“We want to share this award with all those who, without any exclusion, have made and continue to make this Foundation possible”. With these words of gratitude, its President, Laura Gil-Vernet, collected the 2023 National Scientific Patronage Award for the Esteve Foundation yesterday. He did so at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya as part of the National Research Awards ceremony, with the presence of the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès, and the Minister of Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal.
Gil-Vernet recalled the origin of the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation, which already exceeds 40 years of history, mentioning the figure of Dr. Antoni Esteve i Subirana. “Antoni Esteve i Subirana graduated in Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona in 1924 and received his doctorate a few years later. Beyond the pharmacy office that his family had in Manresa, his vocation for pharmacology and his entrepreneurial spirit led him to create the first original specialties on the second floor of the pharmacy house”.
This same spirit of research and entrepreneurship is what we wanted to transfer to the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation. “Made up of his wife and children, it is the heir to the commitment he showed to science, specifically pharmacology, and to his country,” Gil-Vernet said during his speech. “We can say that the Foundation is a laboratory, but instead of mixing compounds, it mixes scientists and researchers. The expected reaction in this case is the generation of knowledge in pharmacology through scientific events, training courses, publication of works, prizes and scholarships”.
The Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation has received the 2023 National Scientific Patronage Award “for its work of more than four decades promoting research and knowledge in pharmacology, both in Catalonia and internationally”. With more than 720 activities and 122 publications carried out over these 40 years, the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation aims to promote research in pharmacology.
In addition to the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation, this year’s National Research Awards went to Eduard Batlle (ICREA), winner of the National Research Award for his discoveries on the origin and progression of colorectal tumours, and Mar Reguant (Institute of Economic Analysis-CSIC), winner of the National Young Talent Award for his studies of electricity markets.
For its part, the Scientific Communication Award has gone to the CosmoCaixa museum, recognized as “an international reference center in the dissemination of science”, while the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation has obtained the Public-Private Partnership in R+I award. which rewards the creation of science-based companies, by the spinoff Nuage Therapeutics.
The award ceremony, presented by the journalist Cristina Riba, was closed by the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya. “Catalonia is a country of research, a nation of science, a country with an ecosystem linked to knowledge with enormous potential thanks to an unequivocal collective effort,” concluded Pere Aragonès.