Nominations can be submitted starting today for the first BASF-ICIQ Innovation & Entrepreneurship Awards. The two organisations, which have collaborated for years on projects related to the promotion of scientific research in the field of chemistry, open a new chapter in which they seek to reward best current practices.
The awards will consist of three different categories. The first will award the best doctoral thesis in any applied science or one that solves industrial challenges. The objective in this category is to recognise doctoral theses within the area of chemistry with a high level of quality. The award will have an economic endowment of €2,500. The requirements to qualify for the best thesis award include having read and publicly defended the doctoral thesis at a Spanish or Portuguese university during the last three years, and having published at least one article – derived from the doctoral thesis and with affiliation to the university in question – in a recognised scientific journal.
The second category of the awards will recognise the best patent, for the most relevant scientific-technological advances, which demonstrates a knowledge transfer activity and is patented in the Iberian Peninsula in recent years. This prize will consist of a diploma and an economic endowment of €2,500. It will be necessary for the patent in question to be focused within a delimited technological field and to have been published and filed during the last 10 years (for patents from OPIs and universities) or the last five years (for patents from companies).
Finally, the third category will reward entrepreneurs, recognising the trajectory and efforts of young companies with great potential in the field of chemistry. This prize will be endowed with €4,000. Companies that apply for this award must be constituted as a for-profit legal person (SA, SL, Labor Society, Cooperatives, Civil Society), have a fiscal domicile within the peninsula, have started activity within the last five years, and be a small or medium-sized company.
Nominations can be submitted until Tuesday, April 19 at 2:00 p.m., and can only be submitted to a single award category. All the details of the terms and conditions can be found here.
A lasting collaboration
The awards mark a new stage in the relationship between BASF and ICIQ, which goes back a long way. In this current collaboration agreement, BASF will continue to be the main sponsor of the ICIQ Seminar programme, which every year brings to our premises about twenty prestigious national and international researchers who work in different areas of chemistry. The Seminar Programme is open to all ICIQ researchers and the scientific community in general. BASF has been the main sponsor of this programme since 2012 and, during this time, it has received illustrious visits such as those of the Nobel Prize winners B. Feringa, K.B. Sharpless, R.R. Schrock, R. Grubbs, and A. Suzuki.
Learn more on the ICIQ website.