The Prince of Girona Foundation (FPdGi) has today announced the winner of the Prince of Girona Foundation Business Award 2014, which recognises young people who show entrepreneurial initiative in the execution of an original and viable business project.

The jury, formed of Diego del Alcázar Silvela, Zaryn Dentzel and Benita Ferrero, members of the FPdGi Advisory Council; Susana Monje, Chairwoman of Essentium, and Catalina Hoffmann, founder of Vitalia and winner of the Prince of Girona Foundation Business Award 2013, have decided to present this year’s award to Ignasi Belda for being a young entrepreneur with a solid academic background who is launching his professional career in the field of biomedicine and technology with great effort, determination and innovative capacity and for his clear international vocation which is a living reflection of the real situation facing entrepreneurs in today’s global society.

Ignasi Belda Reig (Alcoy, 1979) graduated in Computer Engineering from the Ramon Llull University and holds a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence applied to the design of drugs from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). His doctoral thesis was chosen by the UPC as one of the 10 best theses on Information Technology of the decade and, while he was writing it, Belda was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of the University of Illinois (USA) and in the British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca. In 2007, a year before completing his PhD, he participated in the launch of Intelligent Pharma (IP), which allowed him to transfer the ideas arising from his scientific studies to industry through a company with a strong scientific-technological character.

Belda has also played a fundamental role in setting up cutting-edge companies in the scientific-technological sector, such as SOM Innovation Biotech (2009) and BioCloud Research (2010). In 2011 he opened a subsidiary of the company Intelligent Pharma in the USA with the aim of internationalising the parent company. Both Ignasi Belda and some of these business initiatives have so far received a dozen awards for entrepreneurship and innovation.

“Entrepreneurship and innovation”

The award announcement was made this morning at the Girona Chamber of Commerce. This was followed by an event entitled “Entrepreneurship and innovation”, with the participation of Javier Monzón, Chairman of Indra, and Josep Lagares, General Manager of Metalquimia, presented by the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Domènec Espadalé.

The Prince of Girona Foundation Awards 2014

With the aim of fostering activity and effort, the Prince of Girona Foundation Awards promote research and creativity, solidarity and the development of talent in restless young people, in order to build a more just world in a globalised setting.

The Prince of Girona Foundation Awards consist of four individual prizes for people aged between 16 and 35 years and one award for an organisation:

• Prince of Girona Foundation Arts and Literature Award: Recognises talented young people involved in promising work in any discipline of the arts and literature, and which serves as inspiration for other young people.
• Prince of Girona Foundation Social Award: Recognises young people who have used their personal leadership skills to promote projects that foster the integration of marginalised groups or those at risk of exclusion, whether through social entities or businesses.
• Prince of Girona Foundation Scientific Research Award: Recognises young people with outstanding research projects or experiences, including those working in human and social sciences, which show strong potential for future development.
• Prince of Girona Foundation Business Award: Recognises young people who show entrepreneurial initiative in the execution of an original and viable business project.
• Prince of Girona Foundation Organisation Award: Recognises the outstanding work of an entrepreneurial organisation that works for young people.

 

In this fifth edition, a total of 180 nominations for the Prince of Girona Foundation Awards have been received, of which 41 were in the Business category.

The winners of previous editions of the Business award category were: Pau Garcia-Milà (2010), for the creation of EyeOs, an operating system based on cloud computing; Marc Bonavia (2011),current Chairman of the Independent Association of Young Entrepreneurs in Catalonia and member of Foment del Treball Board, for the SITmobile business project; Javier Agüera (2012), principal promoter of the company GeeksPhone, considered to be the first Spanish manufacturer of intelligent, open-source mobile telephones; and Catalina Hoffmann (2013), founder of Vitalia, for applying innovation to a traditional sector, achieving an important social impact by improving the quality of life of elderly people.

This is the third award announcement made so far this year, after the artist Hugo Fontela was named as winner of the Foundation’s Arts and Literature Award, and the FPdGi Organisation Award went to Valnalón. The calendar of jury meetings and winner announcements for the remaining categories is: Prince of Girona Foundation Scientific Research Award (3 April, in Madrid) and the Prince of Girona Foundation Social Award (8 April, in Girona).

With a prize of €10,000 and a reproduction of a sculpture by Juan Muñoz, the Prince of Girona Foundation Awards are presented during the IMPULSA Forum, which is being held in Girona in June and will be presided over by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Asturias and of Girona.