SDG9. BASF and ICIQ launch their innovation and entrepreneurship awards

Already nominations can be submitted to the first prizes for innovation and entrepreneurshipwhich they jointly organize BASF and the Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ). The two organizations, which have collaborated for years on projects related to the promotion of scientific research in the field of chemistry, thus open a new stage, in which they seek to reward the best practices of the moment. The awards are born this 2022 and will consist of three different categories.

On first place, The best doctoral thesis in any applied science or in industry challenges will be awarded. The goal in this category is to recognize doctoral theses within the area of ​​chemistry with a high level of quality and will have an economic endowment of €2,500. The requirements to qualify for the award for the best thesis are 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 in a recognized scientific journal, derived from the doctoral thesis and have stated the affiliation of the university in question.

The second category of this first edition of the awards will be the one that will recognize the best patent, in order to recognize the most relevant scientific-technological advances that demonstrate a knowledge transfer activity, patented in the Iberian Peninsula in recent years. This prize will consist of a diploma and an economic endowment of €2,500. For it, it will be necessary for the patent in question to be focused within a delimited technological field and that it has already been published and filed during the last 10 years (for patents from IPOs and universities) or in the last 5 years (for patents from companies).

Finally, the third category reward entrepreneurs acknowledging the trajectory and effort of young companies and people with great potential within the field of chemistry. This prize will be endowed with €4,000 and to achieve it, the companies that apply for it must be constituted as a for-profit legal person (SA, SL, Labor Society, Cooperatives, Civil Society) and have a fiscal domicile within the peninsula, have started its activity within the last 5 years and be a small or medium-sized company.

The applications They can be presented until Tuesday, April 19 at 2:00 p.m., each candidacy can only be submitted to a single award modality and all the details of the bases can be consulted at https://www.iciq.org/industry/premio-basf-iciq-en-entrepreneurship-e-innovacion/.

A lasting collaboration

The prizes set a new stage in the relationship between BASF and ICIQwho comes from afar. In this current collaboration agreement, BASF will continue to be the main sponsor of the ICIQ seminar program, that each course brings together around twenty prestigious national and international researchers who work in different areas of chemistry. The Seminar Program is open to all ICIQ researchers and the scientific community in general. BASF has been the main sponsor of this program since 2012 and, during these courses, it has received illustrious visits such as those of Nobel Prize winners B. Feringa, KB Sharpless, RR Schrock, R. Grubbs and A. Suzuki.