We participate in the agreement signed by the University of Zaragoza and the public integrated vocational training centre Pirámide in Huesca, together with Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the Escuela de Organización Industrial and other entities that will enable the launch of this innovative master’s degree that stands out for being driven by the industry itself.
The master’s degree is aimed at professionals interested in the potential of this new technology to contribute to the energy transition. The Spanish government has already announced its intention to invest more than 1,500 million euros in boosting the generation and use of hydrogen by 2023 and plans to increase this investment to 8,900 million by 2030.
This training project is designed by the University of Zaragoza and four other universities: Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Also noteworthy is the participation of the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation and the Pirámide Integrated Public Vocational Training Centre. Other entities involved are vocational training centres in Catalonia and the Basque Country – the Comte de Rius Vocational Training Centre, the Institut Escola del Treball Vocational Training Centre and the Somorrostro Integrated Vocational Training Centre – as well as the School of Industrial Organisation (EOI), a public foundation attached to the Ministry of Industry through the General Secretariat for Industry and SMEs.
Twelve entities have joined forces to launch this joint degree called the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Hydrogen Technologies, which will begin to be taught on 15 October 2021. It is a multi-location master’s degree in four locations: Bilbao, Barcelona, Tarragona and Zaragoza, which will be taught mainly in synchronous virtual mode.
Following the European strategies around hydrogen technologies, this unprecedented collaboration of reference entities from the industrial, university and vocational training worlds has been created, a collaboration that seeks to accelerate the development of hydrogen technologies in industry, and will require a balance between engineering profiles trained at the university and those coming from vocational training.
The inter-university master’s degree in Hydrogen Technologies was created to offer innovative and cutting-edge knowledge in the field of the hydrogen economy and its associated technologies.
Hydrogen is one of the energy vectors with the greatest potential for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. The institutional commitment to this technology in the so-called energy transition is clear. According to a report by the Hydrogen Council, projects aimed at developing green hydrogen as a clean source of energy will add up to a global investment of more than 250,000 million euros by 2030. The European Next Generation recovery funds, aimed at working towards the strategy of total decarbonisation of all economic sectors by 2050 in Europe, are also clearly committed to this technology.
Aragon is a benchmark region in hydrogen and fuel cells. The community has been working intensively in this field for 18 years, since the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation was created in 2003, which has channelled most of the efforts to achieve the deployment of this technology. Its Board of Trustees, made up mainly of leading industries in their respective fields of activity, is one of its greatest strengths, as its companies are fully aware of the needs posed by the market at all times.
Initiatives related to specialised hydrogen training in Aragon date back to 2008. It was then when this aspect was identified as key for companies to carry out their industrial developments in the field. An objective, contemplated in the Hydrogen Master Plan of the Autonomous Community since its first edition, which will now be reinforced when the University of Zaragoza, after detecting the signs that indicate the need for qualified personnel in hydrogen and fuel cells, has reactivated its own studies that it had 12 years ago. In this objective, it will have the collaboration of the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation and the Pirámide Integrated Public Vocational Training Centre, which have been supporting hydrogen training for some time now.
The master’s degree stands out for being industry-driven, with the participation of renowned professionals from the sector, university experts and members of the technology and research centres of the twelve promoting entities, as well as the collaboration of the Repsol-Petronor Group. The practical component is one of the central axes of this training programme, as the participants will carry out regular practical work with simulation packages, technical visits to companies, as well as face-to-face practical work in the laboratory to test the concepts and tools analysed. The training will culminate with a final master’s degree project applied to a real problem, with a priority objective: to contribute to progress in the real challenges faced by companies in the field of hydrogen technologies.
Programme website> http://mith.unizar.es
