The University of Oviedo has held this morning the I Development Cooperation Conference, organized by the Vice-Rector's Office for International Relations and Development Cooperation. Around 50 lecturers and staff from management and services of the University of Oviedo have congregated in the Assembly Hall to acquire first-hand knowledge of some of the cooperation projects which are backed by the University of Oviedo and thus be able to establish synergies and connections among them in order to improve comprehensive project management.

Doctors, psychologists, economists, engineers or geologists... specialists from different knowledge areas shared their experiences and also the main difficulties found in daily life when they are working in developing countries. "From these facts one may conclude that the development cooperation of the University of Oviedo is rich and heterogeneous", highlighted Ana María Fernández, Vice- Rector for International Relations.

The University's social responsibility is one of the main actions promoted by the Campus of International Excellence, in which the I Development Cooperation Conference contributes to boost the University's collaboration with the most disadvantaged sectors. The CIE seeks a greater international expansion of the University of Oviedo by boosting a model of united and sustainable social development.

The teaching staff taking part in calls of grants from the University of Oviedo or the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, have two sloping series of actions: either direct intervention projects usually coordinated with different NGO's or the intervention with universities from the home country to promote the development of the educational system and research programs within the region.

Throughout the morning, around twenty lecturers collaborating with different organizations in countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia made a brief presentation of the development and objectives of the projects so as to open a fruitful debate among the participants.

The Rector, Vicente Gotor, together with the Vice-Rector for International Relations and the area director of University Services, Eduardo Rodríguez, was in charge of opening the conference. Gotor praised the performance of the different work teams involved in cooperation projects "because that is a proof of our commitment with those who need it the most and with society as a whole". For his part, Eduardo Rodríguez explained the task carried out by the Vice-Rector's Office for Students and Employment in terms of public awareness- raising and volunteering promotion.