On 24 February 2010, at UNITAR’s headquarters in Geneva, the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between UNITAR and the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) took place.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of UNITAR and Mr. Pedro González-Trevijano, Rector of URJC. In representation of URJC, a delegation composed by Prof. Pilar Trinidad Núňez and Prof. Cástor Díaz Barrado, who is also the director of the Centre of Latin American Studies (CEIB), visited UNITAR.

The Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid was created in 1996 and it is the youngest public university of the Madrid Community. Its motto is "non nova, sed nove" (No new things, but in a new way). URJC has several research centres in areas of great interest for UNITAR, such as the CEIB, which was created in 2003 with the aim of understanding and researching the iberoamerican reality.

 

This agreement will allow UNITAR to have the support of a new academic institution with proven experience in training and research for the joint development and implementation of activities in Latin America, a region of great interest for the Institute. In this regard, UNITAR will open a new office in Brazil and gradually introduce Spanish as a working language.

 

The aim of the Memorandum of Understanding is precisely to maximize the two parties’ skills, knowledge and experience in order to develop joint activities for training and research. Prior to the signing of the agreement, a meeting took place in order to identify specific and concrete areas of collaborations between the two institutions.