Within the exciting Project Atalaya, which is a network Project that involves the Andalusian Universities extension, and began in the late 2005, “The Andalusian University Observatory Of Cultural Atalaya” was born as the first in the Spanish university field, and the first that comes up with an autonomous plan.

There is no doubt that the cultural influence of the universities is as old as the institution itself. The cultivation of science and knowledge has always had to supply the need to expand outside the Academy, researche, thought, or creation. The new role that is given today to the universities, in their constant interaction with the environment, makes that our institution has become a first order entity, as a producer and manager of programming and a alternative proposals for creative leisure of citizens.

It is from this awareness and from these needs that was born our Cultural observatory. With it we intend, from the base of a networking of all Andalusian universities, to implement innovative measures that give value to both existing programs and to the future, provide us with tools and reliable information and scientific assessment that will improve our daily work and, above all, to inform society of the state of our cultural sector.

The universities need to know, like any organization, if what they are doing, is on the right way and detect its flaws and shortcomings. This is an exercise in political and administrative responsibility. All of society has the right to know how to manage public resources. The actions in the Atalaya Observatory can help in both tasks. Information and review, then, for the management and transparency. The characteristic of a democratic advanced and opened society as we aspire to be.

But it is evident, that this entire project could not proceed without the necessary funding. So we want to say thank you to the trust and financial and technical support, which we have received from the Directorate General of Universities, the Department of Innovation, Science and Enterprise of Junta de Andalusia. Karl Marx said, in Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that"Humanity does not arise, historically, but those questions that can be resolved". For our part, the Directorate General of Universities of the Junta de Andalusia has been sensitive enough to consider that, after many years of efforts and activities on culture in the university, was now a good time to put the Vicerrectorado de Extensión of the University in the center of his attention.