The BASF-ICIQ Awards for Innovation and Entrepreneurship were presented this week at an awards ceremony in Tarragona. The winning researchers were Dr. Diego Mateo (best doctoral thesis), Dr. Marina Galià, Dr. Gerard Lligadas, and Dr. Maite Guillén (best patent), and Dr. Coralie Jehanno and Dr. Andere Basterretxea (best entrepreneurship project).
The ceremony for the BASF-ICIQ Awards for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was held on May 25 in the Professor Doctor Kilian Muñiz auditorium at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), a BIST centre. Professor Emilio Palomares, ICIQ Director, expressed the importance of the collaboration between BASF and ICIQ for promoting knowledge transfer and excellence in chemical research.
This first edition of the awards, endowed with 9000€, received numerous applications, over which a prestigious jury, including Prof. Emilio Palomares (Director of ICIQ), Dr. Álvaro Gordillo (Sales Manager – Performance Ingredients & Solutions at BASF), Dr. Francesc Díaz (Vice Rector of Research and Scientific Planning of the Rovira i Virgili), Dr. Esther Alza (Co-Founder of Treellum Technologies, an ICIQ spin-off), and Cristina Vicente (Technical Advisor of the AEQT Safety Department), deliberated.
The award for best doctoral thesis was presented to Dr. Diego Mateo for his research on applying photocatalysis to produce hydrogen. The awardee, who travelled from Saudi Arabia where he is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher, highlighted the importance of recognising scientific work.
Drs. Marina Galià, Gerard Lligadas, and Maite Guillén from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Cromogenia Units, S.A. received the award for best patent for their contribution to more ecological polymers in textiles.
Polymers were also the focus of the award given for best entrepreneurship project, which was led by Drs. Coralie Jehanno and Andere Basterretxea, whose sustainable and circular economy-based vision offers quality plastics for industry.
Dr. Xavier Aldeguer, Director of Knowledge Transfer of the Generalitat de Catalunya, gave a speech at the ceremony, in which he celebrated the collaboration between private industry and top research centres such as ICIQ.
The event concluded with some words by Xavier Ribera, Director of Communication, Institutional Relations and Sustainability of BASF Española in the Iberian Peninsula, who expressed the importance of research and science in addressing the main challenges humankind faces in order to make a sustainable future a reality.
Learn more on the ICIQ website.