The National Research Award 2023 'Alejandro Malaspina' awarded by the Ministry of Innovation and Science distinguishes CREAF and CSIC researcher Josep Peñuelas Reixach in the area of Sciences and Technologies of Natural Resources. The award highlights Peñuelas' extensive scientific career as an international reference in the research for global change, as well as his leadership in technological innovation and his dissemination task. This annual award highlights the career and international relevance of research professionals, and is considered the most relevant in science in Spain.

Josep Peñuelas –principal investigator of the Global Ecology Unit at CREAF– receives the award as an honour and a responsibility, and insists that it is awarded for the intense work of a team of scientists committed to offering alternatives to global change based on scientific knowledge. The acting Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, stressed that the National Research Award contributes to advancing science and, therefore, to achieving a better life for people.

The prize, by age and gender

The jury that decided the verdict in each category was made up of 3 men and 3 women, except in the Humanities and Law and Economic and Social Sciences areas, which were made up of 4 women and 2 men.

Of the 114 nominations accepted for the National Research Awards, 90 came from male scientists and 24 from female scientists. The average age of the winners is 61 years. In the case of the National Research Awards for Young People, of the 185 applications accepted, 97 were from male scientists and 88 from female scientists. The average age of the winners in this case is 37 years.