Toledo, September 15, 2021

The University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and the Soliss Foundation have created the Tagus Chair, which will promote the comprehensive recovery and improvement of the ecological and chemical state of the river and its tributaries through scientific research, training and divulgation. The activities of the new chair, which has an endowment of 40,000 euros per year, will be articulated in collaboration with the Tagus Research Group and include conferences, scholarships, awareness-raising actions and the rehabilitation of the river as it passes through the Weapons Factory.

This initiative aims to contribute to ensuring that the Tagus and its rivers can provide all the ecosystem services typical of a river system in good condition and fully functional. These include supply and supply services for the population and for the different economic sectors, as well as services for regulating and improving water quality, protection against natural risks, or maintenance of natural habitats and populations. The restoration of the good conditions of the banks, the channel and the flow would also affect cultural services that improve the quality of life of its citizens by collaborating in their well-being through the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or the recreational and recreational uses of water landscapes.

Among the teaching activities planned under the agreement, signed in Toledo by the rector, Julián Garde, and by the president of the Soliss Foundation, María Luisa González Bueno, are the series of conferences Investigating the Tagus in collaboration with the Royal Foundation of Toledo, different scholarship programs and training courses aimed at companies, institutions and the media.

Dissemination and knowledge transfer initiatives will also be carried out, such as making videos for social networks, environmental education activities, publishing and maintaining a website and the series “The UCLM-Soliss Chair informs”. Within the framework of the research, reports, articles and doctoral theses will be prepared on projects of common interest in relation to the environment, water pollution, the Tagus-Segura transfer and other legal, economic and social aspects.

The Tagus Chair will also finance a project to raise awareness about the good use of water and the effects of pollution aimed at schools and institutes and the rehabilitation of the river as it passes through the Campus of the Old Toledo Weapons Factory with a multidisciplinary approach which seeks to bring the Tagus closer to citizens and especially to the educational community, so that it becomes an asset for the entire university community and citizens in general, a heritage of education, recreation, enjoyment and commitment.