They are using a ‘retro’ games machine as a symbol of the need to step up R&D&I, although it is emphasised that the number of researchers has increased eightfold over four decades

This year’s Rei Jaume I Prizes Awards Ceremony will take place at midday on 25 November. To explain the various events taking place alongside the main awards ceremony, the Foundation has organised a press conference at which the organisation’s chairmen, Vicente Boluda and Javier Quesada, presented the three-day programme and unveiled the campaign that always accompanies these events.

The event will therefore begin on Monday 24th with a meeting between the award winners and the media, a brief visit to the Príncipe Felipe Museum in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, and a discussion amongst the winners, which will take place on the same day, Monday 24th, at the BioHub in the Port at 5.00 pm. Following this informal discussion with the award winners, during which they will present their work and explain why they received their awards, they will proceed to the Palau de la Generalitat, where the President of the Generalitat will carry out the traditional presentation of insignia, and the day will conclude with an official dinner hosted at the Palau de la Generalitat.

The following day, 25 November, the awards ceremony will take place at the Lonja de Valencia, broadcast live by À Punt at midday, and will conclude with visits by the seven award winners to various institutions in the Comunitat Valenciana. Thus,

The remaining six prize-winners will give their lectures on Wednesday 26th at research centres and universities across the Comunitat Valenciana:

• Basic Research (José Luis Mascareñas) > ICMOL, headed by our 2003 award winner, Eugenio Coronado
• Economics (Jean Eeckhout) > UJI, Castellón
• Biomedical Research (Núria López-Bigas) will visit INCLIVA
• Environmental Protection (Victoria Reyes) > University of Alicante (Vice-Chancellor’s Office)
• New Technologies (Mª Jesús Vicent) > IDM (Institute of Molecular Recognition and Technological Development, a joint centre between the UPV and the UV, led by Ramón Martínez Mañez – who also won the New Technologies Prize in 2018 – at the ETSII)
• Entrepreneurial Revelation (Damià Tormo) > EDEM
• Clinical Research, (Silvia de Sanjosé) > Miguel Hernández University of Alicante

And, on another note, the communications and marketing campaign to be rolled out this year was unveiled. The centrepiece of the advertising and media campaign launched by the Rei Jaume I Prizes Foundation for this year’s Awards Ceremony – the 37th edition – will be an ‘arcade’ machine, like those used to play Pac-Man in the 1980s, but where the ones jumping, walking and running are the winning researchers, who will receive their own miniature machines.

“We have used a machine from the past – from 40 years ago – as a symbol, because we are 40 years behind the European Union average in terms of the percentage of GDP invested in research, development and innovation,” explained the Foundation’s executive president, Javier Quesada.

A 1 per cent increase in investment as a proportion of GDP

However, Javier Quesada has denied that the message conveyed by this resurgence of the arcade industry is a pessimistic one. “It is a realistic message, because our R&D&I levels are comparable to the European Union average in 1985,” he explained. That said, the percentage of Gross Domestic Product that Spain invests in this area has increased. In 1985, that figure stood at 0.5 per cent of GDP. Now, the figure is 1.5 per cent.

Quesada also emphasised that Spain “has seen a significant increase in the number of researchers”. Forty years ago, there were 21,400 research professionals working in Spain, whilst the figure for 2025 stands at 175,000. “We are not suggesting that no progress is being made here – far from it,” he said, particularly given that this figure has increased eightfold over the past few decades. Added to this is the work carried out by “world-leading research centres, something that was unthinkable 40 years ago”.

The figures have also improved at regional level. In the Comunitat Valenciana, there are currently 15,500 researchers, a figure four or five times higher than four decades ago.

An ‘arcade’ game

As part of the campaign, these machines will be set up on university campuses on weekdays so that students can play. The game features the seven award-winning researchers from this year’s edition, highlighting all stages of research: from Basic Research to the creation of businesses and jobs (Entrepreneurial Revelation).

“By playing the machine, you can see the achievements of the award winners using the technology of the time,” explained Quesada. At weekends, the machine will be on display at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias.

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