Fuel cells are a very complex system in which many phenomena of different nature occur simultaneously and within a small space, so a truthful measurement of some variables is not feasible using state-of-the-art technology. If a deep knowledge of the unit is desired, modeling can be of great help when it is properly used as it is possible to calculate the value of the variables of interest by adjusting experimental data. However, when models are complicated, it is not trivial to identify in which way a certain parameter alters the model results and then it is necessary to resort to sensitivity analysis before approaching an adequate parameter estimation procedure. In this work, a parameter estimation procedure has been proposed with the results obtained from the sensitivity analysis applied to a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) model. The procedure has been demonstrated to be straightforwardly applicable as well as effective, which makes it suitable to be used as engineering tool to obtain a first consistent value of the parameters that define the main characteristics of a HT-PEMFC. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.