The Vanguardia Science Award, jointly promoted by Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and La Vanguardia, has announced the eight finalist research projects for its fourteenth edition. All the projects are led by women and have been developed at institutions based in Spain, thus fulfilling the award’s goal of showcasing excellent female researchers and contributing to closing the gender gap in science.
The finalists for this edition are:
Rachel Lowe – Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The climate crisis is already a health crisis.
Malgorzata Rogalska and Juan Valcárcel – Centre de Regulació Genòmica. How genes are edited in the human body.
Guadalupe Sabio and Cintia Folgueira – Centros Nacionales de Investigación, CNIO and CNIC. The proteins that motivate physical activity.
Meritxell Serra-Casablanca and Samuel Sánchez – Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya. Nanorobots to treat bladder cancer.
Sònia Guedán – Institut IDIBAPS. Advances in CAR-T therapies for solid tumours.
Carla García-Cabau and Anna Bartomeu – Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona. Detecting brain malfunction causing autism.
Ana Caño-Delgado – Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica and CSIC. How to improve cereals’ resistance to drought.
Ariadna Laguna and Núria Peñuelas – Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca. A new animal model to research Parkinson’s disease.
These eight proposals were selected from among 72 submissions by a jury composed of: Pampa García Molina, science journalist and coordinator of the Science Media Center of Spain; Ana Pérez Neira, engineer and representative of the Asociación Catalana de Entidades de Investigación (ACER); Montse Capdevila, physicist and head of CaixaResearch Institute and Centros Asociados de la Fundació La Caixa; Miquel Gómez Clares, doctor and director of the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI); Mar Fillat, neuroscientist and coordinator of scientific education programs at Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera; and Josep Corbella, journalist at La Vanguardia, who served as secretary of the jury.
As in previous editions, La Vanguardia readers can participate in the voting through a survey available on the newspaper’s website. Voting will remain open until June 22 at 11:59 p.m. (peninsular time). The three most-voted projects will be announced on June 29.
Take part in the voting and check the award ruleshere
