The Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nada i Ferreras, today hosted the 2022 presentation of the Narcís Monturiol medals and plaques at the Palau de la Generalitat Auditorium. Dr Begoña Benito, director of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), received the Narcís Monturiol Plaque awarded to the Institute for scientific and technological merit.

The Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) Foundation was founded in 1994. Under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health, it works to promote, develop and transfer research at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital with the aim of improving people’s health and quality of life. With its 62 research groups, divided into seven Research Collaboration Spaces (eCORE), it is one of the leading scientific research centres in southern Europe and places special emphasis on scientific impact and wealth creation through knowledge transfer.

The VHIR is a member of the Catalan system of research centres (CERCA), the European University Hospitals Alliance and the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS), and has had accreditation from the Carlos III Health Institute since 2009.

Narcís Monturiol awards

The 2022 awards also went to 10 researchers from the Catalan research system who received Monturiol medals in recognition of their scientific careers: physicist and mathematician Àlex Arenas; researcher into malaria Quique Bassat; geologist and climatologist Isabel Cacho; historian Rosa Congost Colomer; astrophysicist Roberto Emparan; engineer Xavier Oliver i Olivella; historian Raquel Piqué i Huerta; agricultural engineer Rosa M Poch Claret; physicist Trinitat Pradell i Cara, and biochemist Salvador Ventura Zamora.

These awards, introduced by the Generalitat in 1982, are given to people and institutions who have made notable contributions to the development of science and technology in Catalonia, while paying homage to the popular 19th-century Catalan inventor and politician, Narcís Monturiol Estarriol (1819-1885).

In total, the Government has awarded 301 Narcís Monturiol Medals (232 to men and 69 to women), while 47 institutions have been awarded the Narcís Monturiol Plaque. Award-winning people and institutions come from all areas of knowledge, including life and health sciences, the humanities and social sciences, architecture, engineering and the other sciences. As in previous years, progress continued this year towards establishing a gender balance in the Catalan R&D system, in which 41% of staff are women.