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Material Resources

General resources of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences

The Faculty of Chemical Sciences has a solid scientific infrastructure and a wide variety of material resources that adequately meet the demands arising from the intense experimental activity carried out by students and researchers linked to the Doctoral Programme. In recent years, the Faculty has undertaken a significant process of updating and improving its facilities, equipment and services, with the aim of adapting its resources to the current needs of excellence in training and research.

Among the main actions carried out, the following stand out:

  • Renovation of video projectors and computer equipment in teaching classrooms, computer rooms, assembly halls and spaces used for the defence of final degree projects and doctoral theses.
  • Acquisition and installation of fixed videoconferencing cameras in classrooms and institutional spaces, facilitating hybrid teaching and remote participation in academic events.
  • Setting up of a new computer classroom with capacity for 21 workstations, equipped with up-to-date technology.
  • Creation of the "Sala Crisol", a space specifically designed to foster group collaborative work.
  • Implementation of an interactive learning classroom, the "Sala Ana Maria la Justicia", with multipurpose furniture and multimedia facilities, geared towards active teaching methodologies such as project-based teaching, as well as the holding of conferences and other academic activities.
  • Expansion and improvement of wifi and network infrastructure coverage in different Faculty buildings.
  • Modernization of research laboratories through the renovation of electrical installations, the incorporation of new fume hoods and the updating of safety cabinets for the storage of chemical products.
  • Progressive implementation of fire safety systems, including the installation of fire doors.
  • Addition to the technical staff of a specialist in audiovisual media, in order to support the teaching and scientific communication needs of the centre.

Buildings and facilities

The Faculty of Chemical Sciences is distributed across five buildings: Main Building (QA), Building B (QB), Classroom Building (QC), Building D (Library) and Pilot Plant. A detailed map of the Faculty can be consulted at the following link: https://quimicas.ucm.es/plano-de-la-facultad.

Building QA is essentially occupied by the Faculty departments and by the academic and administrative management area. Building QB houses further departments, the catering area, and several computer and teaching classrooms, as well as meeting rooms. Building QC is the classroom building and, as such, is dedicated to teaching, with numerous teaching classrooms and a large computer classroom.

Information about the "Enrique Moles" Library and periodicals room can be found at the following link: https://biblioteca.ucm.es/qui/. The Chemical Sciences Library was inaugurated on 12 June 2003 and is part of the network of Libraries of the Universidad Complutense (BUC, https://biblioteca.ucm.es/). The building has 3 floors:

  • At the entrance of the Ground Floor is the loan and information desk, as well as computers for consulting the Library catalogue. On this same floor there is a Reading Room, several Group Work Rooms and the Media Library.
  • On the First Floor there is the second Reading Room, the Exhibition Room and a Meeting Room.
  • In the Basement there is the Storage Room and the Mendeleiev Room, equipped with tables for group work and also used as an exhibition space.

More information can be found on the Faculty's website (https://quimicas.ucm.es/instalaciones).

The Doctoral Programmes taught at the Faculty of Chemical Sciences are held in classrooms with a minimum capacity of 40 students, equipped with air conditioning systems, a conventional blackboard, a computer projection system, a screen, a desktop computer, an internet connection, a sound system and an overhead projector for transparencies.

For working meetings and for tutorials, there are smaller rooms with capacity for 18 to 25 students and with equipment identical to the larger classrooms. In both cases, the room can be booked through the Personnel Section.

For the presentation and defence of Doctoral Theses and for lectures given by visiting professors, the Faculty has an Auditorium for 100 people and a Degree Room for 40 people, in addition to the "Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba" Main Hall. The first two are soundproofed and all of them have an internet connection and a presiding table to accommodate Committees and Evaluation Panels.

In addition to conventional classrooms, there are computer classrooms with 15 to 60 workstations equipped with desktop computers with wired (100 Mbps) and wireless (Wi-Fi 5G) internet connection. These classrooms have projection equipment, screens and sound systems to facilitate practical teaching. To guarantee the availability of these resources there is a booking system, available in advance either online or in person. In addition to these spaces, specific computer programmes adapted to the teaching needs of each Degree Plan are available, such as the "Ana Ma Lajusticia" interactive classroom, opened in 2024.

Teaching and research laboratories are distributed among buildings QA, QB and the Pilot Plant. All these spaces are equipped with safety and first-aid elements, as well as specific individual protection measures for handling chemical, biological and biosanitary agents.

Prevention and safety are fundamental aspects of university training. The Faculty has a temporary waste storage facility (ATR), where the collection of hazardous waste generated in the Faculty's teaching and research laboratories is centralized, in accordance with current environmental and safety regulations (https://quimicas.ucm.es/gestion-de-residuos-peligrosos). The Waste Management Specialist Technician manages the periodic collection of this waste by specialized companies for final treatment. Additionally, the Faculty has the support of the General Occupational Risk Prevention Services of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (https://www.ucm.es/prevencion). Regulations and safety manuals, both general and laboratory-specific, are available for consultation in the "Safety at the Faculty" section, accessible from the homepage of the institutional website.

In the basements of buildings A and C of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences there are also the following Research Support Centres (CAIs): the X-Ray Diffraction Unit, the Ultrafast Lasers Unit and the Mass Spectrometry Unit. Likewise, the ICTS-National Centre for Electron Microscopy, a unique scientific-technical infrastructure of national reference, is located in its own building, next to the Faculty Library.

The Faculty has a Reprographics service located on the ground floor of the Classroom Building (QC), which has an option enabled within the Virtual Campus that allows students to send documents to be printed online (https://quimicas.ucm.es/reprografia).

In addition, the Faculty has a Dining Hall-Cafeteria service located on the first floor of Building B (QB) for students and teaching and administrative staff.

Technological resources

Information Technology services are also available, whose main purpose is to provide technical support to the university community and the technological management of various activities such as teaching, administrative management, communication services and computer support. These functions are accessible to all members of the university community and the service catalogue is available at https://ssii.ucm.es/. Notable services include training courses, the Moodle intranet teaching system within the Virtual Campus, multimedia workshops and cloud-based email accessible to staff and students.

The Faculty of Chemical Sciences has technicians specializing in IT and audiovisual equipment. In addition, the Universidad Complutense also has Central and Area IT Services responsible for the maintenance, updating and installation of equipment and software necessary for the development of teaching and the presentation of research seminars. The intervention of technicians from these IT services is requested online through the application on the following website: https://www.ucm.es/helpdesk, accessible from the IT Services website (https://ssii.ucm.es/). Likewise, software applications can be requested in a similar way, allowing for centralized acquisition.

Research resources of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials

The infrastructure, material resources and equipment available for the development of the PDIQ are essentially those of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials, although those of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and the central resources of the UCM, described above, are also used.

Among the available infrastructure, the pilot plant stands out (https://quimicas.ucm.es/planta-piloto), which includes a small mechanical workshop. Students can also benefit from the work carried out by the Research Support Workshops, which include mechanical workshops, a glass workshop, an electronics workshop and a projects and 3D printing workshop (https://cai.ucm.es/talleres/). In these spaces, parts and accessories needed for the development of specific scientific instrumentation are designed, built, adapted and repaired. The workshops are based both in the basement of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and in the Faculty of Chemical Sciences itself.

In addition, the Department has meeting rooms, and the Faculty has thesis defence rooms, access to its own library (https://biblioteca.ucm.es/qui) and all its resources (reading and study rooms, databases, books, journals, reference managers, online resources, etc.), and classrooms equipped with computers for simulation work and economic calculations or the drafting of papers, etc. The Faculty's infrastructure is maintained and updated year on year through investments, notably investments towards digital transition, and the installation and maintenance of fume cupboards and general expenses.

Teaching and research laboratories are distributed among buildings QA, QB and the Pilot Plant. All these spaces are equipped with safety and first-aid elements, as well as specific individual protection measures for handling chemical, biological and biosanitary agents. The research groups participating in the PDIQ have fully equipped laboratories, with the material resources necessary to carry out their scientific activity with the highest guarantees of quality and safety.

In summary, 26 research laboratories and a pilot plant for process scale-up are available for carrying out PDIQ Doctoral Theses. Doctoral candidates work in the laboratory under the responsibility of their supervisors, with the equipment assigned to them by the host group thanks to the funding available through the active participation of PDIQ professors in research projects and contracts.

Research Support Centres of the Universidad Complutense (CAIs)

In the context of the PDIQ, the UCM's Research Support Centres (CAI) play a key role in the experimental and analytical development of Doctoral Theses. The UCM has two Singular Scientific-Technical Facilities (ICTS), five CAIs with their respective Units, and three specialized Platforms (https://cai.ucm.es/). These centres form an essential part of the University's research infrastructure, optimizing the use and performance of the major scientific equipment available. Their support is fundamental for research lines in Chemical Engineering, as they enable advanced characterizations, physicochemical analyses, materials testing, process studies, and other specialized tasks. Below is a selection of the CAIs and workshops most relevant to research in Chemical Engineering:

Various seminars linked to the Doctoral Programmes include activities and visits to these centres. All of this helps ensure that doctoral students have access to advanced analytical techniques and state-of-the-art equipment for the characterization and analysis of the compounds and materials under study.

Library of the Universidad Complutense

The Library of the Universidad Complutense (BUC) is a support service for learning, teaching, research, culture and other activities related to the University's institutional objectives, made up of all the bibliographic and documentary holdings regardless of their material format, where they are held, the budget item under which they were acquired, or their method of acquisition (https://biblioteca.ucm.es/). All of the Complutense Library's holdings are available in the Cisne Catalogue (https://ucm.on.worldcat.org/discovery).

Other UCM services

Diversity and Inclusion Unit

The UCM has a Diversity and Inclusion Unit (https://www.ucm.es/diversidad) that caters to the diversity of all members of the university community (students, faculty, administrative and services staff), with representation in every faculty. The UCM's Diversity Unit also brings together offices, services and groups linked to other dimensions of diversity, such as Sexual and Gender Identity or Sociocultural Diversity and Reception, promoting a cross-cutting and inclusive approach in all its actions. It also offers a training service, aimed at the whole university community, which seeks to foster an inclusive institutional culture committed to the continuous improvement of the university environment and its contribution to society.

In the case of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences, since 2021 the Faculty's Dean's Team has had an Inclusion Coordinator, who acts as a direct point of contact for students with specific needs, facilitating the implementation of individualized support measures (https://quimicas.ucm.es/inclusion). In addition, the Faculty's buildings have been adapted to meet universal accessibility criteria. Access ramps, accessible lifts and adapted bathrooms for people with reduced mobility are available.

24-hour telephone psychological support service

The UCM offers its students the PsiCall service (https://psicall.ucm.es/), a telephone psychological support resource available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This service is run by professionals specializing in emergency psychology and clinical care. Its aim is to provide an immediate response to urgent situations and to offer guidance, advice and emotional support to students. To this end, it uses telematic means: a telephone helpline (913945200) and email (psicall@ucm.es).

In addition, the EDUCM (https://edoctorado.ucm.es/) has a Workshop Plan (https://edoctorado.ucm.es/af-ced) offering activities related to the emotional wellbeing of doctoral students.

Professional development programme

The UCM has an Internship and Employment Office (OPE) (https://www.ucm.es/ope/) whose purpose is to promote employability and improve students' professional integration opportunities. The OPE has two locations: one in the Students' Building on the Ciudad Universitaria Campus (Avda. Complutense, s/n) and another in the Las Caracolas Building on the Somosaguas Campus (Pozuelo de Alarcon). The OPE provides its services through four areas of activity:

In addition, the EDUCM also offers students activities focused on research career design, employability and entrepreneurship (https://edoctorado.ucm.es/af-cpee). These activities seek to facilitate the employment integration and professional growth of doctoral graduates.

Social Action

The UCM has a Social Action service (https://www.ucm.es/accion-social), attached to the Vice-Management for Human Resources, located in the Government Building (C/ Isaac Peral, s/n, Moncloa), and accessible both in person and by email (acsocial@ucm.es) or telephone 91 394 1020. This service offers a set of complementary aid, programmes and activities aimed at promoting the overall wellbeing of the university community. Its lines of action include social, cultural and sports support programmes, financial aid, insurance, loans, therapeutic treatments and massages, work-life balance activities, and services for the care of dependent persons. All of this is carried out through public calls, resource management and coordination with the Fundacion General, guaranteeing accessibility and support for students, teaching and research staff (PDI) and administration and services staff (PAS).

Centre for Modern Languages: Idiomas Complutense (IC)-CSIM

The UCM offers the Centre for Modern Languages (CSIM) as an effective tool for mastering modern languages from within the university itself. The CSIM (https://www.ucm.es/idiomascomplutense/) specializes in teaching foreign languages to university students, teaching staff, UCM employees and anyone over the age of 16 interested in learning languages. It offers a wide variety of in-person and online courses in more than 15 languages, and also prepares and examines students for official certifications such as Cambridge, CertAcles, NOKEN and TOPIK. Its programmes are aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), and allow students to obtain certificates valid throughout Europe, as well as ECTS credits recognized in UCM degree programmes.

Occupational Risk Prevention and Workplace Safety Unit

The UCM has a comprehensive Occupational Risk Prevention (PRL) system based on its Prevention Plan and Management System (https://www.ucm.es/prevencion). This system establishes general regulations, such as protocols for responding to emergencies, fires, first aid, lift rescues and workplace accident management, and offers ongoing training through webinars and e-learning courses in collaboration with FREMAP. Likewise, all faculties, including the Faculty of Chemical Sciences (https://quimicas.ucm.es/prevencion-de-riesgos-laborales), apply these protocols in specific environments such as laboratories, covering good practice manuals, hazardous waste protocols, school insurance and direct contact channels with the UCM's Emergency and Security Response Centre (CAES).

Other common services