One of UAB-CEI's most ambitious goals is to develop and strengthen ties with its surroundings.  The abundance of R&D&I centres and scientific, technological and business parks, a large range of multinational companies, high-technology SMEs, and other social institutions such as foundations and city councils, led by UAB-CEI, must set the bases for a future leap, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the consolidation of the most dynamic knowledge pole of the Mediterranean.

In the vicinity of UAB one can find Parc de l'ALBA, a scientific pole spanning 70 hectares and comprising research centres and high-technology companies, as well as the ALBA Synchrotron, the most important scientific facility in all of Spain and the only of its kind in Southern Europe. The electron accelerator provides high-intensity and high-quality synchrotron light and is an excellent tool for an array of scientific and technological fields, as well as for food, pharmaceutical and metallurgical industries, and in the restoration and conservation of artistic heritage.

On the B-30 Axis one can also find the Vallès Technological Park, consisting of 170 businesses and one of UAB's spin off company incubators, Masia Can Fatjó. It is also home to the Directional Centre of Cerdanyola del Vallès, an axis of scientific and urban development located between the towns of Sant Cugat and Cerdanyola which includes the scientific park Parc de l'ALBA. Within the municipality of Sant Cugat del Vallès there is the ESADECREAPOLIS Park, belonging to the ESADE university institution and associated with the UAB-CEI project, which is dedicated to the innovation and creation of new businesses in collaboration with the new ESADE campus in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Each of theses entities are essential to achieve the goals in research, training and transfer of knowledge set by UAB.