The universities which make up the G-9 have decided to reinforce joint research interventions in order to increase technology transference through the boost of Univalue and on the other hand, strengthen the common Virtual Campus. The Rectors of the G-9, who have met today at the University of Oviedo, ratified the sectorial research agreement and addressed the Ministry of Education and Economy and the Ministry of Competitiveness to demand that reduction policies not affect research programs which are under way.

The President of The G-9 and Rector of the University of Oviedo, Vicente Gotor, highlighted the group's need of gaining specific weight within the Spanish university "taking joint initiatives that will benefit everyone" One of the agreements was the boost of the enterprise Univalue, a society created to promote the transference of research results to the society. Among the early results, there are 60 patents and technologies processed, 24 of them being at an advanced stage of evaluation.

Vicente Gotor admitted the concern of the different centres on the future of their research teams and highlighted the importance of the new Government: "having sensitivity with a difficult work carried out over the past years and which has placed us in ninth place in the world's research. This cannot be cut short", he claimed.

Along the same lines, the Rector of the University of Illes Balears and vice-President of the CRUE, Montse Casas, reminded the people present that the G-9 represents the country's greatest campus with 200,000 students in their classrooms and the most comprehensive academic offer at all levels. "All our centres have been awarded the seal of Excellence and we will demand the necessary resources to maintain them", added Casas.

The Rector of the University of the Basque Country, Iñaki Goirizelaia, highlighted the importance of the Group of Universities suggesting "rather different ideas as a group". In this line, he suggested that they should promote the shared Virtual Campus "where everyone puts his best resources at disposal for others", and the need to make a plural reflection on how to deal with the widening of the academic offer with an eye to the future.

At the General Assembly, the Rectors also addressed the internationalization policy, with the positive outcome of international fairs, particularly in China. In this way, they pledged their commitment for keeping concentrated on the Asian market, without forgetting about Latin America. Likewise, they considered setting up a PhD program on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Ethiopia as well as reinforcing the relations with the African universities of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.

At the meeting in Oviedo, Vicente Gotor was accompanied by the Rectors of Extremadura, Segundo Píriz; Illes Balears, Montserrat Casas;Basque Country, Iñaki Goirizelaia; La Rioja, José María Martínez de Pisón; Cantabria, Federico Gutiérrez- Solana and Navarra, Julio Lafuente.