Genweb UPC turns 20: two decades of Plone CMS at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Published date 20261103
Genweb, the Plone-based web generator of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech (UPC), celebrated its 20th anniversary with a lunch bringing together its pioneers and its newest team members.
On Saturday October 17, 2026, the people behind Genweb UPC met for a celebratory lunch to mark 20 years of the platform. The guests ranged from the pioneers who laid the first stones of the project in 2006 to the newer team members who keep it up to date today. It was a chance to swap anecdotes, share stories and celebrate the work done together over two decades.
What is Genweb?
Genweb UPC is the tool the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya uses to create and manage its institutional websites. Built on Plone, it adapts each site’s content to the university’s institutional style guide, so the whole community can publish on the web without starting from scratch.
The first Genweb went live in 2006 as version 1. Over the years the platform has gone through versions 3 and 4, and it is now on version 6. Throughout that time the number of sites created with it has kept growing.
How is it used at UPC?
Genweb is the central solution for the web publishing needs of the whole UPC community. It currently runs more than 500 websites, covering faculties, schools, departments, research groups and services. You can browse them in the Genweb portfolio.
Any unit that needs a website can request one through Genweb. Some of what each site gets out of the box:
- Responsive design that works on any device, following the university’s style guide
- Ready-made templates with the most common configurations, plus a WYSIWYG editor for content authors
- UPC domain and a statistics package
- GDPR-compliant cookie management
- Accessibility compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA, as required by Spanish Royal Decree 1112/2018
- Training and technical support
- Extra modules such as faceted search and a final-degree-project (TFE) job board
Beyond the features, the platform has been valued for its security, stability and robustness since the beginning, qualities that Plone is known for and that make it a good fit for managing hundreds of sites.
The team behind it
Genweb is the result of the sustained work of a team from UPC, UPCnet and ThinkUPC. They have taken care of its development and continuous improvement, adapting it to the technological and communication needs of each moment.
What’s next
The story doesn’t stop here. The team will keep collaborating to grow Genweb UPC and offer the best possible service for many years to come.
Congratulations to everyone involved in Genweb. Per molts anys! 🎉
