The Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) is a state university offering graduate and postgraduate degrees in many different fields. It is a young university — founded in 1968— but has already achieved an outstanding international reputation for its high-quality teaching and research and work in the areas of sustainability, environmental management and education against climate change. The UAM is a modern and democratic institution in which decisions are taken with the participation of all the members of the community, and which is characterized by its strong social commitment and participation in society.

UAM is developing an environmental management model, ECOCAMPUS Project, in which technical measures complement educational actions in accordance with its commitment to sustainable development and to fight against climate change. Technical measures have been designed to diminish CO₂ emissions through improved efficiency of the boiler and three solar panel systems for electricity production. Other activities focus on encouraging sustainable mobility through economic incentives, promoting the in use of the bicycle and public transportation. Pedagogic activities are intended to inform university community of environmental problems in order to increase their involvement in the fight against climate change and in the sensible use of natural resources. Environmental Education and Participation group from Ecology Department is one of the main actors in this kind of educational activities.

Most of its faculties and specialized institutes of the UAM are on the attractive Cantoblanco campus to the north of Madrid, easily accessible by train -the station is on-campus — bus and car. The UAM is very aware of its mission — providing high-quality education to its students — which means that its objectives are not restricted to the academic curricula, but include preparing the students both professionally and as democratic citizens. The university offers, then, an integrated approach to education, combining teaching and research and encouraging the participation of its students and researchers. To make this possible, the faculties and schools have many well-equipped lecture rooms, modern libraries, laboratories, etc.

UAM has seven faculties (science, economics and business studies, law, arts, medicine, psychology, education) and an Engineering School for Computer Science and Telecommunications, offering a wide range of programs in different scientific and technical fields and in the humanities.

UAM has a well-established tradition in the area of cooperation, both national and international. It is one of the Spanish universities with the highest rates of student participation in international programs. During the academic year 2011/12, for example, 1,272 students of the UAM pursued study programs in other universities and educational institutions, while 1,539 students from other universities and educational institutions studied with us at the UAM.

Role of UAM in the project:

• SG member and coordinator of the southern region: provide input to all WPs; make strategic decisions during the life of the project; host a SG meeting; coordinate the network’s activities in the southern region; ensure that partners in the southern region deliver the tasks in good quality and within the timescales and budget identified; organise the southern regional meeting in month 5; develop the mapping report in the southern region; identify leading practice in the region.
• Leader of work package (WP) 5 – Academy for ESD in HE: develop the academy framework, organise the trial of the academy, develop the M&E report of the academy.
• Leader of WP6 – Quality assurance: provide feedback on the quality of the project; develop the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework; regularly liase with the external evaluator; collect data for the M&E reports.
• Coordinate the mapping exercise in Spain and complete the template for data collection.
• Contribute to the leading practice publication and online platform of resources.
• Contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of the project outputs, outcomes and future network activities at the international, European and national level.
• Organise the second annual meeting and seminar in Spain.

Operational and financial management:

• The project team will coordinate the above administrative and academic project activities.
• Financial administration will be handled by the project team who will liaise internally with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Office for International Relations and Mobility.