It forms part of its ‘Spain Insert Coin’ campaign, which announces the awards ceremony to be held on 25 November

To mark the 2025 Rei Jaume I Prize Awards Ceremony, the Foundation wishes to highlight the lack of investment in science and entrepreneurship through a campaign entitled ‘Spain, Insert Coin’:

• Spain currently spends 1.49 per cent of its GDP on R&D&I, which amounts to 22,379 million euros (INE, 2023). 
• The European Union average is significantly higher, at around 2.2 per cent of GDP. 
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the EU-15 countries already had figures of between 1.5 per cent and 1.8 per cent, which are similar to those in Spain today. 
• In the field of entrepreneurship, the difference in venture capital investment is also striking: Spain invests 0.12 per cent of its GDP, whilst the European average stands at 0.5 per cent (SpainCap and Invest Europe).

This news story has served as the starting point for the theme of this year’s Rei Jaume I Prize campaign, and the conclusion has been reached that Spain is still stuck in the 1980s, as our budgets for science and entrepreneurship are the same as those in the EU 40 years ago. 

That is why we wanted to capture that distinctive 1980s aesthetic of arcade machines to send a clear and direct message: “Spain, Insert Coin”, because only with funding will we be able to reach European standards. 

And so as not to limit ourselves to just a message, we have decided to create a complete experience through a video game – inspired by Pac-Man – called CazaCoins, which allows players to discover what the adventure of seeking funding is like and through which we will also introduce the real stars of this event: our award winners. 

• This campaign, based on official data, aims to highlight a long-standing lag in investment in science and entrepreneurship, and to encourage reflection on this reality and call for a stronger commitment to science and entrepreneurship, which are the true drivers of progress, innovation and competitiveness.

To play, go to: https://www.cazacoins.es/