ShareFrancesc Xavier Grau, new president of AQU Catalunya
Dr Grau is a renowned full professor of Fluid Mechanics at Rovira i Virgili University, with certified experience in quality assurance in higher education and research.
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The Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya has appointed, for a four-year renewable term, Dr Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal as president of AQU Catalunya. The proposal for the appointment came from the Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, following the end of the term of office of the outgoing president, Josep Joan Moreso.
Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal is full professor of Fluid Mechanics at Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and a full member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. He holds an undergraduate degree and a PhD in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Barcelona (UB). His research has focused on physics, modelling the transfer of heat, matter and quantity of motion in industrial flows and in the environment, with scientific stays at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of Toulouse (IMFT) and at Stanford University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. This research activity has led him to supervise 12 doctoral theses, author more than 150 publications and act as principal investigator of more than 70 projects and contracts, most of them in collaboration with industry. In the field of university management and policy, he has been a department director at the URV, as well as its vice-rector and later rector, and director of the URV Chair for University and Knowledge Region. He was also executive vice-president of the Vives Network of Universities, first vice-president and deputy vice-president of Crue Unversidades Españolas, president of the EuroMed Permanent University Forum and academic director of the Global University Network for Innovation. He was also the Government of Catalonia’s Secretary for Universities and Research. As secretary, he promoted the drafting and approval of the Catalan Agreement on the Knowledge Society.
The president of AQU Catalunya, the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency, is also president of its Governing Board and has the following main functions:
- Ensure the achievement of the objectives set.
- Handle the institutional representation of AQU Catalunya.
- Report to the Government and Parliament of Catalonia on the Agency’s activities.
