Universidad de Cantabria (UC) is a modern public institution with an overall budget in 2014 close to 100 M€, whose main purpose is to contribute to social progress through teaching and scientific excellence.

With 1.600 researchers, 13.600 students (631 PhD students), 3 research centres and 4 associated research institutes, and
148 R+D groups from 31 Departments. UC is one of the 9 Spanish universities selected in the “Campus of International Excellence” Programme, promoted by the Spanish Government.

The research plan recently approved by the University Council includes a specialization area in Information and Communication
Technology, and it is in line with H2020 and the regional plan RIS3 for strategic development. In 2014, UC attracted 17 M€ in R&D activities, 7 M€ in competitive calls and 10 M€ on research contracts. UC is participating in 49 FP7 and 14 H2020 projects, managing over 2.5 Million € in new projects every year, and it is coordinating 5 projects in ERC, MSCA and Cooperation-TRANSPORTS. UC actively participates and coordinates projects in other European initiatives like LIFE+ (3), INTERREG (5), etc.

In addition, Universidad de Cantabria shows a long track record in assisting international consortia in proposal preparation, contract negotiation, project implementation and communication, managed by the UC’s European Project Office, which offers professional support along the whole project life cycle. The proposed UC teamwork for XDC is based at the Institute of Physics of Cantabria (IFCA), which is a Joint Centre with the National Research Council (CSIC). IFCA is oriented to basic science in Particle Physics and Astrophysics, including a research line on Advanced Computing and e-Science.