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Since March 2007, Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ has been a member of the Santander Universities network, which includes 700 academic institutions in Latin America, China, USA, Spain, Portugal, Russia and the UK.

Over the past two years, the company has funded a number of schemes at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾, including grants enabling Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ academics to carry out international research collaborations with other members of the Santander Universities Network, and the Abbey '1-Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾' Excellence/Endeavour Scholarships, which reward outstanding achievement or endeavour by Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ students in a non-academic field relating to Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ as a community.

Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost (Academic & International) welcomed the visitors, describing Luis Juste, Director UK and Portugal, Santander Universities and Jose Rojo, Director of the UK Santander Shareholder Department, both regular visitors to Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾, as members of the Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ family.

Professor Worton said: "Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾'s relationship with Abbey Santander is very important to us in terms of developing our global outreach, particularly in South America.Ìý We are also enormously grateful for their belief in, and contribution to, our Global Citizenship and community engagement activities."

In his speech, Mr Botín highlighted that there are currently more than 1,300 people in Santander Universities working to ensure that the collaborations between universities grow stronger every day.Ìý He also emphasised the importance of the role of universities at a time when globalisation is present in every aspect of our everyday life.

In his response, Professor Malcolm Grant, Provost and President of Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾, stressed the fact that Santander and Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ share a vision and values.Ìý He reminded the audience of Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾'s commitment to work on four Grand Challenges to tackle the world's most pressing problems, adding that these can be addressed properly only through collaboration between universities, between countries and between disciplines.Ìý

To find out more about the projects supported in the latest round of Abbey Research and Collaboration Awards, follow the link at the top of this article.

Image: Emilio Botín (centre), Chairman of Banco Santander, meets Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ students and staff