The University Councillor announced that the 2023 Regional Government Budget will include 2 million euros for the project. This pact includes requesting funds from the central government from the Recovery Plan to undertake part of the rehabilitation of the building.

The Councillor for University, Research and Innovation, José Carlos Gómez Villamandos, the President of the Provincial Council, Juan Carlos Ruiz, the Mayor of Cádiz, José María González, and the Rector of the University of Cádiz (UCA), Francisco Piniella, have reached an institutional agreement that guarantees the economic viability of the Valcárcel project as the headquarters of the Faculty of Education Sciences. With this agreement, the situation of this historic building located in the centre of Cadiz has been unblocked.

The four institutions have agreed to set up a technical committee to draw up the draft agreement to be signed as soon as possible, which will specify the contributions of each of the parties. This agreement will be multi-year in nature and will be valid for four years, during which time the refurbishment and fitting out works will be carried out, as well as the equipment.

The first contribution will be made in 2023 by the Andalusian Regional Government and the UCA, and in this regard, Gómez Villamandos has advanced that next year’s regional budgets will include a specific item of two million euros for the project, an amount that will be used to cover the costs of that year. The forecast of the four institutions is to put the works out to tender at the beginning of 2023, with the aim of starting them in the third quarter of that year, so that the project could be completed in 2026.

Request to the central government for European funds

In addition, the Junta de Andalucía has asked the central government for funding to undertake, under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, part of the refurbishment of the building. These resources would complement the amounts to be assumed by the three administrations and the UCA for the refurbishment. The regional government is finalising the selection of a package of energy efficiency actions in university buildings that could benefit from these funds from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, so the University Councillor has proposed to the other institutions that Valcárcel be included in this list.

Gómez Villamandos stressed that the financial commitment reached between the three Administrations and the UCA “allows the economic responsibility involved in the intervention and the provision of equipment to be shared equally”.

He also stressed that “moving the Faculty of Education Sciences to Valcárcel required a shared effort by all”, demonstrating that it is “a city project acclaimed by all the citizens of Cádiz, which will contribute to revitalising this area of the capital and the university itself”. Furthermore, he remarked that, since the origin of Valcárcel’s proposal as a university campus, the attitude of the regional government has always been “to add and not to subtract”. “From the Department of University we have extended our hand and we have shown ourselves to be in favour of dialogue in this action,” he added.

The rector of the UCA thanked the four institutions involved in the project for their willingness to reach an agreement, acknowledged “the change of attitude of the regional government, the work of the new minister, who has demonstrated his university vocation, and the unifying role of the territorial delegate”. At the same time, Francisco Piniella emphasised that the UCA has arrived at this meeting “with its homework done, and with a basic project, which, although it may change, is already in place to allow this project to begin. That is what is important, that it starts and gets going”.