- 2009 - 2013: Bachelor in Biology in the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona
- 2012 Erasmus+ exchange mobility at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
- 2013 - 2016: Master's degree in Environmental protection and Agricultural Food Production at the Universität Hohenheim, Germany
- 2015 Exchange mobility funded by the fiat panis scholarship at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR).
- 2018 - 2022: PhD in Environmental Science and Technology at the ICTA-UAB institute in the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona
- 2022 - 2025: Junior researcher within the Sostenipra research Team in the ICTA-UAB institute (Universitàt Autònoma de Barcelona)
- 2025: Junior Assistant professor (fixed term) at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Technologies of the University of Bologna.
Innovation projects:
GROOF (2017 – 2023): “Greenhouses to Reduce CO2 on Roofs (GROOF)” funded through Interreg North-West Europe (NWE 474). The GROOF project is an innovative cross-sectoral approach to reduce CO2 emissions in the construction and agricultural sectors by combining energy sharing and local food production. It aims to disseminate and demonstrate an alternative way of participating in the reduction of CO2 emissions in compliance with European directives.
Fertilecity II (2016 – 2018): “Integrated rooftop greenhouses: symbiosis of energy, water and CO2 emissions with the building –Towards urban food security in a circular economy” (CTM2016-75772-C3-1-R). The aim of the Fertilecity II is to deepen the research and promotion of urban agriculture through integrated greenhouses on rooftops, providing information and tools that make it possible. Fertilecity II wants to complete the development of LAU-ICTA experimental laboratories and minimize the use of resources (water and nutrients) to produce low-carbon foods.
Pandemies (2020 – 2022): “Resilient municipalities to pandemics through nexus with nearness agriculture, energy, water and waste. From the pilot to the municipality.” (AGAUR 2020PANDE00021). This project aimed to transform cities into resilient, sustainable, and healthier spaces for current and future pandemics, through local agriculture and recycling/waste reduction. The project proposed a) to study the metabolism of waste; b) promote domestic and community composting in buildings and schools; c) promote local agriculture; d) environmentally analyze the different processes associated with the three previous approaches; d) scale up the recycling and cover crops systems in the municipality. The results will allow us to propose new circularity strategies and closed systems of local agriculture and will provide this study with a starting point for some scenarios.
SIRAH (2021 – 2023): “Promoting access to open urban agriculture from the Fertilecity lab to the city” (PDC2021-121054-C21, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR) The presented proof-of-concept project, Smart-Irrigation Resource-Agriculture- for Homes, entails de application of three innovations that stem from the Fertilecity II project. These three innovations are based on the results obtained in the former project and have been applied on different scales and can generate 4 products. The new codesigned products boost food production in cities in a sustainable way and will allow this activity for any citizen.
BINAFET (2022 – 2024): “Building INtegrated Agriculture for an eFfective Ecological Transition” (BINAFET TED2021-130047B-C21 & TED2021-130047B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and the EU ‘NextGenerationEU’/PRTR). This projects aim is to build a strategy for the integration of flows between buildings and Urban Agriculture (UA) as a key and necessary step for an ecological transition in cities. This integration with its smart management, acts as a natural pump between the building and its greenhouse (GH), creating synergies between the needs of the building to reduce maximum air temperatures and CO2 and the benefits of local resources and vegetation. Waste flows generated in the building (e.g. CO2, waste heat, yellow water) along with UA can be redirected to improve the indoor air quality, building and GH energy efficiency, crop yields and local food production.
MOVE4EDU (2022 – 2025): “Modular ventilation system integrated within urban food production in educational buildings” (MOVE4EDU PID2021-126845OB-C21 & MOVE4EDU PID2021-126845OB-C22 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, EU). The MOVE4EDU project aims to develop and implement a natural modular ventilation solution that is adaptable, ensures indoor air quality, increases building sustainability, and introduces circular economy principles in the operation of buildings.
FOCUSE (2024 – 2026): “Food production and provisioning through Circular Urban Systems in European Cities”. Funded by DUT Driving Urban Transitions, coordinated by IVL. The project aims to explore, envision, develop, experiment, and analyze urban resource sharing for more circular based food production in urban environments to enable sustainable and viable food provisioning and resource efficiency.
FoodCityBoost (2024 – 2028): Integrated assessment of urban farming impacts and policies for boosting sustainable urban agricultural development linking urban, peri-urban and rural areas (HORIZON-CL6-2023- COMMUNITIES-01 2024-2028; UAB leader: Xavier Gabarrell & Verónica Arcas) FOODCITYBOOST brings together expertise on social science and humanities, land systems, urban farming, and life cycle assessment, to expand the knowledge base on urban farming from an integrated perspective.
WEF4Build (2024 – 2026): “Boost buildings' climate resilience using water-energy-food (WEF) nexus-based solutions in buildings' rooftops” 2023 CLIMA 00041
The main objective of the WEF4Build project is to boost buildings' climate resilience using water-energy-food (WEF) nexus-based solutions in buildings' rooftops. Rooftop WEF solutions devised in this project will be defined in a co-creation process covering: (i) photovoltaic panels installed on rooftops, (ii) basic hydroponic agriculture cultivation systems with different substrates, (iii) photovoltaic panels covering partially the crop system, (iv) advanced building-integrated rooftop greenhouse systems and (v) advanced building-integrated rooftop greenhouse systems with semi-transparent photovoltaic panels or photovoltaic glass.
Registered inventorship:
FoodE App: The Foode App is one of the results of the European FoodE project, and specifically of its WP 3, that aims to build and nourish healthy, local, active and sustainable relationships between food chain actors, thanks to the definition and implementation of networking opportunities and tools. The FoodE App has been crafted by a joined effort between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of Bologna.
Currently, the latest version of the FoodE App (FoodE App 6.0) - uploaded both in the App Store and Play Store for IOS and Android - is available at https://foode.sostenipra.cat/.
SIRAH: The SIRAH smart irrigation product integrates 3 main components
- The irrigation module
- Irrigation model
- Irrigation control
Comprised are prototype eco-design strategy, control software, building structure & elements.
Carried out by the UAB and UPC groups in the research projects “Sostenibilidad Agrourbana: Ecoinnovación en flujos residuales de energía, agua y CO2 de edificios para la producción de alimentos”, with the reference code “CTM2013-47067-C2-1-R” (Fertilecity I) and “Integrated rooftop greenhouses: symbiosis of energy, water and CO2 emissions with the building – Towards urban food security in a circular economy”, with the reference code “CTM2016-75772-C3" is the base for the proof of concept SIRAH (December 2021-May 2024), standing for Smart-Irrigation –Resource-Agriculture- for Homes.
Invited as exhibitor:
Invited Exhibitor as member of Tectum Garden at the UAB stand in the Smart city Congress 2022 celebrated in Barcelona on the 15-17/11/2022
Invited Exhibitor as member of Tectum Garden in the VertiFarm2024 Congress 16-18/01/2024
Invited Exhibitor as member of Tectum Garden at the UAB stand in the Smart city Congress 2023 celebrated in Barcelona on the 2-7/11/2023
Invited Exhibitor as member of Tectum Garden at the Mobile World Congress 2024 celebrated in Barcelona on the 26-29/02/2024
Invited as guest speaker:
- Water innovation Day by the Catalan Water Partnership (CWP) “SIRAH: Promoting access to urban agriculture, from the fertilecity lab to the city” 23/02/2023
- EdiCiNet Conference: “Tectum Garden: the development of a start-up business for the development of urban agriculture” 17/03/2023
- Food technology webinar Food Tech 3.0 within the Foodshift 2030 acceleration project: "Transforming the food system through technology" 02/06/2023
- Workshop: Smart Horticulture for a Sustainable World, “Presentation of Tectum Garden, a startup business to promote urban agriculture” 22/03/2023
- Urbagrinn Days, Liege (Belgium) Smart Resource Farming Session 19- 21/05/2025
Organization of international conferences, including membership in the steering and/or program committee:
- Support in the organization of the ICTA “International Conference 2020 on Low-Carbon Lifestyle Changes” celebrated 6-8/05/2020
- Support in the organization and contact of members for the round table on “Urban Environment” and “Urban Agriculture” in the Smart City Congress 2019 in Barcelona 19-21/11/2019.
- Participation as a coach in the Urban agriculture student challenge for the University of Wageningen 2019/2020.
- Member of the organization committee of the CONAMA 2020 conference in the thematic session CT-13 “Politica alimentaria urbana: ciudades y alimentación”. 03/06/2021 (Delayed due to COVID-19)
- Member of the organization committee of the CONAMA 2022 conference in the thematic session ST-14 “Hacia una estrategia agroalimentaria local” celebrated on the 22/11/2022.
- Co-creation workshop organizer Growth vs. climate ICTA Conference 29/11/2023- 01/12/2023 Workshop: The BINAFET project (Integrated agriculture in buildings for an effective ecological transition) Organizers: Verónica Arcas & Xavier Gabarrell Durany (in the preliminary program).
- Organization comettee of the 1st International Life Cycle Assessment Symposium: Towards circular water nutrient management for food production (4-6 June, 2025) Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.
Entrepreneurial Activities:
Co-founder and active member of the advisory board (president from 2020 to 2023) of the start-up company Tectum Garden https://www.tectumgarden.cat/ , dedicated to the design, installation, maintenance, and consultancy on urban agriculture, created in 2020.
The company activities range from the creation of a smart irrigation system through the SIRAH project, to the design of UA areas like the IMPD “Glories” space with the municipality of Barcelona or the maintenance and study of the social UA project “Horts al Terrat” lead by the IMPD institute and the municipality of Barcelona and the Open exposition "Màquina Climàtica" in the historical Greenhouse of the Parc de la Ciutadella, in Barcelona https://www.uab.cat/web/sala-de-premsa-icta-uab/detall-noticia/la-exposicion-maquina-climatica-muestra-en-barcelona-la-importancia-del-efecto-invernadero-1345819907210.html?detid=1345918117649.
Other innovation projects are the creation of a transportable, hydroponic greenhouse as a demonstration pilot within the REGREEN project to utilize regenerated water from wastewater treatment plants as irrigation water for crops. Tectum Garden has also collaborated with private companies like kettal https://www.kettal.com/workplace/en/news/Hydroponic_garden_en in the creation of indoor hydroponic systems for office spaces.
Through these projects the focus has not only been the production of food goods but the integration of the circularity concept in the creation of smart products, the use of recycled material and the application of the gained knowledge throughout the thesis.
Other considerations:
• ACCIÓ Accredited adviser 2022:
ACCIÓ establishes an accreditation process with different specialties for professionals who want to participate as advisors in the different ACCIÓ programs, contributing directly to the actual development of the business project and offering personalized and expert support depending on the methodology and the bases and calls established for each program, duly published by ACCIÓ.
Accredited advisors support the implementation of ACCIÓ programs through:
• Identify key actions and opportunities to improve the company's results.
• Establish methodologies to turn identified good practices into good habits.
• Tools to improve the daily management of the company.
• Act as a link between the company and the ACCIÓ programs.
• Coordinator of the IMPD project “Horts al terrat” through the Tectum Garden maintenance:
Since 2021 Tectum Garden has been employed by the municipal institute of people with disabilities (IMPD acronym in Catalan) for the maintenance of seven hydroponic urban gardens on building rooftops and internal patios. Each garden is visited weekly by 3 to 4 groups from neighboring community centers to participate in agronomic activities. Through Tectum Garden, the maintenance of the gardens is made with additional knowledge transfer on urban agriculture, hydroponic production, and biodiversity.
