Five UAB researchers receive the ICREA Academia award from the Generalitat

The government recognises the excellent work of 24 researchers from Catalan universities by awarding them the ICREA Academia. The UAB already includes 31 researchers who have received this distinction.

11/12/2013

Andreu Mas-Colell, Minister for Economy and Knowledge, was accompanied Antoni Castellà, Secretary for Universities and Research, and Jaume Bertranpetit, Director of the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), in the awards ceremony held yesterday in which 24 researchers working at Catalan universities were presented with an ICREA Academia award. These awards, which this year celebrate their fifth edition, are in recognition of the research work conducted by lecturers of Catalan universities and, at the same time, aim to contribute to maintaining this research talent within the Catalan university system.

Receiving the ICREA Academia award represents a cash prize of 50,000 Euros for each of the 24 researchers, who must exclusively dedicate their work to the university sector for the following five years. The awards are exclusively given to university researchers and, especially, to those actively expanding their research activities.

With 24 new awards, the total number of researchers with an Icrea Academia award reaches 120. The programme is funded by the government with 6 million euros each year.

UAB researchers who received the award this year were Neus Barrantes-Vidal from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology; Fàtima Bosch i Tubert from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Daniel Recasens Vives from the Department of Catalan Studies, Carlos Saura from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and Mariona Sodupe Roure from the Department of Chemistry.

Researchers from the University of Barcelona are the largest group to have received this award, with 39 distinctions. Following the UB is the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (31), the Pompeu Fabra University (22) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (11). The Rovira i Virgili University includes 10 distinctions, the University of Lleida, four and the University of Girona, three.

By area of knowledge, the majority of awardees carry out their activities in the experimental sciences and mathematics sector (31), followed by engineering and technology (23), life sciences and medicine (23), the humanities (22), and social sciences and knowledge (21).

To opt for an ICREA Academia award candidates must be a member of the teaching and research staff (PDI) or a civil servant of one of Catalonia's public universities, and fulfil the following criteria: hold a PhD degree and be a full-time employee with regular lecturing hours.