The Doctoral Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering presented here is the result of a rigorous adaptation of the Doctoral Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, which has received a Quality Award from the MEC since 2004 (MCD 2004/00261) and which also obtained the Mention towards Excellence in 2011 (MEE2011-0426).
The social context in which the program is developed is that of a community with a scarce industrial fabric, in which there are 224 companies within the concept of chemical industry, 97 in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and 127 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, according to the business directory.
These companies range from the manufacture of paints and varnishes to dietary products, with the largest group being dedicated to the "manufacture of soaps, detergents and other cleaning and polishing products. Manufacture of perfumes and beauty and hygiene products"
The only major company in the sector is the CEPSA oil refinery.
In the Annual Report of the Canary Islands Economy for 2012, the Canary Islands Confederation of Businessmen states that "Especially in these times of crisis, with high unemployment rates, market niches are sought where professional careers can be developed with guarantees" and includes the Chemistry career among those that generate the greatest number of contracts in Spain.
Randstad Professionals has drawn up a ranking of the careers with the best professional prospects during the first months of 2012, which includes Chemistry among the most in-demand careers.
In the Canary Islands, it is clear that the economic future lies in converting scientific and technical knowledge into a benefit for social well-being and economic activity.
Furthermore, chemistry studies at the University of La Laguna enjoy considerable social prestige, derived from the achievements of figures such as Dr. D. Antonio González in the last century, which were widely publicised. Today, the work of the Antonio González Bio-organic University Institute continues to appear in the media, so that research in chemistry is recognised at a popular level. This means that the study of chemistry at the university has a certain prestige that has meant that the number of students at the different levels has remained stable.
The academic relevance of the Doctoral Program is supported by the number of academic years in which it has been taught with a reasonable success rate among students, an acceptable number of doctoral theses defended, the publications derived from them and the high percentage of graduates who have entered the workforce in highly qualified positions.
Demand for the various PhD programmes in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering that have existed at the University of La Laguna has always been reasonable for a centre of our size, which is due to the research tradition in our area of knowledge. In recent years, enrolment has averaged 14 students/year.
The number of places offered (30) is reasonable taking into account the capacity and availability of the research groups included in the training offer. Of these, it is estimated, based on previous experience, that a maximum of 10 could choose to do their Thesis part-time.
The language used will mainly be Spanish, with a significant presence of English, since it is the main language of scientific bibliography in the area of chemistry and chemical engineering.
The specific regulations for permanence in the Doctoral Program can be found in article 8 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands and accessible at the following address: address.
The University of La Laguna has recently approved (Governing Council, 26/9/2013) the creation of a Doctoral School where all the Official Doctoral Programs will be integrated. The regulations establish that until the creation of the School is effective, the programs will be temporarily attached to the Faculties where the Doctoral Programs that preceded them were traditionally taught. Therefore, the new proposed program will be temporarily attached to the Faculty of Chemistry and will later become dependent on the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna.
In order to ensure the quality of the teaching provided, as well as its improvement and to guarantee the rights of students and teachers, the Doctoral Program is integrated within the scope of the Internal Quality Assurance System of the Faculty of Chemistry.
This doctoral programme, like the previous ones, will involve the participation of researchers from the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology of the CSIC, a centre with which an agreement has been signed for this purpose.
As regards internationalisation, it is important to point out that the PhD programmes in chemistry offered by the University of La Laguna have historically had a great impact in Latin American countries, as scientific ties have been created which have led to the movement of many South and Central American students to La Laguna to carry out their PhD studies. This trend continues today, although to a lesser extent due to the difficulty of obtaining scholarships. Despite this, theses are being carried out under a co-supervision regime with researchers from other countries. The number of first-time students from countries other than Spain has been 4.6 per year on average over the last five years.
Seven theses with international mention have been read in the last three academic years (2010-2011 to 2012/2013), which indicates a tendency to seek international relations. The research groups participating in the Program have promoted specific collaboration agreements with more than a dozen research groups from various countries. These specific agreements can be consulted here
These agreements are usually for the mobility of research staff, which allows our PhD students to spend some time in other laboratories and receive foreign PhD students, which undoubtedly results in better training.
Within Europe, Erasmus agreements specifying mobility for doctoral studies have been established with countries such as Belgium, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Romania. Information can be obtained here.
The proposed PhD programme in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is part of the Strategic Plan of the University of La Laguna in the sections relating to postgraduate research and teaching.
In this Strategic Plan, approved by the Governing Council on 17/7/2008, within the actions aimed at expanding the external projection of our teaching and research activities, the objective of generating a quality postgraduate education offer is included, taking advantage of our research training capacity.
Furthermore, the proposed doctoral programme is integrated into the ULL's R&D&I strategy, which includes the development of the Tricontinental Atlantic Campus (CEI-CANARIAS) (International Campus of Excellence), a space of excellence that should be, from 2015, an Atlantic reference in Europe as a receiving and catalytic axis for talent in teaching, research, innovation and transfer projects with Africa and Latin America, and under the common denominator of a comprehensive sustainability model for its development.
Some of the actions of the aforementioned Tricontinental Atlantic Campus are directly linked to the research lines of the PhD program in Chemistry in Chemical Engineering. Specifically, the following lines:
B7. International multidisciplinary centre for water reuse
Its objective is to encompass in a single space the three major facets linked to water reuse: teaching, research and transfer of results to society and the productive sectors involved.
B11. Atlantic Environmental Research and Climate Change Centre.
Currently, studies have been initiated on the climate in the Canary Islands and its effects on human health and plant ecosystems within a structuring project that brings together seven research groups from different specialties (Geography, Ecology, Ecophysiology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine and Pharmacy).
B15. Biodiverse medicines R&D network
In order to successfully complete this action, the CEI of the Canary Islands is based on a broad 50-year tradition of obtaining new organic products from dry plant extracts, their purification and their chemical or biotechnological modification. The Atlanfarm Network aims to broaden the range of searches for possible new natural compounds, including wet extracts from green plants, which include active ingredients such as proteins, polysaccharides, complex lipids, etc. Experience in these new fields is still incipient, although several examples have a long tradition of exploitation for commercial purposes (there are several Aloe vera and natural polyphenol companies in the Canary Islands). There is also a long tradition in the Canary Islands of studying the diverse biological activities of natural and synthetic products (antiparasitic, antimicrobial, antineurodegenerative, antitumor and modulators of sexual hormone receptors, mainly). Both traditions have come together in numerous research projects that have provided dozens of international publications.