+CSIC CEI has two campuses, one in Cantoblanco and another in Chamartín (Medicine campus), which houses its Medicine Faculty and the Biomedical Research Centre (IIBM). More than 5,000 people are employed at these two campuses and more than 30,000 visit them each day. In 2008-2014, the Cantoblanco campus underwent a major refurbishment, including the inauguration of a set of new buildings as part of the facelift. We highlight the Plaza Mayor building, financed with UAM+CSIC CEI funds and capital from both these institutions, and which, covering a surface area of more than 17,000 m2, is at the centre of the new Campus, rebalancing it. At Plaza Mayor various units and offices offer cultural and support services for students, professors and researchers.
The Cantoblanco campus houses six UAM faculties, the polytechnic (Escuela Politécnica Superior), four mixed CSIC-UAM centres, four CSIC centres, two IMDEAs (Institute for Advanced Studies), two university halls of residence and various research support centres.
The Cantoblanco Campus is located in a geographical area rich in natural heritage. In the immediate surroundings of the university complex are important areas like Monte de El Pardo, Monte de Viñuelas and Monte de Valdelatas, within an extensive zone notably also including the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares Regional Park, which UNESCO designated a Biosphere Reserve in 1993.
The Chamartín Campus is located in northern Madrid, in a strategic area near the La Paz university hospital and the CNIO and CNIC research centres. The campus houses the Medicine Faculty, which also includes nursing studies, the Alberto Sols Biomedical Research Institute, a mixed CSIC-UAM centre, the veterinary department, a high-performance centre with various research support services (link)
A sustainable campus
The UAM plays a significant role in revitalising sustainability policies at Spanish universities, by undertaking, since 2007, the role of executive secretary of the Commission for Quality, Sustainability and Risk Prevention (CADEP) of the Conference of Spanish University Rectors (CRUE). The UAM is also playing an important role in designing strategies to raise awareness among university professors to incorporate sustainability concepts into their practices. In this regard, it participates as coordinating university of the Southern Region of the Erasmus “University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD)” project, involving 55 universities from 35 European countries. The recent publication of the UI GreenMetric index, compiled by the University of Indonesia, in which Universidad Autónoma de Madrid is ranked 24th in the world.
The UAM+CSIC CEI maintains a policy of reducing its emission levels and with the “UAM emissions 0” project, the planting of 25,000 trees on the campus annually offsets the CO2 emissions generated by all the air travel that is done on the university's behalf. Regardless of the direct benefit that this implies internally, the UAM+CSIC CEI will project its image abroad as promoter of innovation in this connection.
Gender policy
In the Spanish university system, the UAM led the promotion of real equality between men and women by setting up the University Institute of Women's Studies (Instituto Universitario de Estudios de la Mujer - IUEM), in 1993, underpinned by research that has been underway since 1979 and with the creation of the Gender Observatory in 2007, which drafted the “First Diagnosis on Gender Equality” at the UAM. In December 2009, it took another step forward, setting up the Equality Unit, a structure to develop functions relating to the principle of equal opportunities and treatment between men and women on all university spheres: teaching, research and management.
The Equality Unit's main goal is to prepare and implement the necessary programmes to promote equality policies in our campus and to coordinate specific actions that might be developed in this sphere by the various university bodies and services.
