Uriach Chair of Nutraceutics
The Uriach Chair of Nutraceutics aims to promote knowledge on Nutraceutics in the educational, professional and social spheres through the promotion of divulgation, teaching and research activities that enable the progress and development of this discipline.
The Uriach Chair of Nutraceutics (CUdN) at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili was created by the University's Governing Council on 7 May 2020, and began its activity on 22 September of the same year. This chair is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Rovira i Virgili University and the Uriach Foundation.
The chair is attached to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, which coordinates the Official Master's Degree in Nutrition and Metabolism, taught in collaboration with the University of Barcelona. The chair's director, Dr. Begoña Muguerza, is a lecturer in the URV's Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology and coordinator of the Nutrigenomics research group. This group of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili has as its general objective the generation of knowledge aimed at the design of functional foods and nutraceuticals capable of preventing, delaying or alleviating metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome. The group's knowledge and experience have led them to establish an intense collaboration framework with different companies, including Uriach.
Mission & Goals
The chair was created with the mission of generating, disseminating and transferring knowledge on nutraceuticals from different but complementary perspectives such as the industrial, professional and educational worlds. The creation of these synergies will be the basis for future spaces for debate, collaboration and development in this field of study.
The specific goals of the CUdN are:
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Student Education
To help train students to meet the new challenges in the field of nutraceutics.
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Employment Insertion
To promote their employment in the business and industrial world.
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Formation for Professionals
To encourage the training of professionals related to the world of nutraceuticals.
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Knowledge Difussion
Promoting scientific meetings to make difussion of the nutaceutical world.
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New Research
Create new lines of research in this innovative field of study.
Activities
In order to achieve its goals, the Chair will carry out different activities, some of the main ones will include:
- Grants
The awarding of grants to students of the official Master's Degree in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB) for an internship in the innovation department of Uriach, where they will learn first-hand about the complete life cycle of the development of products linked to nutraceuticals.
- Awards
The establishment of an annual prize to be awarded to the best Bachelor's (BT) and Master's (MT) theses on nutraceuticals.
- Formation
The teaching participation of professionals from the Uriach Innovation Department in the official Master's Degree in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB) to provide students with a vision of nutraceutics from an industrial and professional point of view.
The organisation of conferences to train professionals in nutraceuticals.
- Workshops
The organisation of specialised courses and conferences aimed at professionals and students where nutraceuticals will be presented and discussed.
- Research
The promotion of new lines of research in the field of nutraceutics.
Nutraceuticals
The high prevalence of non-communicable diseases and the incidence of nutrition in the origin of these diseases has increased the use of dietary therapies for their prevention. In this context, different bioactive compounds have been investigated in recent decades for their beneficial effects on health. The concept of nutraceuticals originates from the concepts of "nutrition" and "pharmaceutical" and was first used in 1989 by Dr. Stephen DeFelice, who defined nutraceuticals as "a food or part of a food that provides health or medical benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of disease". There is currently no single, agreed definition of a nutraceutical but the term usually refers to a dietary supplement with the potential to release a concentrated form of a bioactive compound that provides beneficial health benefits. These products differ from health foods in that they can be taken in a non-food matrix such as pills, extracts or tablets. In addition, they can be used for the purpose of improving health or preventing disease in dosages that exceed those that could be obtained with regular foods and differ from medicines in that the latter act in the short term and are used to cure something. However, nutraceuticals are not intended to cure anything, but to prevent, and only if they are part of a healthy diet.
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
The Universitat Rovira i Virgili stands out for its research in the field of Nutrition and Health. In fact, in its II Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation it considers Nutrition and Health as one of its productive sectors of territorial specialisation. Likewise, Rovira i Virgili University is a member of the Innovative Business Association in Nutrition and Health, a cluster promoted by the Government of Catalonia whose mission is to promote the competitiveness of the Spanish agri-food sector in the field of functional foods by generating flows of knowledge and innovation. On the other hand, the Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia (CEIS), sponsored by the Rovira i Virgili University, promotes strategic interaction between teaching, research, transfer and the productive sector in southern Catalonia, considering Nutrition and Health as one of its fundamental pillars.
Uriach Foundation
The Fundació Uriach, created in 1988, has as one of its main objectives the promotion, dissemination and promotion of knowledge of natural products on health, especially nutraceuticals, as well as the benefits of a healthy life through activities linked to the educational, professional and social spheres.
Enviroment
Both Rovira i Virgili University and Uriach are located in Catalonia, which stands out as a region with an important industrial and research activity in the agri-food, pharmaceutical and health sectors. Moreover, its gastronomic culture is one of the pillars of its identity and this is based on the Mediterranean diet, recognised in 2010 by UNESCO as Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and which includes foods with great potential for obtaining many nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds.
